My White T129 has Fox CTD ‘FIT’ forks which seem poor compared with my previous Fox 26er forks. I’ve replaced the seals with low friction ones but the small bump performance in particular, is harsh. Anyone got any experience of these forks vs, say Rockshox Reba? Anything else I should look at (at a reasonable price!)?

How much sag have you set them up with ?

30mm or so. I’ve got them as soft as I dare.

Tyre pressures?

I’ve experimented a bit with tyre pressures, but I’m sure it’s the Forks. Has anyone tried both Fox and Rebas?

if you are running shorter travel forks with QR dropouts, have a look at CRC, they are doing Manitou Tower Pro forks super cheap on sale

just replaced a pair of broken Fox 32 29’er forks with the Manitou forks and the differences in terms of structural rigidity, break-away friction and damper performance is night/day with the Manitou winning on all counts 😉

They are 120mm travel with 15mm axle.

@failedengineer

sorry for the bad lead..unless you can find someone doing Manitou’s cheap in your format (120mm/QR15)?

I have been very surprised by the quality of the “forgotten” suspension brand.

I last used a Manitou fork about 6 years ago on a Banshee Scirocco hardtail, it was a Manitou Minute and I was blown away by the fork’s performance.

As with many things in life, its not perhaps the product with the best “performance” that wins, but the best “marketing” and the best “distribution” 🙁

Rebas will probably be worse. I’ve tried them in 29er flavour and I have a set of 2013 26ers on my full sus.

I second Manitou for surprisingly great small bump compliance. I can’t remember if its the Minute or the Tower fork but one of them has some sort of spring-assist damper for small bump compliance in the first couple of centimetres of travel.

have you checked how much oil there is in the air chamber as some fitted with foam ring on air spring assm, transfered oil intot he air chamber from lowers making them harsh, the foam is replaced with a scraper seal to rectify the issue

@LoCo

Do the new 2015 Rebas (the ones with black ano stanchions) come with scraper seals or foam wipers as standard?

Mine have been harsh since day one. I was hoping that they were going to break in after a couple of hundred miles but no such luck. I’m going to send them back under warranty when I get the chance for a couple of other reasons but was wondering if Fishers will remove the foam rings / fit a scraper seal as part of the warranty repair?

No they don’t the scraper seal on the fox ones are on the air spring, not the wipers, strange though the solo air rockshox are pretty linear (hence the provison for air tokens on 2015 ones) and the fast black stantions and new seal seem pretty slick on my Revs (set at 110mm)

hence the provison for air tokens on 2015 ones

I gather the earlier forks will also take tokens; do you know if a 2014 fork needs a new air cap for this, or is the stock one OK? I’ve a 2014 Reba, but have heard rumours of 2014 SIDs coming with tokens already fitted.

LoCo – no, I haven’t checked that. Is it just a matter of letting the air out and unscrewing the air spring?