Just sent off my 05 Revs for a service and been told they will be £200 to repair (plus the £20 i paid to send them out), so do I
a) pay up
b) get them sent back and sell on as spares or repairs and get a new set
c) tell them to bin them and get a new set

and if it is new forks time, any recommendations for about £200ish. Has technology moved on enough that ’11 Toras would be equivalent (they seem to be about that new now), or am i better off looking for NOS somewhere online?

I am not sure what the problem is exactly but I believe there was grit in the seals and this has damaged the stanchions

Thanks

Get them sent back and sell thme for spares or repairs (or have a go at fixing them yourself)

You should be able to get a decent set of forks for £200, summate like toras or recons from somewhere cheap like on one?

£200 is a lot for the repair, but I don’t know if you can really buy a better new fork for that money.

Tora would be unpleasantly heavy after a Rev I think.

If your budget was a little bit higher, you could pick up a 2011 Rev for under £300 from On-One at the moment.

You have to weigh up how much use they will have should you pay it.
What are the stanchions like ?

I have some Revs of about the same age (I think). They were a mates & he had complete new innards in them under warranty, literally a week before the warranty ran out. They have gone on to give great service & still perform beautifully. I had some 09′ Maxle Revs & to be honest, these are smoother.
If the stanchions are good I’d pay the money. As good as a Tora is, its heavy & wont perform as nice as the Rev. Maybe get the lowers re-painted & new decals on while they are stripped.

And, £20 to post a fork…thats a bit steep. Parcel2go.com next time, for no more than about £10 insured.

Has technology moved on enough that ’11 Toras would be equivalent?

The top end Tora’s may be damped as well (as long as you get Motion control damped version not the turn-key [TK] cheap versions), but won’t have any upgrades of the newer Recon’s\Reba\Rev’s, like the power bulge (to stiffen thing up), and are pretty heavy(ish).

So depends on your current fork spec’s.

Comparison wise the Rockshox Recon or newer Sektor forks will be on par with your ‘old’ style Rev’s.

Coil Recon’s @ On one (travel is internally adjustable between 80-120mm, but a tad heavy @ around 2Kg [on-one’s quoted weight is for the non-coil version]) might be a reasonable alternative ..
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FORSREGTK/rockshox-recon-gold-rl-100mm-fork-with-lockout–coil

ummmmm might be a nasty cheap option, but do they really need to replace the stantion’s? Just taken some 05 reba’s apart and they have a small patch of wear on the stantion coating (under the seal), really in the scheme of thing’s I’m gunna replace the seals and live with it…

I would not pay £200 for the repair. Depending on what might have gone wrong with them that will cost £200 to repair You could still shift them somewhere for £50 as spares or repair.

£200 will buy a very nice set of 2009 Revs no problem. Recon is a good fork if a bit heavy. Tora is a good fork but even heavier then Recon plus they now call it Recon Silver if I remember correctly.

Look into Marzocchi 2011 range if You want new. They now offer 3 year no service required warranty. My mate has a 44RLO and the fork works supers smooth and problem free for almost a year now. It is a bit heavy at around 2kg but it’s probably the weight of a coil sprung Recon while being super stiff and a very capable fork. 44 RLO at UK Bike Store plus UK Bike Store is a very good store as well.

One thing You need to consider is if You are heavier or lighter to run a medium spring that is fitted as standard You will need to buy and fit a new spring which will be somewhere around £20-30 as well.

Depending what travel You are after I will be selling my freshly serviced Rebas set at 115mm, fresh oil allround, cleaned and lubed 2 rides ago and You would still have spare change left from Your budget.

Old Z1’s for £140 seems pretty good

£200 did seem a bit steep

£140 for a 10year old fork…. hmmm.

The Z1 might have some retro charm to it and is bombproof as well but I had a Z1 Wedge 130mm before and a MX Comp with similar M arch brace. The brace is held together with the lowers by the pivot bolts and the fork was not the stiffest with a disc brake. Plus I doubt You will get any spares for it now. Don’t think Marzocchi is doing ECC on any of it’s forks now. I had it on my Marathon S and it’s a good system, similar to TST5 but it holds the fork down when compressed at the highest setting unlike TST5. Good for a XC fork, not as much for a FR/AM fork. Plus it was temperamental on some forks.
If You want a fork that do not require much looking after and will still work then seriously consider those 44’s. They have open oil damping again and compared to Fox or RS where You have 15-20ml of oil to lube these have from 50 to 150ml depending on the damping. 3 years warranty is not to be sniffed at as well.

The top end Tora’s may be damped as well (as long as you get Motion control damped version not the turn-key [TK] cheap versions), but won’t have any upgrades of the newer Recon’s\Reba\Rev’s, like the power bulge (to stiffen thing up), and are pretty heavy(ish).

Half right. Newer Toras do have the same lowers (power-bulge, PM, etc) since last year. It’s the uppers that are same as they ever were: steel throughout. There might be a model with an alu steerer but I’m not sure anymore. RS’s new system of naming Toras and Recons is beyond me.

Half right .. Well in my defence, I did look at the Rockshox site, no mention of the power bulge in the description, and the pictures didn’t have the “bulge” you can see on the Reba/Rev/Recon’s/etc

Everytime I go on the RS website I come away believing that all their forks are the same (I swear every fork has the same description and then a never-ending list of ‘options’) 😆

Edit: We were both half wrong/right. Just looked at the RS website and it seems the U-turn ones do still use the older lowers.