major improvements

Today, I replaced the fork on my bike with a much lighter, less heavy-duty Tange Cr-Mo fork that came off a mid-eighties Schwinn frame I just bought (for 20 bucks, bottom bracket and headset included too!):
Here's the old fork, a nice chrome piece also manufactured by Tange, but unfortunately made for 27 inch wheels.

And the finished product, in artistic black and white:

The biggest reason I did all this today is shown below. My brakes (and I know, the cable's frayed and there aren't even any washers on the pads, a big no-no, but it's a fixie, give me a break) work fine, at least as much as I need them to, with the old chrome fork. But if I'm not careful and let one of the arms on the caliper get loose, there's not a lot of clearance between the pads and the tire sidewall. I flatted a few weeks ago this way going down a hill. Coming to a safe stop on a 20% incline after that isn't a pleasant experience, but neither is patching a tube and putting electrical tape around a ripped tire for the ride home in ten degree weather.

You can tell from the photo that mounting those brakes on the right fork really gave me plenty of room to make good contact with the rim. I should've either done something like this or ordered long-reach brakes a long time ago, because the stopping power is incredible, even on my non-machined rims--enough to endo if I'm not careful. There are plenty of other benefits too, since I saved a significant amount of weight, made my frame clearances and wheelbase a lot tighter for more responsive handling, and now have eyelets on the front for when I choose to mount my full fenders.

Lesson learned: it's worth having the right tools for the job.