Rond forks have a chequered history. Gerard Rond was a legendary 70’s motocross rider, who started his own fork company. This was the bought out by WP, then Maguara. Gerard still has a very hands-on approach to suspension testing, and his forks were the first to win a gold medal in the Olympics. Their quality has always been superb, but they’ve always been considered rather overbuilt and overdamped. Perhaps this is the year they will change.

Languishing on the front of my bike, attatched to the Hope XC4 are this set of 2000.5 (not 2000, not 2001) Rond Quake Air 65 forks.

These are proper old school XC forks. Stiff, short travel, like the real racers like. Inspite of all this, I’m actually getting on with them quite well. Their 30mm stanchions offer excellent rigidity and steering precision, and they’re light enough (3lbs and a bit) to not weigh the front down. Best of all, they’re really short, about 20mm shorter than other forks I’ve ridden, and if they produce their claimed 65mm of travel, that’ll be on a par with the Pace AirForce. We’ll see. Currently they’re only moving 50mm, and that’s after a big hit coming down a set of steps that’s left my arm a bit scarred. Hmm.

Are you one of the rare few riders who’ve got a set of Rond forks? Send us an e-mail to [email protected] if you’ve got any comments.