So having totalled my Pikes on a 2m barrier (see other thread!) I will need to replace them. Trying to get some advantage out of the whole annoying debacle I could:
1) Get another set of DPA Pikes: advantage = weight, like the travel adjust but could do without it, know what I’m getting. Disadvantage: not convinced by small bump sensitivity but otherwise they are great (or were!)
2) BOS Deville – advantage ??smoother, better sensitivity. Disadvantage cost, after sales, ??not as easy to stiffen up for long climbs (or adjust travel)
3) Marzocchi – the 350s do look lovely, the NCR seems comparable to Pike but with a remote lockout, the Ti version looks like it would rock but is 300g heavier than the Pikes. Other disadvantage will the company still exist in a few years…??

Any opinions, especially based on experience, would be welcome. O and apologies in advance for the ‘it’s been covered before’ angle but I can’t seem to get much info on the Marzocchi’s.
Cheers!

You forgot the Manitou Mattocs, MRP Stages and DVO Diamnonds as well. I’m sure they’re all decent but I wouldn’t touch Marzocchi. I prefer my Mattocs to the Pikes on another bike.

Years ago now but my first ever forks were Manitou and the inners got wet if they just looked at a puddle.

pikes again I reckon. They seem to be the no brainer option when taking into account price, reliability, serviceability, performance, weight.

devilles – heavier than pikes,more expensive than pikes and patchier reliability, for what is most likely a really marginal damping improvement.

Marzocchi – heavier than the pikes, questionable medium/long term manufacturer support.

What about fox 34/36 or new lyrics? even then I’d probably choose the pikes, boring as they are, but they do seem to have nailed the sweet spot for price,performance, reliability, service & support.

Are your forks totalled? Looked like a new CSU might be enough to me, if you can get the damper and spring out undamaged

Pike solo air, better sensitivity and adjustability of air spring volume.
or Fox 36 float rc2, stiffer, and performance is amazing, also decent backup.
Left field options MRP stage, good.
We can supply all of these 😉 along with the others mentioned above.

Have used pikes, xfusion & currently have 36 floats (which I love)

honourablegeorge I took forks to LBS who rang SRAM and were told to replace and not repair. Loco I will give you a ring! I have custom bottomless tokens for the DPA Pikes which worked very well. Still waiting for insurance to get back to me to confirm I can go ahead and spend…!
Back to Loco again: do you agree that two decent sized dents in the insider stanchions is a replacement job or could you consider repairing these?? On the LHS the dent is about 2mm deep and on RHS about 5mm deep. They don’t look twisted but given the forces involved I guess this would be possible and would presumably then cause uneven wear even if they were mended.

The Marzocchis are several hundred quid off on CRC by the way…

…and also an amazing fork

I sold my Pike solo air rct3’s and bought some 350ncr. There’s virtually nothing between them on the trail with the Pikes being slightly more sensitive to smaller bumps & trail debris but the 350’s having the edge on fast down hill with medium square edge repeated hits. I went from 55rc3ti to Pikes and started getting arm pump – somethings I haven’t had for years (had Bos Deville before the 55’s), so decided to back to Marzocchi. Hey presto no more arm pump. I would buy Bos again I there was any assurance of decent after sales care if they go wrong; the combination of performance, weight, sensitivity at all speeds is awesome; it just takes forever to get sorted if they go wrong.

mildred how do you find the remote lockout? I really like the look of these forks, and at £100 or more cheaper than Pikes I’m very tempted!

Well it may be a bad decision but I’m thinking it’s going to be the 350’s unless I get given a good reason not to…

Beware creaking csu’s on the 350’s. I’ve a set of NCR airs and they started creaking after a few weeks, Windwave were brilliant as always and replaced the uppers, unfortunately the new ones started creaking after a weeks too.
It’s a shame as they work really well and are as plush and controlled as my old 55 rc3 ti’s (which also creaked as did my fox 36 before them).
I’m on pikes now and am happy with them so far but am half expecting them to start creaking at some point (think I may be jinxed)

Goddamn stop confusing me!

mildred how do you find the remote lockout? I really like the look of these forks, and at £100 or more cheaper than Pikes I’m very tempted!

I tried it but removed it. The fork is very controlled/composed so unless you’re up and out the saddle honking up a hill it’s unnecessary. It also clogs the handlebars up. You can actually convert them to manual lockout instead of using the remote.

If they weren’t potentially going under it would be an easy decision….

Here’s what I received from Windwave when I asked the question (who, as mentioned above, are brilliant to deal with):

Marzocchi MTB aren’t closing down, although Tenneco – company that owns Marzocchi currently – is looking to sell. What’s closed is Marzocchi Moto – their motorcycle division and the Bologna factory along with it. The MTB forks have been assembled in Taiwan for a while now so this closure will not affect the MTB business.

The model year 2016 is going ahead with full-steam and spare parts will continue to be available.

For now, we’re still the distributor and the service centre for the UK. What the new owners – whoever they turn out to be – decide to do with the distributorship is up to them.

I hope this clarifies the situation for you.

Based on my towers I’d happi!y get the manitou mattocs if you want to keep the price down,

I am going with a set of MRP Stage for my new build. Second option would be DVO Diamonds.

What weight are you OP? I bought some 350 NCR Ti forks when they were cheap at Merlin (£475!)and they are very nice indeed – but I’m 11.5 stone tops and they are only just about soft enough on the spring rate.

2016 Lyriks…

or Mattocs – as they are brilliantly damped.

I’m only 10 stone so the ti forks might not be the best option, although I did use 2 tokens with my Pikes as I like to ride fairly hard and get airborne where possible. Still torn between the 350 NCRs and just getting another set of DPA Pikes.

Just looking at Manitou Mattocks – looks like they didn’t bother to include a cable holder clip thing which I think I would find extremely annoying…!

I bought a set of 350 NCRs about a month ago and from the off they didn’t feel amazing. A lot of stiction. After a couple of rides so maybe 3-4 hours I had very light lines appearing on the stanchionsand the left seal was slowly weeping. After hearing of others having issues with bushings being to tight I decided to send them back, lines on the stanchions this early doesn’t sound good. A week of so later I got them back with nothing done to them. Apparently the marks on the stanchions are very light and as such shouldn’t affect performance? How do they think they got there though? Anyways still didn’t feel great and the seal still weeped so sent them back for a refund. Pretty annoyed really as it was a thought about a lot before I bought them.

Anyways after considering the Sweep roughcut but not really finding much info on that damper yet I went for my original second choice of the Manitou Mattoc pro. Only one 1 brief ride so far but they seem excellent. I had the air pressure a little high initially but still better than the Lyrik I had before. The high speed compression feels quite a jump up from the lyrik on square edge type hits. Small bump sensitivity seems good although that should improve with more riding and tweaking. I have them on a 26″ Covert with a CCDBA CS and they feel good together. Still lots more playing to be down with them but initial impressions were excellent. I think I was worried about stiffness initially which pushed me towards the 350 but the for a normal person the Mattoc felt fine in that regard last night, I guess it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers though when you don’t have the chance to test ride them first.

A few things the mattoc has over the 350;

User serviceable, the Marzocchi can’t even have its legs dropped at home without officially voiding the warranty and DBC cartridge is meant to be hard to bleed and work with.

For us old school people on 26 the mattoc can be converted and even has the spacers and internal damper parts to do it included in the box.

They also have a few 2016 upgrade kits on the way. Top caps with air bleed valve things for pressure bold up on uplift days and a new IVA (infinite volume adjust) where you can have 2 positive air chambers allowing you the ability to run different pressures for the mid stroke independent the beginning stroke for super sensitivity and also strong mid support. Sound alike the holy grail for a lot of people who go on about mid stroke and riding high in travel.

Hydraulic bottom out, pretty awesome tuning tool.

Wow what an essay! A final mention goes to TF tuned who price matched (or rather came very close) and offered excellent advice and service.

So johnnyboy666 – do the Mattocks have a cable guide for the front brake or is it a cable tie job? Minor issue but it would bug me I think!

They have 2 cable guides on the back. One on the back of the reverse arch and one on the back of the lower . The cable routing isn’t quite as neat as other forks but has worked out quite well on mine.

andylc if you give me your email address I can send you a photo of mine.

Thanks for that – just wanted to know that they actually bothered to include a cable guide! If I’m honest I think I’ve gone in a circle and come back to DPA Pikes!

Well Im getting a refund for my Pikes, after they went wrong with a csu creak/crack

now im more confused than ever as to what to get…

36’s cost the earth…
DVOs are pretty interesting/appealing, but i dont know why
MRP
MARZ
MANs

1st world problems hey…

Well after much musing I went for the boring option of Solo Air Pikes. Was put off Manitous, Bos and Marz because of potentially poor aftercare and parts availability. I nearly went with 36’s but they were not available at the moment in Fit4, + stupid expensive.