This is another example of a small North American manufacturing company excelling at its niche.
Even more than that, it is an example of a large, well-funded company paying relatively big dollars to generate a product, and the smaller company benefiting from it. As is the case with, say, Hed ending up with its Hed3 after Specialized and DuPont spent a fortune developing it, Reynolds Composites––and this is Reynolds the fork company, distinct from Reynolds the bicycle tubing company based in England––rose from the ashes of a now-defunct holding company, and ended up with an elegant fork manufacturing operation. This will be explained in a more in-depth product review of the Reynolds Composites Ouzo ProAero, upcoming on Slowtwitch.
This fork weighs 14.1 ounces on our postage scale, and that is with all 300mm or so of carbon steerer still attached. This is even lighter than Reynolds Composites advertises (imagine that––a bike company overstating its product's weight). Reynolds says its 650c fork with carbon steerer weighs 399 grams, we have its 700c fork at 395 grams.
This fork comes on all meaningful iterations: 650c, 700c, one-inch, inch-and-a-quarter, carbon steerer, steel steerer (carbon only in the 1 1/8"). The only thing you don't get with this fork is a choice of offsets. The offset (rake) is 40mm, or you can have 40mm, or you can special order 40mm. Us? We'd learn to like 40mm if we were you.
There are a variety of things an aero fork must do. First and foremost, it must not fail, which is to say, it must not break while you're aboard. Reynolds does a very thorough job of testing, and furthermore it provides well-tthought-out wedge bolt designs––wedge bolt included with every carbon steerer fork––with comprehensive instructions, so that you don't munch and crunch your fork, frame and body through an ill-mitred or supported steerer.
The fork must also, of course, be aero. Yes, it also ought to be comfortable, and we can't tell you anything about that, because we haven't ridden it yet (that's coming). Back to the aero argument: It must be aero both straight on and in a yaw (sidewind). When it comes to fork blades, good things to be, in theory, are thin––and this fork is, at 15mm wide–– and deep, which this fork mostly is, at 50mm deep.
The most impressive part of this fork is the way the blade segues into the dropout. The best way to explain this organic integration is via the photo at left in which the Reynolds blade (at right) sits next to Kestrel's aero fork's blade. The only aero forks we've seen that even attempt an integration like this are Kinesis' carbon airfoil, and Profile's BDC.
The Reynolds fork does not have blades as deep as the Carbon Airfoil, but its blade is thinner, and it weighs a half-pound less.
As might be expected, a fork like this is going to cost. It sells for $399, and that's also street price. Retailers are getting every penny of retail on this fork, because it is a rapid seller.
If this fork looks vaguely familiar, it is designed around the shape of Hotta's very aero––but not particularly solid––fork of a couple of years ago. The Reynolds Composites Ouzo ProAero has been a thoroughly wind-tunnel tested fork, with John Cobb having spent a fair bit of time helping Reynolds get proper air flow around the crown, and making sure the fork performed well with Hed Jet wheels, Hed3s, etc. In other words, it's aero like a Hotta, but rock-solid safe to ride.
As a result, this fork is quite slippery, yet safe, and plenty laterally stiff. How stiff? The night before the writing of this overview Steve Hegg won the 35+ national criterium championships using this fork on his road race bike.
