This vision of carbon fibreyness is the new Pace RC36 Stealth Hollowform fork. Characteristic Pace features like the rear-facing brake arch are all present and correct, but there’s a whole lot more carbon fibre than in previous years. The whole slider assembly is now CF (with diecast magnesium dropouts bonded onto the bottom), with the hollow (naturally) brake arch flowing into the lower legs. It’s all effectively one piece, which means no more ickle tiny bolts to come undone at inconvenient moments.

Also hollow is the forged and machined crown into which the 7075T6 steerer tube and chromed chromoly stanchions are plugged. Yes, Pace are sticking with chromoly stanchions, and why not?

They’re strong and anyone who’s had the anodising wear off aluminium stanchions will appreciate the durability of the plating. If you need something even sturdier (and mean-looking) there’s a “Dark” option of titanium aluminium nitride coating on the stanchions. The coating increases impact resistance (reducing the possibility of stone chip damage) and reduces friction. The extra coating is a £33.95 option.

Grease ports are positioned at the top of each leg, injecting grease straight into the top bushing. On top of the left leg is a shiny blue anodised rebound damping adjuster and emerging from the middle of that is the cable to the bar-mounted lockout lever. There’s also a version of the fork without the lockout.

Inside you’ve got a multi-spring stack in the right leg giving 100mm of travel. You can knock that down to 80mm by shuffling the springs around inside. The left leg houses the damping gubbinses – the oil’s contained within the stanchions, so it just damps, it doesn’t lubricate.

The whole shebang weighs 1.7kg (3.7lb) and will cost £399 (or £379 without the lockout), both competitive numbers in the high-end fork market. We’re out riding it right now – full review on the way shortly…

More information from Pace on 01751 432929 or www.pace-racing.co.uk.