Sea Otter: Magura

The cold, snowy winter in the Swabian Alps has kept Magura’s engineers busy and producing more products, new graphics and all sorts of stuff.

Starting first with the new 2011 Magura Durin fork. It features new internals, which includes higher compression damping (the only thing we could fault their 2010 forks on) to stop the fork being too linear or divey on repeated hits or on slow, technical step downs. This also has the benefit of letting you run lower pressures for greater sensitivity. It also has a smaller air chamber than before, giving a bit more ramp-up at the end of the stroke.

The new Durin will come in 80, 100 and 120mm lengths and will appear late in 2010.

Now on to Magura’s venerable rim brakes. The HS33 has been THE trials brake for years, but it’s also been a great brake for touring bikes, road tandems and anything that needs a powerful rim brake. The new HS33 features a two or four finger lever, a split clamp for flip/flop brake swapping and easy installation, a pad wear adjustment and an easy-bleed system. You can also get different colours to match your bike.

And now on to disc brakes. The Marta used to be Magura’s superlight XC brake, but ended up being used by everyone from weight-weenies to downhillers. It’s Freeride Lite – in that it’s light, but you can also use it for freeriding. The new Marta FR, below, comes in this smart scruffed-up ‘grunge green’ look, with white hoses and with the new Storm SL (super light) rotor with either 203 or 180mm diameter.

Oh, and finally, there’s something big (and secret) that Magura is planning and they would only tell us to watch this countdown…

For all our Sea Otter coverage – check our Sea Otter New Page