Looking for some 100mm 29er forks, any bargains out there? Prefer to spend no more than £200, TOras can be had for not much more but seem quite heavy?

Or am i best off scouring the classifieds and ebay????

Tora's are ok but heavy as you've said. At £200 your best bet will be the classifieds as 29er stuff is never very cheap i'm afraid. Wiggle currently have some Reba teams with over 40% off (from full rrp i guess) but they are still around £320. 29ers are still pretty niche outside theis forum so bargains and few and far between. I imported both my forks from the US (both Reba's, one SL the other Team Maxle) which was a fair bit cheaper but the exchange rate is far worse now.

Failing that, there were some RST 29er forks which got reasonable reviews, On One used to sell them but don't think they do anymore. If you are willing to try Manitou then there are some cheaper deals around as well i think (look on ebay) but i have no experience of them and wouldn't buy Manitou anyway (just a personal preference).

Just out of interest MrT, where did you source from in the US? and did they ship at full value or?

Bream,

Used a chap called Larry at Mountain High Cyclery – he shipped with a much lower value stated to help with duty etc. Think he put on a value that covered him to replace the forks at cost if they went walkabout in the post. He was very helpful but you'll have to email him re. price as his website is fairly basic.

the rst m29 forks are surprisingly good for the money.

had my manitou minutes for about 15 months now, they're very nice and supple.

was so impressed i got a 26" version from the states 2 months ago – again, very impressed and relatively cheap, from JensonUSA

hungry monkey.
I'm thinking about getting a Minute 29er 120 but i've read reports of them blowing through the travel very quickly. How you found this on yours?

i'm no expert at all… they feel great, and i've had no real issues with bottoming out. i guess they're pretty linear though. when they've got a bit soft i pump them up… the absolute daming lockouty thing is ok, but past 2 clicks there is little change in effect – fully open has no platform, one click has enough to cancel out most low frequency bob, and 2 clicks is as good as locked out tbh – the 3 others add little if anything. i think this is a known 'problem', although i've never seen it as a problem. similarly the clicking on rebound is another know thing (certainly with 08/09 forks), again only a problem if it really annoys you. lots and lots of info on mtbr about tuning them afaik. i've never bothered.

so yeah, i'd say they are pretty linear compared to the revelation 426s and Z1 FRs i have been using before.

within their class though, they are really light forks. got the 26" ones to drop a bit of weight from my solitude, and they've done a good job of that.

biggest issue with them is the 20mm bolt-thru – which really is bolted on – no QR system. my 29er ones are QR, which are fine, although i would almost be tempted to get the 20mm version for the 120mm 29er forks, as they are a litle flexy compared to the competition i reckon

You do know there's a "fix kit" for the lack of adjustability and noise i take it?
Though you might have already installed this and could tell me what it was like.

The 2010 now has a different damper which is supposed to get rid of all the problems. I just can't find anyone that's riden one…

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=44500

That's the new damper which you can retro fit to older forks.

Be great if you'd fitted it and could tell me if it's less linear. 😆

yeah, knew there was a fix, wasn't aware of that kit though. i'll probably do it when i service the forks, but afraid i've not thus far…