I currently run a coil Revelation on my Cotic hardtail with 85-130mm adjust, I tend to find I use 100mm most of the time and occasionally put it out to 110-120mm for steep/long descents, very rarely used all 130mm and this got me to thinking about what would be my ideal fork(not what’s currently on the market or what has been shown so far for 2010).

I’ve had air & coil Fox’s in the past and been happy with them but the price of them now is prohibitive and on the bang for your buck then I don’t think the Revs can be beaten.

A lot of what I’m seeing seems to be aimed at either 140mm or 100mm with not much inbetween, certainly not many that tick the boxes below.

I’d prefer them to be:

Air sprung with compression & rebound tuning
80-120mm adjustable with 5mm increments
15mm QR
Not ‘too’ long an axle to crown height, not very specific here but you get the general gist of what I mean
Oh and no more than 4 lb in weight
To be from one of the big three (Fox, Rockshox or Marzocchi) although I’m hearing good things about Magura. Rockshox do tend to be more fairly priced so have a slight preference towards them rather than Fox who cost more and cost more to maintain as well.

All IMHO of course.

There may be some out there that tick all these boxes that I’ve missed but I haven’t seen any so far. Do you know of any that do?

What would your ideal be?

And before you ask if I work for a fork manufacturer just wanting cheap market feedback, no I don’t, wish I did and then I could try out loads!

Cheers

Dan 🙂

I have a Soda with air Revelation, 100-130mm travel, although I keep it wound out all the time at 130mm. I’m keen to switch to something bolt through, as on cambers and some roots you can really see the deflection as the wheel takes the path of least resistance (sometimes throwing me off in the process).
But as you pointed out, there’s a real gap in the 100-130mm market this year, with Revs moving up to 140mm and most other similar forks also headed that way.
For your needs, I reckon a new Reba might do the trick – one of them comes with bolt through option(?) and 100-120mm travel, I think. For me, the Magura Thor (140mm, 20mm axle) or Revelations, either of them wound in to 130mm. But they’re hideously expensive this year, so I’ll probably be waiting until there are more secondhand ones going…

I want a 20mm coil Revelation with a shimmed damper that is user serviceable/adjustable.

Strong light and cheap!

20 mm bolt up axle a must. Open bath damping so you get decent lubrication of the internals and can adjust spring rates / ramp up by altering oil levels, coil with air preload for maximum adjustability

I want something decent for no more than £250. Current fork prices are taking the ps. I don’t mind people discussing my bike and saying you could have bought a car for that but when they’re saying it about just the fork that’s getting a bit much!

I’ve had air & coil Fox’s in the past and been happy with them but the price of them now is prohibitive and on the bang for your buck then I don’t think the Revs can be beaten.

There’s only about a 10% difference between them at street price (merlin vs stif).don’t understand why people think this.

TJ, that sounds like a Bomber with the weight of a Fox and the price tag of Suntour. 🙂

454 Coil Pikes on the Soul I’m riding.
The stiffness of the front really shows up the flex in the frame, but in a good way…
Came down a really difficult descent last night, loose pebbles / rocks, big roots & some bloody awful off camber 12″-18″ drops. First time down this little run on the Soul, (usually on an Enduro).
Once again the Pike fork & Pro2 hub saved my ass, but I was impressed with the Soul chassis. I was ready to bail out but it just went exactly where I pointed it.

Crag – thats about right! I have a couple of sets of Bombers

Air sprung with compression & rebound tuning
80-120mm adjustable with 5mm increments
15mm QR
Not ‘too’ long an axle to crown height, not very specific here but you get the general gist of what I mean
Oh and no more than 4 lb in weight
To be from one of the big three (Fox, Rockshox or Marzocchi) although I’m hearing good things about Magura. Rockshox do tend to be more fairly priced so have a slight preference towards them rather than Fox who cost more and cost more to maintain as well.

’09 Reba?
http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=1500&categoryId=18

About as close as you’re going to get, save for 20mm of adjustment and 5mm thicker axle.

I just bought some of these set at 120mm, they can be changed to 100mm by changing spacers.

Thought the price of £399 was pretty good

Just need a frame to put them on now 😕

A 180mm Fox RLC single crown would be nice.

A 150mm pike fork(maybe air for tweakability) would be nice to match the rear travel on the pitch .
Love 20mm maxle for strength and simplicity .

I’d like an updated Girvin fork with a floating brake mount.

Tried the Look Fournales but it had a poor shock and the geometry was wrong.

I’d like a pike, but with maverick style travel adjust – preferably bar mounted. U-turn is great, but I only realy use 2 or 3 lengths so it’d be nice to be able to adjust the “set travels” of your fork and then have a bar mounted lever to switch between them.

Other than that, 20mm maxle is nice, direct post mounts for 8″ rotor would be good too, as would a decent hose guide (unlike the bomber ones which can make your hose rub on the stanchions).

same again really, 130mm 20mm bolt through, not too expensive…

what i want is an 08 manitou minute MDR…

I think the ’09 Reba is as close as you’re going to get (120mm travel, Maxl light, assorted bells and whistles, about 3.6lb), but you don’t get the travel adjust.

Must admit to wanting one for my Soda, but I’d rather have 130mm travel…

Old (New) Marzocchi Marathon pre 2005 simplicity and longevity, 120mm Travel, 15mm bolt through, a ‘one drop’ travel reduction for long climbs (like lock down) to 80mm odd.

Designed for home service and replace parts rather than chuck away, reliable and simple damping, open bath/lots of sloshing oil.

I want something as supple, tough and low maintenance as my 2004 Z1 FRs, but with a lower a-c and a Maxle instead of the QR20. A pound lighter would be nice too.

Dream on.