My 11 year old nephew got a single speed jump bike for Xmas which came with Dirtjumper 3's on it.Unfortunately they have about zero tuneability and are effectively 6lbs of rigid fork due to his massive 5/6 stone bulk! I could only get around 50/60mm travel from them at 16st.

His mother has allowed him to spend his savings on a new fork which will actually give some travel and i suggested Air forks due to his weight. He is unlikely to do any 'real' jumping on the bike so i have settled on Rockshox Recons which are air and relatively light.

The budget is around £160 and i have found two deals that take advantage of current offers on Wiggle and Merlin. They are:-

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/marzocchi-and-rockshox-suspension-forks/rockshox-suspension-forks/rockshox-recon-xc.html

and

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/RockShox_Recon_Race_OE_2009_Suspension_Forks/5360045719/

Will the OE ones be ok at £170 with the discount or would the Merlin ones at £162 be better as they are non OE. My understanding of OE is that they just don't come with the box etc but are no different to 'normal' ones. I'm inclined to go with Wiggle as they have a lockout and appear a slightly better fork.

Apologies for the long post but the opinions of the STW Massive would be appreciated. Ta

IF the pictures are accurate, and not just representative of a fork that looks vaguely similar to one they are selling, the Wiggle fork appears to have Motion Control damping and a lockout, which is better than the damping fitted to the fork on Merlin.

Either fork would be a vast step in the right direction though for someone of his weight…

How about 2nd hand though? Plenty of easy to tune, 100mm lightish XC forks out there on the 2nd hand market for £100 or so it would seem. A Rockshox Reba would be ideal, but a Revelation or Recon also great. Or possibly something like a Marzocchi MX comp or pro?

At 6st though, pretty much any fork is going to need revalving and a lighter weight oil in it to work effectively. Though it would be undoubtedly better than a Dirt Jumper fork that is designed to be ridden hard off things by big strong guys and not break.

I considered 2nd hand but it seems so hit and miss with the quality you get sometimes. My fork fettling ability is non existant and i'm 80 miles away from my nephew so can't help him too often. Thought i'd play it safe with new ones. Wiggle seem the obvious choice though so far.
EDIT – also needs to be 80-100mm max travel so Revs no good. The cheaper Marzocchi ones seem to be coil forks, not air.

If you can get a light enough coil spring, then coil would be better as they would be more supple initially and wouldn't stiffen up too much towards the mid-end stroke.

Maybe go rigid and get him to learn smooth technique 😉

Steve,

have a look at getting him a very light spring first, have had the same problem with Harry on his, have changed to a lighter spring and also cut down the elastomer damper, fork is now much more useable for him although he still only gets about 70mm of the available 100mm. Give us a call if you want to know more

Mark

Where can i get coil forks that already have lightweight springs? I'd like to just fit and forget and not have to factor in extra cost for a new spring and the labour to get it fixed.
Main thing i need is lighter weight as the bike already weighs 33lbs. The recons should lower that by around 2lbs. The wiggle ofer ends today so i'm still tempted by those. Can't in all reality see him using the bike for much more than kiddie jumps/riding down stairs (it's an urban bike so no off road) etc so as long as the new forks will allow him to feel some suspension travel then they don't need to be anything too special. Was looking at solo air Tora's but they are a fair bit heavier and only £20 cheaper than the recons.

you'd be better off saving weight in the wheels/tyres for a lightweight person, as these will affect the feel of the bike far more than lopping 2lbs off the forks.

if you were to pay full rrp for the forks, some shops will replace springs for lighter ones FOC. Coil spring forks tend to be easy to take apart, so it could be worth trying it yourself if you're willing to help.

oe might have a shorter than stock steerer as they cut them to fit specific bikes to ease assembly, i bought some oe from merlin and they were about 20mm shorter than normal steerer and had a star nut already installed! so that saved me the hassle, forks were pristine and unused though, still going strong 2 years later

Some OE forks have steel steerers but it says these are alloy so hopefully that's right.

Remember to change the damping oil for something more lightweight, I ran 5wt in Tora's and I'm (maybe was) 11st. The stock 7.5wt slowed the fork down too much for me.

How about trying to get hold of some OEM forks from a women's specific bike?

Her indoors has got a Myka with a Tora fork that has a sticker on with something like '302 Femme' written on it.
I don't know about the oil, but it definitely has a 'light' spring in it, as it sags a ton when I stick my 12 stone bulk on it.

Aside from the one sticker, there is nothing to identify it as a 'girls' fork.

Why not fit a set of Society Xeno's?

I thought about the womens specific forks as i know they tend to come with softer springs (GF has a Myka which should have had La Femme forks on it but they'd been taken off). Again though, where do you get hold of them?

If we go for the Recons i won't be changing oil etc, they should be more than good enough for him as standard. Like i've said, main thing is to let him achieve some travel and also lose some weight from the front end. Wheels etc can be changed over time but are too new at this time to justify changing.

As for the Society Xeno's – don't they tend to be bolt thru and i'd think they would be almost as stiff as the DJ's as they are a specific jump fork?

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

Have a set of 100mm on my jump bike, they are 20mm or 9mm bolt through compaible and easily tunable. Good enough for these boys Kev and Yanto then plenty good for me!

Link possibly not work safe, due to language.

Society are the right 'image' and price range but are still coil so i don't think they'll give enough travel for a 5.5st child without chaging the spring which will involve more expense. the guys in the video are adults who'll weigh 11st+.

Think i've settled on the Recon Race from Wiggle at £170 after the £20 discount.

the Dirt Jumpers will have an adjustable air preload on them, try letting out all of the pressure from each leg and see how he gets on then. If I run anywhere near the recommended air pressure preload in my forks then they are incredibly stiff, let out all the air and I can push them almost right through the travel.

May be worth a go leaving money available to replace stuff when he breaks it etc!!

I spoke to Windwave who import Marzocchi as a first port of call to see if i could get a lighter spring for the DJ3's but was told it couldn't be done. The DJ3's don't have air preload, only a allen key adjust one which did nothing at all when me and a mate tried to soften them up.

Just ordering the Recon's now as been given the go ahead from his mother. Thanks for all the help everyone.