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Hi all
Just got my mitts on a new (to me) Ventana El Capitan and need some forks to go with it.
I don't want to/can't afford the Fox 34's that are coming out and am looking at either Manitou Tower Pro's or Marzocchi 44 TST2 Air's.
Both are around the £350 mark which is close to budget & both have some form of through axle set up. The Marzocchi's are heavier than the Minutes but the Minutes are a PITA to service & get parts for as i would need to install a X-Firm spring from the word go which means sending them off to TFT for them to do.
I'm currently running some Minutes on my Paradox at 100mm & do really like them especially given the cost (or lack of) but am tempted by the fact that my LBS can work on the Marzocchi's as & when needed.
So really what i want to know is. Has anyone out there used both at 120mm? Which did you prefer & why?
In short i need some feedback .
Cheers 🙂
Check out the on-one site, some lovely 29er forks on there cheap
fox 34s are tapered only anyway, so I don't think would fit?
Not really helping with your question, but may i offer an alternative?
As a fellow el cap owner, *waves*, :D, I have been super impressed with the performance of the rear on my el cap, but not so much on the 120mm reba's at the front. Looked really hard at modding a pair of second hand fox 36 (talas or float).
have you considered that? only issue I had was finding a second hand pair with a long enough steerer.
Kev
George - They only seem to be QR & I'm only really interested in bot through. Cheers anyway though.
bsn - *waves back* to be honest I'm not confident in my mechanical skills to start butchering a set of forks about so need something off the shelf. My main concern with the Marzocchi's was, with them only going up to 60psi, that they would perform for someone at my weight. I have spoken to Windwave & they assure me they will work well so I'm going to take the plunge with a set of them.
I'll report back if anyone's interested 😕
would be good to know!
As for the modding thing, it is not exactly off the shelf:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=563151
but it is attractive. 36 legs, 140mm travel (talas if you want) + 1 1/8th steerer. Hmmmm.
I was [b][i]this[/b][/i] close to buying a set of new 36 floats of ebay and sending them to this guy for modding. But then sense prevailed and realised I could build a whole bike for that money, so I'm doing that instead 😀
Marzocchi's should be good. my mate has a pair of the big ones for his 26er (66s?), and he is about 110kg and they perform great for him.
Good luck! Enjoy the el cap, as ton says, it is just a wonderful bike.
Kev
Kev
I'm a bit late to the party here but I'm running 2010 manitou minute 29er 120mm on my chumba HX2. According to manitou they're identical to the tower pro internally. I also had to go straight for the x-firm ride kit/spring and it was a PITA getting one at first. I contacted manitou USA directly and they gave me the part number and told me they had plenty in stock but I had to go through hotlines. Hotlines kept me waiting 3 months! I found a stiffer compatible spring from a local supplier to start with and then after 2 months complained to manitou USA they agreed to supply me one directly, that took less than a week to arrive and cost $12USD plus $10USD shipping. I bought a firm and an x-firm just in case and both springs including postage almost cost less than what one retails for here. After checkng recently I think most of the ride kit options are now in stock in the UK.
Anyway, moaning aside...the x-firm spring really transforms this fork for the hefty rider (I'm about 250lbs.... of pure muscle 🙂 ). They are super plush...I run mine at about 90psi and at around 3-4 clicks on the absolute+ damper. Changing the spring is quite simple, if you're careful you can do it without losing any oil and the red grease that the stock spring is smeared with can be wiped off and transferred to the new one if you keep everything clean. I did mine on the kitchen counter (the wife was very impressed). If you remove the lowers with the forks laying horizontal and put some tape over the holes on the bottom you can stand them upright once they've been removed and not lose any of the bath oil.
I was also looking at the TST2s but after extensive reading up on the 2010 models the manitous seemed like a better option for me. The 2010 TST2 seemed to be more suntour than marzocchi from what I read. The 2011s might be better though.
big_scot, do you still have your HX2? I was hoping to buy ton's el cap but a recent house purchase has left me flat broke...
Aye, still got it, though it's now got my old minutes on it and I need to get that x-firm ride kit. Reba is now on the el cap.
Kev