I’m keen to get our old Dawes ready for some gentle offroading, can’t decide to go for Marzocchi DJ1 or DJ3 – DJ1 has aluminium steerer and 20mm axle whereas DJ3 has steel steerer and qr axle, we are 24 stone and will be bimbling rather than getting airborne – any advice or other options to consider.

Old pair of dual crowns ? Boxxers, 888’s?

Magura Boltron :).

Wouldn’t the dual crowns have too much travel?

Maguras are £999 and not available in 26″

I wouldn’t get too hung up on “26 inch” forks – it’s more about axle to crown as 27.5″ forks will accept 26″ tyres.

Plus, it’s an upside-down fork… But probably the frame won’t easily take a tapered steerer either.

Yup gotta be straight steerer and 26″ likely to have shorter axle to crown too

Probably unwise but I think I may just try an old set of Reba forks and set the travel down to 85mm to see how we get on – existing a/c is only 410mm…

i’m selling this…

might be a good option
https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/2140337/

e150 fork with Wheel.. pretty sturdy…..

At 24 stone I’d be worried about

a) fork twang
and
b) air pressures: https://rockshox.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205650058-Do-RockShox-forks-have-a-rider-weight-limit-

also rotor size limits or does it have rim brakes?

Second hand old set of double crown and tune down to shorter travel?

We have DJ1s on our Cannondale tandem. I think the 20mm axle is worth it, otherwise there’s not much to choose between them. Our tandem came with a rigid QR fork, which was OK actually. It handled nicely, and the slackening off with the DJ1 is noticable, but doesn’t really affect the handling all that much. If you change to a 20mm axle fork, does that mean a new front wheel? Maybe that would help you decide.

For our tandem (many years old now, not ridded for AAAGES) I went for some Marz DJ1s, and got a steel steerer put in.

SHort travel, strong, and dual chamber air cylinders.

They’re a good bet..

DrP

Richard & Dp – thanks for the input, looks like the DJ1 is the one to go for

I’ve got some White Brothers tandem forks for sale, triple clamp, 20mm axle, I believe the only forks actually guaranteed for tandem use. Not using them anymore, and had probably 200 miles in total. Look like new. £85 plus postage?

MRP do one. But I would opt for 20mm boltthru for obvious reasons.

We have a DJ of ancient vintage on our hard tail tandem and it’s worked pretty well. Not a patch on the Stratos on the FS Ventana but that’s a whole different ballgame.

Schmiken – not much detail on those online, can you email me some details – email in profile – travel, A to C, steerer length etc

Yeah, will email over a load of photos tonight. They’ve just come off my Ventana El Conquistador.

Dicky…you local to the success coast at all?? You can give or forks a try??

DrP

DrP – Sussex? Coast – born in Brighton but no longer local 😕

DJ1 used to be the go to fork. Windwave used to press out the alloy steerer and put a steel one in for you.
alcapones offer is a good one tho. They would do you nicely

We ran our cannondale hardtail tandem on a DJ1 with a steel steerer for a few years ( Bit of a mix and match job with two hard springs and air caps), now running a ‘zochhi z1 lite that I also had windwave fit a steel steerer to. This does lift the front of the bike very high but I don’t really notice the handling effects just not being able to get a foot down.

I wouldn’t like to run a tandem on an XC fork. The new moustache tandem runs a yaris but I don’t know if its modified.. Under heavy braking even with the Z1s you can see the fork bend back to the BB by an inch or two. Its scary amounts of forces.

As for weight – before we went on a two week tour of the Hebrides we stood on a weighbridge with the fully loaded tandem and trailer. Well over 200Kg total :-).