how much should i spend on a 2nd hand pair of DH forks for my first DH bike?

How much you have + How much you can borrow..

Thats the usual rule for buying anything isnt it?

i need 2 budget for rest of bike aswell though so i need to know a guidline ammount.

utfs, but best results will be on a DH forum. Or see what the new prices are vs. ebay

£100.

I bought a pair of marzocchi dropoff tripples from ebay for under a 100 notes, solid 20mm axle and usual marzocchi squidgey noise, bit of an annoying top out but they’re still solid after many heavy ‘learning’ landings – i can’t fault for a beginner/cheapo fork

If you want to buy a full bike you’ll get a much better deal buying a full bike than piece by piece.

If you do just want forks then all Dh forks have their problems but for cheap reliabile forks go for some 07 or earlier triple eights. All the way back to about 02 is fine. They take a lot of stick and don’t seem to mind.

As above, £150 should get you something decent. Though whatever you get for that price, spend the £15 on oil + a hour it’ll take you to strip and rebuild them with new oil etc.

Look for the 888s as steveh says, or some 66s of similar vintage. Or maybe some 05 onward boxxers (ideally 06 on).

£200 will get you a solid set of 888’s. Plush fit and forget goodness. Steer clear of the SSV damped ones – eg RCV, RV, VF etc. Don’t get drop offs, they will only dissapoint.

Coincidentally I have a mint set of 888rc’s I would part with…

What frame are they for?

you could probably pick up some 2004/5 888 RCs with flat crowns for well under £200, they are very serviceable and a great fork.

Depends on what your spending on the frame, id say a good percentage of the frame cost i.e. £1000 = 250 forks.

You can pick up 06-07 888RC2x’s for 200-300 quid now and imho they are the best DH froks marzocchi have made. Look on Southern Downhill forum as there are plenty going on there now.

I even saw 2008 888 wold cups for about 400 the other day.

i havnt got the frame yet but i am just looking around at different places to find what is out there.