Have a friend who is a non serious mountain biker, I tend to tweek his bike now and then and whenever something needs replacing its always reliability and long term than flashy or light. He looks after his bike but not to the level someone passionate might.

His 100mm magura forks have packed up after maybe 10 years and an unknown but huge amount of miles on and off road and need replacing.

First thing that springs to mind is a pair of marzocchi open bath forks, only ones I know of are 2000 era mx style.

Any others?

X-Fusion Velvets can be picked up in all sorts of flavours for cheap, I sold a mint pair for £155 posted.

They really are a great set of sturdy reliable plush to a degree forks, not quite Bos but still bloody good forks.

£400 rrp or £250 new or thereabouts if you shop around in the sales.

Are they an open bath design? I think that design makes the most sense due to huge (if any) maintenance periods

Always good to factor in the price of a service too, even if the seller claims it’s been done recently.

the marzocchi mx pros would be a good choice but it would depend on whether his frame would allow for a fork with more travel.
if he can then the Z1 wedge or z1 drop off are worth looking at…if you can find one that is
the drop off use the eta cartridge which s handy for climbing but the wedge has very simple internals and i’m pretty sure you can reduce the amount of travel down from 130mm

hes running a merlin malt 2 from years back, the gold one.

I have a blue malt 2 and i’m pretty sure 110 would be the limit but 100 would suit it better.

thought about some dirt jumpers but would have concerns over the chrome stanchion coating as have a pair of old mxc’s with the same coat that are in quite poor condition compared to the gold colored ones of the past.

Had some drop offs with the eta and they were a nice fork, i think though anything with an air cartridge is out as he has no shock pump and coil is longer lasting and more ‘reliable’

have a look at these OP
http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1772335/

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1812199/

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1812199/

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1663157/….are you selling these?

yes the last ones were mine, long since gone. should mark them as sold actually.

The air sprung zocchis look good if a little pricey and also being air, thanks for looking those out, might make some enquiries into the air ones though.