Old carbon road fork - safe?

[El Chupacabra]

The fork on my road bike is a circa 2002 Reynolds Ouzo Pro, which has a carbon steerer and legs, and aluminum dropouts. No crashes.

Is this fork still OK to use? Doesn't creak, no visible cracks or chips.

[mntlion]

odds are yes. but you have NO WAY TO TELL.

roll the dice, take a chance.

I would do it, but YMMV

[GeezerSteve]

Did you inspect the steerer? Ouzo Pro has some history of cracking at the glued nut interface or stem interface. Other than that Ouzo Pro is a tough fork but as mntlion says there's some level of risk. If you feel good about your inspection I'd ride it and keep my eye (and ear) on it.

[El Chupacabra]

I found some mention of a recall on some later years' versions of this fork, but nothing from this era. I had the fork out of the bike a year or two ago in order to replace the headset -- didn't see anything on the steerer at that time. Probably not a bad idea to pull it apart this spring and look again.

Steve - not sure what you're referring to re: "glued nut interface." It came with an expanding-plug type insert, instead of a star-fangled nut, for adjusting the headset preload.

[kidwoo]