[John22j]

I wonder if you could somehow take rubber fork boots and make a buffer/bumper like thing at the bottom out of something like pipe insulating foam and attach the boots to that foam.

I can kind of picture it working --- provides protection from dings as well as dirt. You'd zip tie them tight to the upper part of the fork and maybe sew it to the foam down below.

Hmmmm - got my curiousity going now, but my bikes all have the hard protectors on them so I don't have a need to experiment with it. :(