DT Swiss has always been on the lighter side with their suspension forks, but the new DT Swiss OPM Race is claimed to be the lightest production suspension fork on the market. They say a 100mm travel 29er model is just 1,490g with thru axle and uncut steerer. For comparison, a Rockshox SID XX World Cup has a listed weight of 1485g, but that’s with 9mm skewer and 265mm steerer. The 27.5” version is 20g lighter.
It uses a full carbon crown and steerer made using TFP, or Tailored Fiber Placement, which saves a whopping 120g. It’s developed in conjunction with a Swiss company that’s in the fabric business (making mostly underwear of all things), but they have the expertise in the process, which they say resembles embroidery. This means it’s layered by machine, ensuring 100% accurate placement for all of the carbon fiber, so they can make every one with the same level of stiffness and not need to overbuild them slightly to compensate for irregularities found in hand laid fibers.
Nino Schurter has been racing it for a season with impressive results, but you’ll be able to get it soon, too…
It uses their Open, Drive and Lock (O.D.L.) compression adjustments with a rebound knob on the bottom. They’ll offer a limited run of 300 made exactly like the team riders use, which will have green seals (not the blue shown here) because SKF’s motorsports racing products use green seals.
They use new wiper seals from SKF that eliminate the small coil spring found on the seals. Instead of having it wound around the outside to keep the seal tight around the stanchions, they build that into the seal itself to keep it smoother and cleaner looking.
Internals are otherwise the same as their OPM forks, and pricing is TBD.
