I’m looking at entering the world of 29ers and one of my options is the Merida Big Nine TFS 900 (though I’m already put off by such a lengthy name!). It comes with a “Manitou 29 Tower LTD air remote” fork. Unfortunately I do not know anything about this fork, it doesn’t appear on Manitou’s website and I cannot find a review:(

I appreciate it is at the budget end of the spectrum but I’m hoping it isn’t a 2.5kg flexy waste of space. Does anyone have knowledge of this fork.

Cheers.

A selfish *bump*….

I had the 29er Tower pro’s in 80mm flavour on my Scandal and thought they were fantastic. Really nice feel to them, lovely and plush and plenty stiff enough for xc use.
I’ll certainly be looking at Manitous when I built up my next project, I really was impressed with them.

I used Manitou Tower Pro forks when I built my 29er two years ago.
This was when the choice of 29ers was relatively limited and I couldn’t find one with the spec that I wanted, so I bought the cheapest bike in the Trek range (Marlin with gears) and upgraded most of the components.
Absolutely love it – the forks haven’t missed a beat, and a friend has them on his singlespeed Marlin too.
Definitely recommend them.

I remember seeing a lot of Manitous around about 10-12 years ago (back when Bombers were still the fork to have), haven’t really seen of heard of them in donkeys!! I have a feeling they either went a bit pants with a different factory, or just couldn’t keep up with the progression of the other brands. I’m really not sure what they’re like now though.

Yeah back in the day they used to be pretty good, as good as suss forks were back then any way. But then they went off the boil and never really recovered, in this country at least. They don’t seem to get much marketing over here, not sure what it’s like in the US, but they seem to have a decent range so you’d reckon they can’t be that bad.

They might not be as good as Fox but they are a lot cheaper. I’m thinking of giving them a go for my Inbred 29er. Either them or X fusions but they don’t seem to be too readily available in this country either!

Thanks chaps! Back in the day I had a set of Mach 5’s… nice considering elastomers! But like others I’ve neither seen nor heard of Manitou since! Good to hear the Pros are rated but on their website they list a 26″ Comp but it comes in at a portly 2.5kg. I know their budget but the rockshox equivalent comes in a fair bit lighter.

Currently running 120 Minute Pro with 20mm bolt through on my hardtail. Great fork, simple reliable and stiff. Performance has been good with no issues to report. I had them serviced after a year of use by TFTuned and they said they were in great condition inside. With our weather over the past year or so (crap) I was happy with that.

I am surprised more people don’t run them to be honest.

Manitou emailed me a reply…

For 2013 the Tower LTD is the new name for the Tower Expert located on our website here. http://www.manitoumtb.com/index.php?page=fork&fork=Tower&discipline=all

Our website just has not been updated.
Thanks for the replies.

I have some tower pros, work well, far better than the sid rct3 I had before. Not updating their website doesn’t really help I mean it doesn’t mention that the Tower can come with qr15 now, a lot of people would be put off seeing just qr only. Take about 2 mins to update that page

They have good damping from what I’ve heard, apparently the TPC system is very similar to what you get in MX.

I had some Splice on my old Orange Evo4 and they were very good for a budget fork, nice and smooth.

From memory they went off the boil 4 to 5 years ago, got in to financial difficulty and were bought out. Not seen much from them since then.

Shame as they were the forks to have (along with RS and Pace) when the whole suss thing kicked off in the early 90’s.

got a Tower Pro 120mm with QR15

simply brilliant and comes will excellent customer support

I have two Reba 29ers I would swap for 100mm Tower Pro QR15’s if I had the dosh

we’ve got 3 sets 2x 100mm 1x 120mm all bolt through , for the money they’re brilliant and trouble free after over 2 years of regular use.Very smooth and the damping is great.