I don't like doing these sorts of product reviews––on things like forks, and frames, where there's just not that much difference perceived when riding one product versus the next––because they're so darned subjective. Worse yet, because they're subjective the lure of money––either in advertising dollars or product freebees––has historically bent the editorial. I would like to say I marveled at how the same magazine used to review the same Schwinn Paramount every year during the 1980s and would somehow find the most recently built bike the "best Paramount ever" with its "silky ride" and all kinds of horseshit like that. But frankly I didn't marvel. The Paramount's product review was just like the way the bike (apparently) handled: "predictable." Hey, much of the stuff I ride has predictable handling. I predict it'll handle like shit and, lo, I'm usually right.

And then there are all the adjectives which end up being two sides of the same coin. What is the difference between soft––in the pejorative sense––and forgiving? Between stiff (that's good, right?) and harsh? Steering which is fast versus twitchy? My international sales manager at QR––Steve Santel––and I used to joke about how much magazine bike reviewers sounded like wine reviewers: "The ride had an oaky texture, with a hint of cassis."

Only now Steve is the sales manager for Reynolds Composites, and he doesn't know what to hope for––that I show my disdain for such laughable prose or that I engage in it for the Ouzo ProAero's sake.

But he knows he doesn't have to worry, because his company makes a good fork. Why do I say that? Very simple, and not at all subjective. It's got narrow blades (14mm or so), a deep major diameter (around 50mm), and lots of surface area behind the rake line. It has a beautifully integrated dropout that blends right into the blade. It's light as hell (around 400 grams for the all-carbon variety), very strong, and is stiff enough laterally to ride in a crit (Olympic gold medallist Steve Hegg just did win the master's nationals crit championship riding this fork). It's great in the wind tunnel, as per John Cobb's tests, the results of which I've seen.

What else must a fork do? It must ride comfortably. Hmmm. This is where I'm supposed to write about shock absorption, right? Funny thing, before I mounted this fork on my bike I placed the dropouts on the ground and pushed down on the steerer, and danged if it didn't give a millimeter. That's the thing about forks, and frames too. Yes, they move a little from side to side. But they don't have any give when you try to flex them up and down. Funny how that is.

And yet there is a bit of damping in this fork, but I'll get to that later.

The first thing I noticed about riding the Ouzo ProAero was that the front of my bike wanted to jump all over the place. Strange this, because the offset is 40mm, precisely the same as the fork the Ouzo ProAero replaced on my bike, the Carbonaero (or as it is now called, the Kinesis Carbon Airfoil). Yes, the handling is the same, technically, but the Ouzo ProAero was so much lighter––almost two-thirds of a pound lighter––that the bike wanted to do wheelies. This makes sense when you realize that when you're, say, out of the saddle climbing or sprinting, you're accustomed to applying a certain amount of force to the handlebars to keep the bike balanced as you're moving it from side to side. As for predictable steering, it's hard to predict that. It's not long, though, before your motor skills adjust.

As for the shock damping, I rode this fork over some bumpy road, and yeah, it did suck a bit of it up. I totally discount, though, that any of that occurred within its blades. The blades are so deep, there is just no place for them to deflect to.

But I did notice something that I seem to have noticed in other forks, and that is flex of the carbon steerer in between the top and bottom headset bearings, or perhaps between the carbon crown and the steerer. Hard to imagine how this happens, but I believe it does (and I would guess that conventional fork testing equipment would support the view that forks with carbon steerers deflect more, even when fixtured in a way that mimics a headset). I suspect if this fork was purchased with a chrome-moly steerer you'd feel just a touch more of the road. It'd still be a fine fork, but perhaps a tiny bit more likely to directly translate the topography of the road to your armrests.

Everything else about this fork was very well done. Good documentation, crown race didn't need any facing, the race was straight, the blades were true, the wheel sucked right up in there and was perfectly aligned between the blades. Reynolds provides a nice long nut to slide in the back of the fork and engage with your brake bolt. Reynolds' carbon forks also have the very best wedge system to keep the carbon steerer from cracking from stem pressure, while also easily accepting the threadless headset cap. I easily stuck my Sports Instruments wireless compooter on this fork (no wires leading up, and messing up this fork's looks, or its aerodynamics). In keeping with my "all magnets are created equal," theory I swapped a variety of wheels around, and my computer picked them all up (which has nothing to do with the fork, but I thought I'd add that in anyway).

Does this fork do well with a deep wheel in a sidewind? Don't know. I didn't have the opportunity to find out. I suspect that because of its blade depth behind the dropouts it'd do just fine––maybe not quite as good as the Carbon Airfoil, but pretty close.

At almost $400 for the all-carbon version this fork's alotta money, especially when the going rate for many its competitors is in the $200 to $275 range. But this fork has no negatives at all. It's worth the money they're asking for it.

I believe I'll hang with this fork for awhile, and keep testing it––like maybe for a few thousand miles or so. And while I'm at it, I'll see if I can identify that one other thing about this fork, something I can't quite place, but I'm trying to put my finger on it. Cranberries I think. And maybe a little vanilla.

If I were you, I'd ride it with rabbit and ostrich.

(NOTE: For info on most of the leading forks in this category go to our Product 2001 fork overview.)