Magura Durin
Price: £499
From: Magura UK
Tested: 12 months
Looking around at the number of dedicated XC forks you’d be forgiven for thinking fork manufacturers had decided that the market was dead and that we all need 160mm forks on all our bikes. Admittedly the need for 80mm forks isn’t what it was so it’s nice when someone, in this case Magura, comes along and makes one. And does a good job of it too.
Available in 80mm or 100mm travel and weighing 1450g and 1500g respectively the Durin is a flyweight contender. But thanks to its double braces it can step up a class. An XC fork that isn’t flexy – I know it’s a novel idea, but it works. In the 80mm guise I tested, the fork was easily as stiff as some 130mm forks I’ve ridden. This stiffness means that although only 80mm of travel was on offer I felt confident of hitting obstacles at speed and knowing the bike would still be going in the direction I wanted and not deflected off somewhere else. The Double Arch Design also looks really good, and the graphics make it look like a proper ‘factory racing’ unit, which I love.
Should you want them there is a bar-mounted lever (included) for locking out the fork although I’ve got to say I’ve never seen the point of locking out 80mm of travel. Losing the lever saves weight – after all they are XC forks. Saying that, the lever is a massive improvement over last year’s.
There is a canti boss version available but should you want to run discs you can run anything up to 210mm discs on these XC forks. I love the German sense of humour.
Overall: Light, stiff, good looks. An XC fork for a new generation.
Sim
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