I'm a bit out of touch, looking to sell my Fox Float RL 140mm's and get a similar travel fork but with lock-down feature like the old ETA on Marzocchi's...
Any other systems out there (recent/current/older) for on the fly travel drop?? Any fork recommendations??
Cheers guys!
Pace RC41
New dt forks have something called launch control, so turn the dial, compress the fork and it stays down until you hit a decent sized bump then it pops back up again. You can also choose the size of the bump needed.
2nd hand - Pace
New - DT Swiss
too slow!
None (recommendation wise), cause the ETA system was flawed, made the front end too low and steepened the seat angle too much (I assume).... felt like you were pushing the bike into the ground.
Go try a set of Rockshox with U-turn and poploc, much better systems, I only use 5-10mm of the U-turn travel most of the time (on reba's & rev's) and the poploc will still allow suspension work if you do hit something 'big' whilst locked out.
I really liked ETA for climbing - shows that what's right for one isn't for another..
ETA was perfect for when you actually needed a locked fork - steep, smoother climbs where the change in ride height / riding position was an advantage. I don't see the point of forks locking out at full length and rarely use Motion Control lockouts.
The new DT twinshot forks also lock down, they have a 2-stage lock either rigid or with some travel left like the ETA, i like that aspect of them.
I liked the lock down on my RC41's - exactly what you need sometimes on a slack angled bike to help transfer some weight over the front end on steep stuff.
DT Swiss EXC150's here
Bloody brilliant, 150mm fork that climbs like a locked out 80mm fork when required. Also if you have slightly less air than you should there is a little bit of movement before they final fully extend.
Although this could just be mashing the mechanism inside in all honesty.
I also liked the ETA on my Marzocchis. I didn't use it that often, but it did help on steep technical climbs.
I'm running a pair of RS Revelations with Dual Position on them at the moment. DP allows you to take about 20mm off the travel in the same manner as the ETA. The forks remain active and very pleasant to ride, just shorter. The DP switch is a dial on top of the left hand leg, pretty much the same as the ETA dial. I can't be doing with handlebar mounted levery things.
The only catch I can see is that I'd ideally like to drop them down 15mm to 125mm travel (I'm using them on a Five, and 140mm is overkill in the Surrey Hills - for my sort of riding, anyway). I can do it quite easily with a Pac Man spacer, but I'd lose the DP function.
RS with DP will likely be cheaper than DT Swiss by a good wide margin, too.
ETA was ace, I loved it.
If you like the fox's how about a set of Talas, you can lower/raise them on the fly.
DT Swiss EXM150s here, quite plush, not particularly stiff, 200 hour service intervals, seem to be well made and well finished and have been relaible for the last 12 months, and launch control is very useful for climbing.
Rockshox now do Revs with dual-position; so, a 150mm fork with a 30mm drop actuated by a crown mounted lever. If I was buying I'd buy these.
DT Swiss EXC150's hereBloody brilliant, 150mm fork that climbs like a locked out 80mm fork when required. Also if you have slightly less air than you should there is a little bit of movement before they final fully extend.
Love this feature on mine, hit the control and don't even notice as it does its thing on the first bump.
Unfortunately mine are now with Pace looking at a new CSU 
due to me not following the service schedule.
DT Swiss EXM150s here, quite plush, not particularly stiff,
are the mag ones really that less stiff than the carbon? Carbon version is nice and stiff (not quite as good as my old 36's but you wouldn't expect it to be)
I have got no idea how many hours mine have been going for, but they still feel lush! So smooth and just work.
I did have them pumped v. v. v. high at one point and that did stop the lockout feature working properly.... Solved by running lower pressures.
Think you need to turn the unlock threshold up to sort that.
I didn't think I was over 200 hours (2 1/2 years old though with no service), however noticed that oil was coating the right hand leg after every ride. Decided it was service time so took them off the bike and cleaned them up. Found a spot mark on the back of the right hand stanchion with scratch above and below it. Its half way up the stanchion though so thinking something got trapped in the seal more than any other problem.
My old Manipoo Shermans had a sort of lockdown that removed the softest 2" travel (of 5") but was only controllable from the top cap. The number of times I rode into DH sections with them locked down, no way to unlock them without stopping, and ended up with numb hands - I never learnt!
Those were forks I hated, so a big fat un-recommend for old Manitous.
I have this ("launch control" - the old Pace system) on DT Swiss XMC130 and absolutely love it. Yes it lowers the front and alters the angles - that's exactly what I want for climbing/road riding. Then for descents or flat off road riding, open it back up for a slacker angle. In my case the fork is officially "too" long for the frame so this suits it perfectly.
Still using ETA. ETA makes perfect sense if you like steep climbs followed by steeper descents and have forks an inch longer than normal on your bike. Fox TALAS used to give the extra benefit of a middle setting for more flowing trails plus active travel on all three settings however they seem to have dropped the middle setting for this year :confused:
Maverick SC32/DUC32 forks both have a control on the right leg that drops 50mm off the travel & firms up the damping in one quick action - ace for climbing.
On balance, its better to have a fork that locks lower down its travel than at the top. Although I never ETA, I think its better than the lock-out-at-full-travel forks.
Thats why I still run a set of Manipoo Nixons with IT. 
Try German A I rode one of their prototypes a couple of weeks ago where you could drop the travel you could actually do it in any increment so drop 10mm or even almost all the travel if keen, was easy to pack the bike in my tiny car
I have recently put a pair of 2004 vintage Marz Z1 FR SLs on the front of my Ragley Blue Pig replacing a set of RS Pike Air 454.
They have the ECC system which is the same as ETA but for the Air forks.
With them at full extension, it's hoon central, everything feels spot on in terms of angles. Shame they aren't 15 or 20mm bolt-thru, but there we go.
Lock them down and the slack head angle steepens right up to something more "normal" and the seat angle goes from being quite steep to really steep. You can literally get up anything your legs allow you to.
Feels like cheating!
I used these forks on the front of a Dialled Prince Albert too, and they were great doing daft long steep road climbs in Lake Garda.
Cheers guys. All very helpful. Some sort of lock-down is deffo the way to go, I've had ECC before but would prefer some travel still, rather than fully locked, as a bit of travel still helps on the steep climbs!
Rockshox now do Revs with dual-position; so, a 150mm fork with a 30mm drop actuated by a crown mounted lever. If I was buying I'd buy these.
is this like the 2-step found on Lyriks? if so, is it reliable?
i used to find the 2-step on my Lyrik was brilliant for long climbs. that was until it went wrong (twice) and i swapped out the air gubbins for a coil. now climb most stuff with 160mm travel on a DB Alpine or, if it's a long climb, ghetto it with a strap to compress the fork. does mean responsiveness is next to zero but for long fireroad climbs it's fine.
The old Pace system was great - bought the forks with the first Soul I had, back when Cy sold them with the frames. Kinda wish I'd never sold the forks...
I found ETA dropped the front end slightly too much and, since it didn't really move when locked down, wasn't a lot of use on anything rocky.
U-Turn is a pain to wind down and wind back out (you inevitably forget sometimes). Two step struck me as a better idea but was horribly unreliable in it's first incarnation - is reliability sorted now?
Fox Talas is effectively two step (or 3 step on the older forks) but without a remote.
Launch control sounds the best option of all as it auto releases.
Currently riding 44 RC3ti's which have no adjustable travel at all but ride of them is just awesome. Wondering whether to stick the Fox back on for the big climbs out in the Pyrenees next month or just struggle up with the Bombers (which do feel *soooo* good)...
Please become great again Marzocchi and bring back ETA!
My 2004 mx pro eta forks are just fantastic and after many other forks have come and died these are still as good as the day I got them and ETA makes the steepest hills so much easier!
7 years old, serviced once, thousands of peak miles covered, they may be a bit heavy but I think they will outlast me and were only cheap to buy in the first place, I cant believe how much forks are these days and how unreliable they seem to be.
I have MX Comps with ETA, too & was servicing them last night.
You can tune the height of the lock-down by adjusting the fill level in the ETA leg.
And they do still move when locked down.
I agree they are a great fork for us cheap-skates & as long as I don't ride something expensive I should stay satisfied.
Wanna buy a set of Pace RC41s?
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