Ed-- I see what you mean about mtbr and the totally unreliable reviews. The guys who spell wrong on purpose. The guys from another land who tell us that "forkses must was got good; much costing 4,800 grocknyets...but then-- is thing to breaking?!?!" The obvious and malicious contradictory posts, with the 5 chilis and comments like "it $uck$". But, it kind of is all we got.
But, as a fat and obsessive guy, i do have my doubts about the "cheep" forks. I mean, i can be hard on stuff. And, i can get really picky about performance and lapses thereof. I can also get weird about tuning and maintenance. I like my project2 because all i have to do to maintain/tune it is not break it, and try to slow the rust. All i have to do to not break it is avoid using sledgehammers and hacksaws on the fork legs, or pouring caustic acid all over it.
If i get a sprung fork, will i bottom it out all day til it breaks? Or will i forever keep it on the stand, playing with travel and damping and what have ya? Will i gasp and snivel anytime some oil is found on the sliders? Will riding become less enjoyable, partly due to the jenkiness of the fork, and partly due to my own madness?
TimJ- thanks for the feedback on the odur. I figure that, for not a lot of cash, i get a lot of quality and durability in a fork, and the cheepness factors in mostly with a lack of trick figures. The stainless dropouts and disc mounts look nice. The simplicity and decent materials seem to spell reliability. But, i remain confused. My own fault, really.
-rob