Thinking about a new fork in the mid-term future. At present I am only bothering to look at Rockshox because they seem the best value. Are there any alternatives? My impressions are:

Rockshox: Good value, works.
Fox: Expensive, high maintenance but very good.
Magura: Expensive, look good, mixed reviews.
Marzocchi: 2008/9 have a terrible reputation. 2010 = ???. Forks seem less well specced for the price than Rockshox, but I haven't really scrutinised them.

Regardless of reliability problems, there are a lot of happy Marzocchi owners. I think the three year warranty is also a bonus- yes, you may need it at some point but the 2010 forks have seen favourable previews..

Saying that, I currently have '07 Boxxers and '10 Revelation Maxles- they were £290 new so it was a no-brainer! Still not used them yet mind..

Manitou, the forgotten fork maker?

manitou produced forks that were so crap that even after spending a fortune on them i wouldnt defend them.

flexy beyond belief – my steerer was rubbing on the headset cups it was deforming so far in the corners and under braking!

hideous damping – did anyone ever setup the SPV to work in any way acceptably?

unreliable – SPV vales blew regulalry

unreliable – adjusters just snap off as theyr attached to plastic shafts

unreliable – seals regulalry blew off their seats giving you a faceful of oil.

unreliable – needed the lowers striping and oiling ever few rides.

unreliable – lowers blown clean off the uppers.

In short, I wouldn't touch them with a 100ft, cifylis ridden, scabby, barge pole. The OEM cheep suntours on my mums bike work better!

Marzocchi have had some serious reliability issues in the last few years after trying to expand their range too much and shifting a lot of their production to Suntour (IIRC).They have since stripped their range down for 2010 and have moved production back in house and have gone back to oil damping. Which should mean that they will be back to their old ways of slightly heavier than the competition but ultra-reliable.

If I was looking for some new forks I think I would also be looking at RS too though ( I currently have one bike with Fox and two with RS)

To be honest though, Rockshox made some awful forks too though!

I have some newer Zocchis and they are wonderful.

When they work…

I run RS on the other bikes and would always go for them if money is an issue.

To be honest though, Rockshox made some awful forks too though!

True but that was pre-SRAM buy out though.

odd i'v had a few sets of manitous and theve been great and i find the TPC damping is much better than SPV.

demod some fox32 floats that were shite. mates 36 talas are pretty good though.

had some older rocshox and they were shit. (psylos) so was scared of getting rock shox again although the toras i have seem pretty good. the 2001 boxxers i have work fantastic. i just need to get the big bike out of the loft to use them.

i've got 2 sets of marz forks atm. one leaks from the seals but is plush but has pretty shit damping (2006 z1 bombers). the others cost me £10 and have worked faultlessly for the last 5 years with only an oil change 4 years ago (OEM bomber EXR`s).

In short, I wouldn't touch them with a 100ft, cifylis ridden, scabby, barge pole. The OEM cheep suntours on my mums bike work better!

Err sorry, what's your point there again please? Try to be clear in future! 😉

The TPC (and TPC+) dampers were nice, arguably one of the best dampers out there, I suspect manitou would still be no.1 if they'd kept it. By the time they got tot he intrinsic damper i'd lost faith, apparently its much better than the SPVe valve, but the sealed, non user servicable nature of it scares me, and cutaway diagrams looked hideously complicated.

Ditto Marzocchi, If they'd kept the old skool z1's and just stiffened them up a bit I'd still be loving them! As replacements magura seem to be as close as they come to being uttrly buttery smooth.

PP, I'd rather touch your barge pole than another set of manitous 😉

manitou produced forks that were so crap that even after spending a fortune on them i wouldnt defend them.

I really like my '07 Nixons. And the '07 Minutes with TPC replacing the SPV are very nice…

I should also add that I have some '08 Bombers that I wish to replace with some Lyriks… 🙂

In answer to the OP's original question, that would a no then. hth 🙂

How about X-Fusion, the vengeance looks pretty good.

Fox vanillas aren't that expensive when compared to revelations / pikes and are pretty good.

If you can get a good deal on Fox (like I did 😉 ) then they blow Rockshox away in performance imo.

my mate in a shop type distributor type place says they have a nearly 100% return on fox forks this year. theres a spare set of seals in the box cos they are so bad.

rockshox is currently the sensible choice.

or pre tiawan zocchis off the internets.

my mate in a shop type distributor type place says they have a nearly 100% return on fox forks this year.

Well that sounds really convincing.

No spare seals with mine but they include a card that tells you to service them regularly and how to do it

My rockshox Pike stanchions were totally fecked within less than a year.

rockthreegozy,

'10 Revelation Maxles- they were £290 new

Where from please?

pre taiwan marzocchis.

brilliant forks.
not as light as others, not as plush as other, but as the old saying goes.

"marzocchis wear in, everything else wears out"

mainly because they are so simple

never touched my MX Comps, 6 years old. still perfect.
i believe, after thier bad past 3 years, they are sorting thier issues out, but wont be in a rush to try them out for myself, until other people take the step and have positive things to say.

what travel are you looking for?

Ebay. £315 for some from Rutland tho (with the 10% Facebook voucher)

Mine were black SL's though.

Well that sounds really convincing.

good enough for me!

I got some Marzocchi 44RLO 2010 for my mate, 3 year warranty, but I'm pretty sure it was "designed in Italy, made in Taiwan" or something similar so not sure whether they moved the production back to Italy. They feel solid but a bit on the heavy side. He bought them because of the 3-year no service warranty. His previous 2007 XC500 were not brilliant but kept on working with zero maintenance. Plus the black finish on the uppers seems to stay there and not wear out like the one Manitou used on some models.

I had a pair of older Manitou Black Platinum and RTWD with TPC Lockout worked beautifully plus Evil Genius seals were good at doing their job. However my mate had some issues with his R7 as they blown the seals once and he got the black uppers version. My mate is very happy with his Nixon Super 145 Intrinsic, the damping works very good and the fork is light as well.

I'm on my second Reba now (just changed it to have black lowers) and it's a constant performer. It's easy to set up and keeps on working. Tora is hit and miss as some work perfectly and some break down very quickly on the damping side. Recon is better than Tora but not as light as Reba and I think it's a very good mid-price fork.

Older Marzocchi forks are bombproof. My mate still rides my old 03 MX Comps, serviced them after about 5 years and they work as good as new now. Simple but reliable forks. Go for around £50 second hand.

Well, I need a fork for a 456, so I was thinking 130mm travel or so. Needs to be traditional Q/R 😳 I actually feel embarassed saying that, given the zeal for bolt through…

A set of Fox 32 Vanilla's. Never had an issue with the Fox's I've had and they were only serviced once a year.

Magura Menja seem to very highly regarded and would fit your needs – supposed to be very stiff for QR.

I nearly bought some in good nick second hand for £150 ish.

I bought mine for £150 new! Ahhhh the good old pre credit crunch days 🙂

Magura menja's. V light v stiff and i've been very please with them.
You can get them for around £350

They're very light as well – probably would have got them but already had 20mm wheels and wanted bolt through

Toras are really not a bad fork. Identical model for model with the Recon forks except for steel steerer and stantions.

But, chromed steel is smoother than any anodised aluminium and it doesn't wear out. However, Toras are heavy.

personally i like rockshox, you can get them for a reasonabl price depending on the model. A friends had had the more recent manitous (08 onwards) and they were awesome. Very light, stiff and plush. They use proper seals which are fantastic. All the adjustments are solid and click into place nicely. They also seemed to be built for riders, none of this service every 20 hours etc. They also tell you to use certain weight of car engine oil when servicing!
Don't get me wrong, i'm more than happy with my 2010 revs and wouldn't bother changing them but the manitous are a definite contender for 2010. I hope they sort their advertising out and get them in some magazine tests!

my Pikes have been great, over 3 years use, no servicing until recently and have only just died. Cheap to a good home if anyone's interested.
"slight hijack" looking for 140mmish forks with 20mm bolt thru to replace them. options are pretty limited as loads are 15mm thingy now. So, the Revelations (either '09 or '10) seem a no brainer, any other suggestions?

I must say that I don't think I have ever seen a Manitou fork reviewed. Only been riding for a couple of years though.

I bought some 2005 Manitou Minute 3 forks on Ebay – nice'n'cheap as I suppose many think they're poor. Been using them for 4 years and think they're great! I think they work better than the 2005 Fox Talas forks I also have and I haven't done any maintenance on them unlike the Fox forks.

So I hope people continue to think they're no good and hopefully I'll get more cheap on Ebay….

Another vote for the old Marzocchi forks here. '03 Air Comps still going strong. Never serviced, minimal wear apart from the obvious scratches and sticker peal. God knows how many miles I’ve had out of them!

As a previous poster said, it’s a shame they didn’t just evolve the “Z” range as they where solid and just did the job without fuss. Guess we are the mugs for buying the “new cutting edge suspension technology” as it was thrown at us!

OP = Wait to see what the new (old) style Marzocchi forks turn out like in the field.

Put an offer in for some second hand Magura Menjas, they look quite good. Bit more than £150. Not sure how I will explain it to my wife if my offer is accepted though…

Not sure how I will explain it to my wife if my offer is accepted though.

MTFU 😆

Weeeelll I bought a frame last week. And I had been loudly complaining about being skint the week before. Oops.