650B Elephant National Forest Explorer

I feel like I might as well as go custom for an extra £100 and go for a full 70-80mm offset which will give me 40-30mm trail (with 35mm tyres and my current head tube angle). It also has the advantage I won't be shortening the fork and adjusting the rest of the geometry at all. I need forward facing eyelets for my rack too, which the Thorn doesn't have.

Electra were selling a cheap ($50 on sale) 80mm offset fork, with a variety of options. All sold out now with no plans to produce any more. Would have been a cheaper way to experiment.

I don't know if it'll fit in with the geo of a cross check, but Soma have a low trail fork in the pipe-line, been ages without any development though, I hope they haven't dropped it (there was supposed to be a canti and a caliper version) http://somafab.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/low-trail-forks.html

edit: they're now in production so will be available soon! http://somafab.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/soma-champs-elysees-mini-racks.html