I've been looking for some sus forks and have what I think are two great offers. Both used, both a few years old, both same price.

The Ronin's have just been serviced and although reviews say they're pretty complicated to set-up they seem to be a very good, light fork.

The Rebas have had a remote poplock retro-fitted. Currently 115mm travel but would come with spacer to make them 100mm. Again, a brilliant fork.

I do cross-country mostly, enjoy a good climb and some nice fast descents. I'm light at under 11st and would be fitting these to a Boardman pro XC frame which I believe originally comes with 100mm travel Rebas.

Any thoughts on which I should get? I think they're both excellent so can't choose between them.

Thanks in advance.

Ronin without a doubt. Once set up just fabulous. Mine have been great for 6 years or so now. Should really get them serviced at some point.

Thanks for the feedback – I'm sure either choice will be more than good enough for me but it's good to get some opinions.

I'd get the Rebas, Maguras have had some well documented reliability issues and servicing is notoriously slack.

One recommendation each then.. That doesn't help!

Last time I sent some Maguras off to be serviced it cost me £70 to replace a part and have it serviced.

6 months later they were serviced again and the guy asked when they were last serviced as it looked like the oil had done 4000 miles and NEVER been changed. That and the part I asked to be replaced hadn't been!

Personally go for the Reba's as they're both older models. RS provide better servicing documentation so you can peek around inside and check it's all working well.
Although I think the Magura's are more reliable, they're pretty old now, I had a set which I sent off to be serviced (due to there being no manual for self servicing), turnaround was good and they replaced the entire damping structure (which is flimsy and badly designed to fit with the lockout) but they never felt great after that until it got to the stage that I struggled to tell the difference between riding with them and riding rigid.

To explain more about the damping/lockout. The lockout on my model did just that, CLOSES the compression circuit. If you forget to unlock or hit a pothole, the large impulse can completely bend the damping assembly inside the fork. Not a great design imho.

I've been tempted by their newer models though, remember, the Ronin was one of Magura's first stabs at an XC fork.

and every RS service is perfect?

They are because I can do them myself.

My dual air Rebas are fantastic.

Seem to be swinging in favour of the Rebas..

The Ronins are a generation older than the Rebas, they have been replaced by the menja.
You need to take your time setting up maguras,

my tuppence…

my rebas have been going strong for about 3 years now – I did the oil change myself – dead easy and removed the all travel spacer to go to 100mm…no problem at all. They are still performing really nicely

I guess the only thing is that now I ride more technical stuff I can start to notice the QR flex compared with the bolt throughs on my other bike…

How old are the Ronins? If an early pair then forget it.

The internals are beautifully made but the function is awful. Greased bearings not oil bath. Top out is terrible, and Magura blathers on about refilling the negative airspring to solve this but it never works. Lots of sticktion and minimum damping settings suit somebody +85kg (not a lot of use for target XC market). So they are way overdamped but already use 2.5wt oil so can't put anything thinner in. Ours (and other peoples – check the magura forum) also had a resonance on the low speed compression damping that could be felt vibrating through the bars. They went back under warranty but just got blamed on tight seals (which was not true – you could adjust the resonance by adjusting the low speed compression!)

Currently they sit stripped in the garage. I've pulled apart the beautifully made internals to remove the low speed compression and then might add a good old top out rubber bumper to try and salvage some use from them!

So overall not very impressed…….:-)

Sold – I'm going for the Rebas

Thanks a million for the feedback everyone – I love this forum.

My Ronins are ok, but I suspect they are leaking again following service <6months ago for the same thing, and i'm getting a bit of top-out clunking again now.

They came back from that service working better than originally though and turn-around was 1day.