EWS Prototypes: Ohlins Downhill Fork

 Yep... nice catch.

 I already set my 1st born aside.

 The stanchions are fixed, the sliders slide (No shit!)

 @spreadthekonagroove - It's an inverted fork, the stanchions are on the bottom.

 @spreadthekonagroove you're pulling your logic straight out of your ass.

 But the sliders (uppers) are still 40 mm & still in the crowns same as a conventional with 40 mm stanchions so they still bear the same load the same way. Except the invert probably has more assistance from the stanchions what with them being potentially longer & with more bushing overlap.

 "Stantion" has lots of meanings. I use them when mounting lights in electrical. It means stationary pole used as a support. Basically, the part that connects to a bike could be considered the stationary part vs the part connected to the wheel which is always in telescopic motion, regardless of shock configuration.

 Make it simple by taking a Boxxer and not using the word stanchion too many times. The upper legs that are coated are 35mm. The lower legs that holds all the oil are what, around 40 mm or so? Either way, its bigger. But the fork is measured by the upper legs of 35mm. Now lets take an inverted fork, like the Emerald. Now when you read how big the stanchions are, it's 36mm. But the same with the Ohlins, why do the upper legs hold a Fox 40 bumper or bigger? Because the lower legs now become measured. It gets flipped on what gets measured. I know most people understand, but some still can't grasp the concepts that well.

 Very much similar to DVO in a few ways (apart from the obvious upsidedown). I use ODI Fox40 bumpers on mine and I see they have adapted the collar method on the lower crown as DVO did in their prototypes. Depending on service intervalls and service access, meybe this will be my next fork?

 he's on some good deutsche chemicals over dere !

 That bumper seems to be overstretched

 You're right. Stantion is the stationary part regardless of the fork being inverted.

 I dare say those 40s bumpers are just stretched.

 dont worry @spreadthekonagroove, you are correct. The best way to tell when you have said something that is correct on pinkbike is that you will get about a million downvotes.

 I really didn't want to do this, but you people leave me no choice. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_fork See "telescopic." This discussion is done.

 @dan255 rule number 1 never trust wikipedia.

 If you compare the wikipedia page for stanchion, you will see that it is the fixed part.

 By the way you can also see that the uppar part, whatever called, is tapered.

 Even though I know I and all the other people saying the stanchion is the fixed upper leg on a USD fork are right, I guess we could agree on "upper tubes" and "lower tubes"

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBDn5PiL00

And by the way it is good to see that Ohlins is doing it's thing!

 @jaame yes sir. Rock shox doesn't even use the word Stantion anymore. Just uppers and lowers haha

 @makripper Wikipedia has gotten me through most of my college career, it is pretty much the only thing I can trust at this point. @jaame I can't understand what your trying to say with that first sentence, so I'm just going to disregard it. If you find Pinkbike to be a reliable source then please refer to www.pinkbike.com/news/Manitou-Dorado--Review-2009.html

 @Dan255 you have a career in taking college? you're wikipedia point makes sense then. lol you found one article from 6 years ago that backs up your "point" the real point is, who really cares? just call them uppers and lowers. Nothing on a MTB fork or Moto fork is techincally a "stantion" Nothing is permanently fixed and doesn't move...

 @makripper here in the good ole USA, a college career basically means the 4 years you spend in college. The very fact that I had to explain that to you means that it is worthless to continue this discussion, as the intelligence level here is pretty low.

 You being the prime example. Complete with arrogance I may add! You're the full package. I was clearly taking the piss LOL

 meow, im a cat

 Thanks buddy! Just for your future reference, it's spelled "stanchion" not stantion.

 for future reference, meh.

 @dan255 if the sliders are fixed and the stanchions slide, does that mean on a usd fork the uppers are at the bottom and the lowers are at the top? Perhaps the inners are on the outside and the outers are on the inside?

By the way, you're means you are. Your means your. Maybe you could check that on Wikipedia.

 @jaame ohhhh burnnnn...

If you want to refer to them as uppers and lowers, YOU'RE exactly right in saying that the uppers are at the bottom and the lowers are at the top with a USD fork, compared to the conventional design. That's why its called USD, like upside down. Get it? Good job!!

By the way, you should never use the word YOU'RE trying to define as its own definition. It's like saying pickle means pickle, and ya know everybody knows pickle means pickle. Unless you don't, in which case you should probably refer to Wikipedia.

 A pickle is a terrible example. It's actually a verb. To pickle. It's a way of making a preserve. It doesn't mean what you think it means. You actually mean pickled cucumber? Or pickled beet?

 Actually @makripper that's exactly what I was saying. Everyone knows pickle means pickle, but how would anyone know what the word pickle means if you just said pickle means pickle? So its a perfectly good example. You tried though.

 Lol you make absolutely no sense. Comparing those to terms is like basketball to a spatula. Good try kid. Not sure where this is going for the last few hhahahha fun drawing it out tho lol

 Next step is to remove the uphill part..

 World Cup is next weekend 4hrs up the road.

 Specialized UK are there with their demo stand. They've taken it up to show the world.

 呵呵（like I give a f*ck）

 nice one.

 Some stupid western dickhead will have that tattoo'd on his arm

 Tuhao Jin....nice... 顶楼主！

 On my way to the tattoo parlor now!

 Being a stupid western dickhead ... That's funny as F***. But some of us stupid western dickheads can spot an awful fad when they see it and don't have ungodly awful tattoos to show for it.

 "Check out my new tattoo, it means "strength" in Chinese! Sweet, huh??"

'Uh dude.. That actually means "calamari", ya squid.'

"f*ck."

 My buddies friend wanted a tattoo in Chinese that said KAOS. What he ended up was the Chinese Characters that meant Confusion !!! Hhahahaha!!

 just like the color of FOX KASHIMA

 i am betting you would have to mortgage your house to get this when it hits the market

 uncalled for?

 I suspect prestonDH didn't mean anyone specifically, but rather that "one" would have to mortgage a house to buy this fork.

 @toooldtodieyoung Exactly, I am referring to this fork being extremely expensive, it was supposed to be a comment and not a reply to anyone.

 Oops ment up plus one! Sorry!

 My old hannebrink 9" invereted fork used a 25mm axle. That thing makes the most badass wall decoration for my bike workshop. It was insanely smooth and light for its time.

 Specialized OFTEN uses proprietary front hubs, and since they don't sell their forks aftermarket anymore... the only way you ever get to ride them is by buying a complete bike really. But what difference does it make anyway...nobody but a Specialized or Ohlins sponsored racer is likely going to ever own one of these forks.

 @dfiler. photo!

 Actually anyone can buy a ohlins TTX shock it just doesn't fit on a bike with a normal shock mount. The only bikes it fits at the moment is a specialized, a pivot and I'm sure there is an adapter for a santa cruz V10 which should work for a intense as well since it is the same design. You can buy ohlins cartridges for boxxers and 40's as well. Since the only thing holding you back from these forks is the hub I'm sure 30mm hubs will crop up very quickly from release. & it wouldn't be hard to get a 30mm hub custom made if no manufacturers mass produced one.

 Pretty sure you can buy a universal ttx now. I was offered one as an upgrade when i bought my wilson i seem to remember. As for 30mm hubs, i seem to recall a mate who had old foes forks said they ran a 30mm axle and hub so there must be something out there somewhere

 @deeeight If I'm correct I believe the dual crowns on the 2008ish Enduro's had a 25mm.

 Friend has the ohlins ttx on his tr500

 Not the first 30mm axle in mountain biking... Foes used it back with their F1 fork, which was also an upside down fork

 My old Schwinn straight 8 had a 20mm in the front and rear.

 Beat me to it mikeyorange was going to say the same! Foes forks and curnutt shocks!!!! Viva la old school

 The advantages of the USD fork outweight a new axle standard.

 Don't forget an arm and leg while you at it.

 How about a kidney for some extra steeze?

 The kidney is for custom graphics/stickers

 This might be a proof of concept and they end up licensing the damper to someone who knows how to design the chassis.

 They already made a prototype 40 cartridge... And the top of it looked pretty different to the adjusters on this fork. I guess an ohlins cartridged Dorado would be pretty badass too.

 Messy, I dare to differ. Forks like 40 have plenty of sculpting on them to make them look more sexy. A part of tailoring also takes into account user friendliness (external dials, instead of technician/mechanic playing with your shims) and large scale production (tolerances)

 I just think that they're going to struggle getting a chassis as good as rockshox or fox, just because they don't have any experience in mountain bikes. Shocks are different, there's no lateral forces or flex on them ( or at least there shouldn't be) so it's just a damper. A fork is much more complex. I think ohlins are among the best damper manufacturers in the world, as that's what they specialise in.

I don't really agree that the sculpting on forks is just to make them look more sexy, there must be some kind of engineering reason for it all. And that comes from experience... Knowing where forks fail, where you can afford to remove weight, and how to maintain reliability.

 I don't know, they have all the data collection gear to determine forces, then design and stress analysis software necessary to design a chassis optimized to make it. The only issue is budget. They do stuff for so many industries that it seems a little problem to me. If you do a Baja truck then you have much smaller error margins to play with. According to my logic Marzocchi and Fox may have similar experience, the Rockshox seems least equipped to do so, even if they hire engineers that used to work in different industries. But which accomplished engineer would like to move from, aero, moto or car to work for a bike company... Talking out of my A. off course.

 That's a lot of educated guessing!

 Actually he's most likely right except that they do use ogling cartridge and oil only

 Damn he beat me to it. Yes i think every one else read hand job.

 You're right. The "r" next to epic is a give away that it's coil. The ohlins R springs are very similar to the "new" fox springs with fewer coils and are found in a lot of their automotive suspension.

 Its the new Gold Standard.

 Going to turn the world of DH forks upside down.

 That and forge the upper tubes and lower crown as one piece in the same way that non-inverted forks have forged lowers. That's _much_ lighter than extruded tubes and clamped on crowns. Of course the upper crown will have to remain clamped on to allow insertion of steer tube through frame. In my opinion this is very far from a production model.

 A mx bike is also at least 6 times heavier than a mountain bike and it puts more force through the forks. So please explain why a mx bike having huge crowns is relevent to a dh fork? The DVO arch isn't any different a solution than having a bigger or even different shaped axle (manitou). Torsional flex is less of an issue than you'd believe when riding a modern usd fork like a manitou dorado.

 Dude I ride a dorado and weight at my top almost 200 pounds. Never felt any flex. So stop the wining about stiffness.

 If you did this you would have no way to adjust your fork height unless you dropped travel internally. I guess that is ok since every single crown bike is that way but I do adjust my fork tube height from time to time for varying conditions.

 Perhaps Rampage riders can clamor for more stiffness, but really some of the fastest riders in the world are on 35mm Boxxers, which do seem more popular than the heavier 40mm forks. But then, I don't see us going back to the days of 3in tires with dh tubes and 50lb bikes. I think that the 33lb mark will stay as the ultimate weight for stabilty and playfulness in DH and any talk of needing something beefier will ultimately disappount in sales as the dh racers will not be wanting to add weight. consumers will continue to want to ride what Sam Hill is riding, even if all they are doing is taking flow trails with jumps.

 Mine is soon to make a comeback. I'm glad no one wanted to buy it off me last year. Totem for life!

 Thats because Ohlins dosnt sponsor riders. Mitch Ropelato had to pay full price for his. Racing isnt always about the best equipment.

 doubt he had to pay.if anything specialized paid but I'm sure the swedes can afford to gift a few rear shocks to factory team guys even without a sponsorship...lots of companies do that

 Look it up. They have a history of not giving away anything forsponsorship. If you want ohlins race support or parts, you pay for it.

 RIcky Carmichael had to pay for ohlins stuff. Let that one sink in for a minute.

 #gingertax

 My 2015 Fox 40 floats have them in the lowers. On my MX bike you get tons of pressure buildup, have to release them after every time on track pretty much. On the mtb I've never once heard any kind of pressure be released from them whatsoever, and thats even trying to push them directly after doign top to bottom runs of Whistler and other bikeparks. Not entirely sure why theres such a difference in how much air they suck in, but have to believe it's down to the shorter travel of an mtb fork not creating enough pressure change to suck the air in as much.

 Oh and also, That fork looks absolutely awesome.

 I don't think that's true, if you do the carpark test with usd forks, grab the bars and twist then you'll cause them to flex there's no doubt about that. Riding them is a different story, firstly you're never putting them through that sort of twisting motion, secondly any form of deflection is so minimal that it's not noticeable in 99% of situations. The next point is they're stiffer than other designs when it comes to lateral forces acting upon them.

As far as theses are concerned, from what's been said by ohlins these are air/coil hybrids which would explain some of the weight. We also just don't know what's inside the damper leg and for all we know that could be a large proportion of any extra weight.

My experience is based on 2 and a half years riding dorados and I don't plan to change them in the near future.

 So yes you may be able to explain away at least some of the weight, (although there are plenty of other forks out there that are running full coil spring set ups and are very very light...)

How do you explain the need for the 150% larger axle and that enormous lower crown? They wouldn't have done all that just for fun...

 The big question is whether stiffness of current standards DH forks is a good thing. I heard a thing that makes sense to me: all those huge stanchions like Marzo or Fox are made so stiff in order to minimize their bending during G-outs, so that they slide through bushings with less resistance (32 uppers of Boxxer sometimes were not sliding in at all) If it were to be the case, then the overall stiffness is not the priority in STD fork design, rather a close side effect. It is hard to say how positive or negative beyond which threshold. Recently I had Shiver SC fork installed on my HT, now I run 36 lowered do 130mm. Both have no low speed compression what so ever and I run them at similar SAG. Witht his precondition I claim them ready for qualitiative comparison Shiver seems to track better through rockgardens, seems to be evidently better on off cambers, I feel less bounced around. I do not ride any higher speed stuff so it is very hard for me to comment on eventual problems with G-outs in corners. I cannot comment on cornering grip. Nevertheless on my trails I got used to flex in corners very quickly, it became a non issue and I can still pump the bike doing S-turns on flat ground. So I'd say that for me USD design inspires confidence in many areas.

 Spent a few years on a shiver and it wss good but the 888 that replaced it was noticeably stiffer and i much preferred it

 Maybe some truth in what your saying there dude. However I notice next to zero flex on my dorados, feel as stiff as boxers ran previously but just seem to work better. The only massive minus is removing the front wheel, you need the patience of a social worker and a team of 3

 Maybe they did just do it for fun.
TJ @ Ohlins: "Whahey! We chucked a massive axle on the fork, that was fun! What Next?!"
Mr Ohlin @ Ohlins: "Yeeeaaahhh!! I know, now lets make a 148mm rear spaced hub!! Wooo hoooo!"

 Shivers flex more than 888, s but i find mt shivers corner with more precision.I have 888 and Shivers. I am only 150 pounds and prefer a soft sprung fork. UD forks are stiffer the farther the fork compress. I like to see somthing a bit different. These forks are some sweet eye candy.

 It's 50% bigger but it may not be much stiffer than the likes of manitou's hex axle. The crown isn't much bigger than that of a Dorado but a dorados lower crown is hollow which will save a bit of weight.
Also one question I have, how heavy are these forks? 4kg heavy or along the same lines as DVO forks (which could be lighter if they ditched the silly arch perhaps went with a bigger axle like these if they really needed the extra stiffness and the fact they use at least 3 times as much oil as my Dorados) Both could be classed as heavy but that's a very vague thing since we have no actual figures at this time.

 To follow up, I don't think those forks have a 30mm axle on after a 2nd look, by the looks of things it's just like my mx bike and has a larger diameter part on the end of the axle to increase clamping area.

 @gabriel-mission9 "Come on materials guys, when are you gonna come up with the wonder material that makes USD and all its low unsprung mass/low friction advantages a viable option in MTB?"

DVO Emerald is a hugely viable option for USD. Has 'wonder material' arch that sorts out the flex issue without resorting and a new axle standard. Sounds like what you want is already here.

@WAKIdesigns You are bang on about flex. There is a lot of benefit to having flex when your wheel is finding its way through rock garden and root mine fields. Less deflection at the bars and more traction and compliance at the tire. I had a Fox 40 a while back and it was so stiff it was losing traction in rough corners at my weight. I heard that Fox has deliberately introduced more flex since then, but not sure if that's true. With carbon rims, direct mount stem and carbon bars, something has to give. Better for it to be your suspension than your hands.

Looks like USD is making a big comeback. All the weight weenies who care about the scale more than performance will run away, but the rest of us will be enjoying a better platform.

 I used to be in "the stiffer the fork, the better" club, until I rode Shivers several times. Weight is an issue as MTB is a sport revolving more around kitchen scale than around the ticking clock, but realistically speaking, this is not a fork for Multistage XC Marathon, where 1lbs weight penalty may be seem like a lot on 3000th foot of climbing on the fifth day of the race. This is for freaking gravity-assisted riding, which most of us put emphasis on, it may even do for 160 single crown Enduro fork.

 I've been bagging out 15mm axles for years... well I'm all about 30mm. Finally a new standard that is cooler than what we already have.
Oil is heavy. That's why Boxxers are so light. Oil is what keeps forks working for a long time. That's why Rockshox forks need to be serviced every two minutes. On a DH bike suspension performance is more important than weight.
Isn't Fox making the 40 more flexy proof positive that stiffness isn't the be all and end all?
I agree with comments above about the CTA on DVO being pointless, with its tiny little m2 bolts holding it on. They should have done a 30mm axle and hub too. Is 30mm too big for standard disc mounts though?

 Good point @WAKIdesigns. Some people think stiff is what will help them reign supreme. Was just having this discussion with a friend last night on a ride about how I prefer the flex in my aluminum wheel set and that I would likely find a carbon wheel set too harsh. I like the flex and bend through the fast corners that allow me to keep upright rather than having to absorb all the chatter that would be deflected through the bike. I hear a lot of complaints about the Fox being too stiff. There's tradeoffs I suppose, right?
That said...I never want a 32mm fork again.

 The hated lefty is inverted light and stiff, just make a simpler model with separated parts to justify the another stanchion

 I ran carbon bars for the first time all season last year. My hands were abnormally sore at the end of every day, and Ive raced moto my entire life. Switched back to my aluminum spanks this year and I rode all day and my hands barely hurt. I also just took 6 months off for a major injury. I ride a carbon bike, but I think the carbon bars were just translated too much. They may not vibrate as much but I don't feel vibration is a big concern when it comes to bicycles.

 So in my opinion stiffer is definitely not always better b

 @WAKIdesigns I agree with your first comment. To me the stiffness issue really comes down to preventing the stiction/binding that occurs due to flex of the members, not necessarily to make the entire fork assembly as stiff as possible. Some forks will appear stiffer than others in the parking lot hold-the-wheel-and-twist test, but that's not a very relevant riding scenario; all forces transmitted to the bars are coming from the contact patch of the tire (radius of roughly 2", let's say), whereas when you're holding the wheel, force is applied much further out from the point of rotation, creating a huge moment. I can't really think of a riding situation where the contact patch could realistically provide a moment of similar magnitude. A rider should be able to pretty easily adjust from one fork to another if the flex is a bit different, but if the fork is actually binding up due to flex there's nothing a rider can do. For example, my Epicon feels "softer" than my Revelation, but they both stay smooth through all the riding I do, so once I get the feel for them I'm equally fast (or slow) on both. But if I ride a rental fork that's sticky I'm definitely slower. That (I think) is why a USD fork could appear torsionally flexy, but still provide great performance (which they seem to; my friends with Dorados think they're awesome).

 I completely agree that ultimate stiffness is not the holy grail of fork design, however there is an optimum stiffness. The fact that every USD design on the market is at the same time flexier than any right way up design, AND heavier than any right way up design speaks volumes to me. People can bang on all they like about weight not being important. Frankly, those people are wrong. Make your bike 1 lb lighter and do a days riding on it. Even if you only ride it downhill, you will notice a difference. I took 200g off my rear wheel on my downhill bike recently. To say it feels like a different bike is an understatement. It does everything better. More grip, better suspension performance, better acceleration AND it feels lighter in the air...

 Gabriel - kitchen scale is an irrational approach to the same extent as someone claiming that additional plushness of USD fork or open bath system can make him faster. Gee Athertons Fury weighs almost 36lbs, that is in the era when you can take Session 9.9 under 30lbs with dual ply tyres.

 What about not using a round design something like a hexagon and needle bearing instead of bushings? I guess sealing it will be a problem, without copying any other design.

 I do agree with @WAKIdesigns there is a point where a bike becomes too light and starts sacrificing performance, ATM I'm using DH tires on my HT is a pain climbing but it have make it feel seriously stable going up and down, have yet to try it again with big and light tires to see what is better.

 @its-chris That's how the lefty works, if you weren't aware. there were sealing issues & bearing movement issues on the older models, but the newer ones use normal seals, & seem to be rock solid. We've discussed it before on the subject of USD forks. problem is, it makes the upper tube longer, & to get to 200mm, you'd end up with upper tubes sticking up farther than the handlebars.

 Yeah, have seen a lefty disassembled and was really nice seeing how they work and how they become that stiff, really is a smart design, but it does have that problem I was aware, new ones seem to be dialed, didnt knew about them having that problem of needing to be longer, explains why they don't do DH forks. Thanks for clarifying that. Probably it is why that gold Xfusion fork have been delayed trying to solve that issue.

 Waki - My session used to weigh 40lbs. Now it weighs 36lbs. Did this make a huge difference? Does this mean I am now as fast as Gee on his 36lb Fury? 'Course not, but I am a little faster, and my bike is a LOT more fun to ride. Its hardly any less durable now than it was before, and to be honest a lot of the durability it had before was overkill for me anyway.

Did this weight difference make more of an improvement to the ride than fitting 7lb super plush USD forks, vented rotors, 3" wide rims and a dropper post? Oh god yes. My bike feels like a gazelle, that other bike would feel like a buffalo.

How did I make my bike 4lbs lighter? I didn't buy one massive wonder component that was 4lbs lighter than the component it replaced. I bought lots of little bits and bobs that were slightly lighter than the parts they replaced. So a fork that can knock perhaps 1 1/2lbs off the very front of your bike in one easy step, with perhaps a very minor loss in grip in return for very small improvements in the accuracy of the fork (a.k.a. the ability of the fork to keep you going in the direction you are steering) suddenly seems almost too good to be true. Thats almost the full buffalo to gazelle transformation in one fork. A fork that probably costs a good few hundred quid less than any of the USD offerings on the market, and performs comparably in every other way.
Which amazing fork is this I speak of? Well, pretty much any right way up fork on the market to be honest. Even X-fusion, whatever it is they called their triple clamp fork.

 DVO forks looks cooler than any RWU fork and also don't need servicing very often, unlike Fox and RS. I am of the opinion that actually having oil inside the legs, and I'm not talking about 20cc here, makes a bigger difference to performance than the orientation of the legs.
Plus, we all buy what we want as opposed to what we need (Hello CBR1000RR) and a lot of that is down to aesthetics. That is where USD forks murder RWU designs. They look awesome.

 To be honest the extra 200 and something grams on my dorados isn't exactly noticeable over the lighter offerings. My pulse sits at about 37lbs which isn't that light but I feel like the weight is saved where it counts, like running tubeless which does a world of good in terms of responsiveness and ability to accelerate. The other thing is the latest carbon bikes are still stupid light even with a fork like DVO's Emerald. They even said they would rather a bit extra weight if it meant they could have better reliability and higher performance suspension.

 I think a major contributor to that is that most of the weight in the dorado is sprung weight (I run one as well and love it). As you made the comparison to tubeless, that is rotating unsprung mass which is hands down the most sensitive in terms of weight. I know fox lowers are insanely light, but when you add the oil, seals, bushings etc, I'd be interested to see how they stack up against inverted fork.

 My DH bike with a DVO Emerald weighs 34.9lbs. I know what a 30lb bike feels like, and for DH 35lbs is light enough. Losing more weight is going to give you less stability, regardless of whether you are losing durability or performance.
I've said this a lot, but there are 3 places where you shouldn't be too concerned about weight and that's suspension, tires and brakes. Take it out of everywhere else, and you can have a 35lb DH bike, or a 28lb Nomad like mine with a coil Jade shock, 2.35 minions and saint 4 pot calipers. Losing those 3 things to save weight seems foolish to me.
And that speaks nothing of service intervals. I don't get why people who aren't competitive to the 10ths of seconds at top tier racing care about weight over durability. So many people who don't even race fail to choose products that keep them riding instead of servicing, and that's why the industry has gladly accommodated that demand by supplying forks with 20ml of oil. It's straight up stupid for people outside top 20 nationals to run that shit. Rather ride your bike than fix it? Rather have highest performance than lowest weight? Get an Emerald or something with more oil in it than a sewing machine. And ditch that air shock on your trail bike while you're at it.

 DVO Emerald is a funny old fork in my opinion. Its that torsion arch that amuses me. The lower legs are 3/4 wrapped in carbon already. Why not just cover the backs of the lower legs in carbon too? That would give you an enourmous increase in stiffness with only a tiny increase in weight. Then all you would have to do is pop a couple of seals in the top of the torsion arch, and you essentially now have a set of right way up lowers on your fork. Except the fork weighs a lot and is quite flexy. Its like the worst of both worlds in one slightly overweight fork...

 @kramster you're talking sense. Even if you are racing for fun, weight isn't that important. People have become obsessed with it. The Blackbox riders running boxxer forks are literally having their forks serviced every day. Who can be arsed to do that? No one, so invariably all boxxer owners are riding with sub standard performance at least some of the time. I've never owned fox, so can't comment on that but I bet it's the same story.
I use a DSP Dueler coil shock on my trail bike after ditching the Monarch Plus and X Fusion O2 RCX... it is hands down the best, most reliable suspension product I have ever owned. Two full years without a service, dials which work in a useful range, adjustable IFP pressure, ti spring as standard, cheap. OK it bobs on climbs but it's providing me with traction all the time. No damping fade, no noise. Just a penalty of 4-500g. So what?

 Apparently not, they got a 6 bolt centerline rotor on there somehow.

 I think the axle is 30mm on the right and a bit smaller on the left.

 Actually they do. And I'd ride that fork down the candy mountain. CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 @kikou We are on a ridge Charliiiiiiiie

 yes it does to me too. ill stick wit my DVO's>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.