I'm after a long travel single crown fork with a 1.5 steerer for a bit of an experiment bike I'm building up on the cheap.

There seem to be occasionally good buy Manitou Sherman breakout forks available – anyone got any opinions on these or should I try and get hold of a Marzocchi 66 (pre early 2007) ?

Any other options (I think Lyriks, Totems and the like are all going to be out of my price range – hopefully looking at spending less than 150 quid).

Thanks in advance.

I'm after a long travel single crown fork with a 1.5 steerer for a bit of an experiment bike I'm building up on the cheap

Please define cheap?

Looking to spend £150 or less on the forks – project is a "have a go" special for a bit of downhilling.

Cheap as in not best, 2nd or even 3rd bike sort of equipment

2006 marzocchis 66 1.5s are often cheaper

See if you can find some "old school" Z1 Bombers on the Bay…

I think the Z1 bombers are probably going to be not enough travel – probably need (!) about 160mm + but the 66 RC2X (?) seem to be the fork of choice in this price range – provided you get one of the original non-Taiwanese ones…

have a look at 06/06 (I'm not sure) 66rc I had some and they were great for this sort of thing 150 or 170 internal adjust that is quite easy. They are the smoothest and heaviest forks I have owned. I would have some again.

think shermans would be your best/cheapest bet, couldn't see any point in selling mine as they go for give away prices (plan to refit them to my gemini so not selling them either).

if you can get some 05 66 rc's you wont regret it. Amazing forks, with alot of tuneability… And should be quite cheap.

The pre-Taiwanese 66s are the best advice. They are very plush, very reliable and likely to be in your price range on eBay. They are however an open bath damper, so the damping oil is contained within an open bath in the stanchion tube. That makes home servicing far more tricky and probably best left to a shop. It is this feature though that makes them so plush and reliable.

When I was building my cheapo DH bike I plumped for secondhand Domains.

Paid £180 I think, but the 1.5in version might be cheaper due to lower demand.

Thanks for all the ideas guys – z1ppy how heavy are the Shermans – they just look an absolute steal for what was a very expensive fork back in the day.

2005 66's.

gee I always thought that the open bath makes them a lot easier to service just a bit messy. Its not like its going to be any easier to change the oil in a sealed cartridge damping system than an open bath system is it?

In theory that's a sound assumption, but the problem is that all the fiddly bits that control the rate and damping and the adjustment of that, are also in that open bath. So when you start to open them up, there are many more parts to have to take account of and put back together.

To illustrate the point, I once tried to change the spring on a pair of 888s. Very soon after having opened them up, I realised I was way out of my depth. One of the bike shops local to me (though not my local) agreed to help me out and made a right pigs ear of the job. I ended up crashing really badly (I hit the wooden parapet of the bridge at the bottom of the Cwmcarn DH track – the one you go under at full tilt). Oil had burst out of the top of the stanchion so I sent them back to windwave who then informed me that nothing had been put back correctly and there was 30% too much oil inside.

So if a bike shop can make that much of a mess of things, it's clearly not a simple job.

With sealed units, you're only ever servicing the inside of the stanchions, i.e. new lubrication oil between the bushes etc, rather than the actual damping oil.

Tim just weighed em 2.7kg with axle (brake adapter & bottom headset bearing) with a 210mm steerer, these are an '04 150mm's. Have to say I replaced em it felt like I'd removed a plow from the front end!

I just changed the oil in my Z1's on sunday (open bath design)

I removed a two top caps, a metal washer and two springs. Hardly alot of parts. To change the seals isnt much trickier. Unless your a shite mechanic or just unlucky, theres not much to go wrong if you do them sensibly.

I'd also go for some 66's, 05's didnt come with a 1.5 steere i dont think, jsut 06 or 07

Or try Domains

Or go for a cheap set of Shermans, they broke easily with me but not a bad set of forks when they work

How strange I found servicing my 66rc a piece of cake and I put that down to them being open bath. But they were really simple with the rebound assembily in one side and the compression in the other and only one spring came apart easy and went back together easy. That includes a travel change in them too.

I guess 888s must be more complicated inside then. and those longer tubes make it harder to align stuff.

I had Shermans, they were great. I sold them as the new frame needed 1 1/8" steerer. One day Fox will be as good I hope.

Z1ppy – thanks very much for that – I think anything like this is going to be fairly heavy – interesting to note the servicing ideas.

Still not sure now – Shermans or 04/05 66s – hmmm – I'll just have to see what comes up first.

66s (pre 2007) are a great fork… easy to service etc…

domain 318's – solid fork.. merlin had a bunch going cheep'

the shermans are an ok fork… but the 66's are way way better.

have to add, at the time I was using the bike form more XC duties, for DH weight is not that 'much' of an issue..

THe 2006 & 2007 66 RC2X is a great fork, the RC2X Cart is one of the best damping systems that marzocchi produced prior to going all taiwainish on everyone.

http://www.southerndownhill.com/forum/index.php/topic,202040.0.html

set on SDH for 170 if your after some.

Ive been using a 06 888 rc2x since 31st december 2005 and its had one service and seals change and a replacement rebound cart at the sane time (DH bike vs downtown race) and thats it. They have worked faultlessly the whole time.

I had 1.5" 170mm '04 Shermans Breakout + forks on my Yeti for about 4 years. They were an excellent heavy duty fork but didn't have particularly good small bump response. They are very light for what they are (5.4lbs IIRC) and only needed serviced once and a while. The travel adjust was also very handy for the steeper climbs. I sold mine for £60 in almost perfect working condition so if you can find a pair I'd certainly recommend them for a cheap build. One thing I'd ask someone selling a set would be the last time the seals were changed and if they were upgraded to later Evil Genius ones. The original ones tended to leak quite easily.