Lou (and anyone else who might be interested), I am certainly NOT advocating that anyone ride a machine with a potentially dangerous fork. Actually, I my case at least, I don't ride either of the two I have that have the aluminuim fork, including the one with the steel reinforcing rod. They would be infinitely less interesting (and to me, valuable)with broken forks. I have two others with very nice steel forks which I still ride and enjoy very much. Dave Van Hook Hershey PA