I is really pretty stiff- it is also quite short so the head angle is steep. One of the things I really liked about these early Merlins is the geometry. they were steep angled and short both in wheel base and chainstay length relative to what was popular at the time. the geometry made for a fast climbing bike here in Colorado and I liked that. This fork seems to make everything steeper and shorter, which I am not sure is a good thing for this bike. I am now used to 29'ers and their more relaxed geometry even though I ride a new bike that does very similar things. The Merlin seems like a handful downhill and the stem seems like it is really long at 135 mm and to think I ride a stem that is considered long by today's standards and is 80mm long. I would like to find a hooded dropout spinner Koski canti fork which is what I had on my old bike bitd. I have a restored U-brake version that I keep thinking about putting on this but now I (luckily) ran across an early IRD fork but I would have to lose the awesome Salsa stem with its roller... first world problems