My 12 year old has a Giant terrago which he will be keeping for another year and then his brother 'second hand sam' will inherit it.

The fork on the bike is next to useless so I was thinking of an upgrade.

A Recon SL is obviously a much better fork but do i need to spend that much.
Would a Dart 3 be OK ?

Dart 3 aren't that bad – can't you get a Tora for similar though?

Unless he's a freeride god, you need a light air fork, otherwise you'll either need new light coils for it, or it will be far too stiff.

How heavy is he?

I bought my son (11) a Recon to replace a DJ4, works great and saved over a kg…

he's no freeride god, more of an XC rider and weighs in at 52 kg.

That's a good point about air suspension though.
Looks like Wiggle have a Tora air at £160 or a recon air for £190.

br – what recon did you get ?

I bought some Reba airs for my 8yr old off classifieds. air specifically because he is light and his weight is going to change.

I've just put some old SID's on my 12 year olds bike – light, air forks – he's not heavy enough to hae too much problem with flutter etc.

Standard Recon 120mm air, luckily last year while Merlin had them in at £110.

My son is about 40kg…

that was a bargain br.

worth scanning ebay

I bought my son some Manitou sx ti 80mm forks for 318 posted. Not perfect but way better than what he had

scan ebay (or the classifieds here) you do see older forks that are great bargains

I myself ride late aZ2 which was about a £100. I just couldn't bear to make the front of my bike any higher.

If you got £150 to play with there must be some usuable SID's out there for that price and would suit a youngster nicely…

I hope you meant £18 amthill.