Specialized dual crown fork, where the arch is smack bang in the middle.
The worst of all options. How any self respecting engineer signed that off I'll never know.
Just remembered this…
Sunn did it with the fork on the old Dual too - even Google is struggling to find a decent photo of that though
They do break sometimes.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52465918584_4ff2cbb62e_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52465918584_4ff2cbb62e_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2nWexHb ]2022-10-30_09-11-18[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
just like the folks who invented betamax or hd-dvd.
As far as im aware* they have been credited in inventing the concept and making the first mtb suss fork.
Not a history buff, but prior to Manitou there wasnt anything else about
Quite possibly. I'm not sure that anyone feels smug about not being able to sell a better product though.
That said the better product is the one that sells, even if it's the worst idea. So despite a move by fox to RA on this fork, it doesn't vindicate Manitou it just shows that Manitou weren't very good at their job, probably because they got hung up on boring stuff like function and performance instead of what colour they should be.
Don't over-think it.
They've probably just done this because they can get it 4g lighter and the patent was up.
They aren't that good at marketing.
@kelvin That's interesting!
@benpinnick The Pro Guard also works very well if you cut new holes. I guess the good thing with Fox going arse-about-face is that next time I might not need to.
@rootes1 Exactly, the arch is lower for the same clearance. It keeps the mud off nicely too. It stopped looking weird to me on day 2, but on day 1 it looked utterly bizarre.
They aren’t that good at marketing.
*cough* QR15 *cough*
Suprise suprise that other brands jump on this now the patent has expired 😄.
i was reading an old manitou review just yesterday with an argument in the comments where one poster ironically suggested that if reverse was better everyone would copy it when the patent expired.
life imitates pinkbike comments section!
Manitou went from making one of the best looking forks ever (X-Vert)
Had some - still have. X-Vert Supers no less 😉
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52053031297_38f9efe682_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52053031297_38f9efe682_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://www.flickr.com/gp/85252658@N05/59L84S6m1Y ]DSC00408[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/85252658@N05/ ]davetheblade[/url], on Flickr
Specialized dual crown fork, where the arch is smack bang in the middle.
Had one of those too
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52022740578_af0a7a0de8_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52022740578_af0a7a0de8_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://www.flickr.com/gp/85252658@N05/M005K3p3T2 ]2022-04-23_12-12-51[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/85252658@N05/ ]davetheblade[/url], on Flickr
The stanage boulder jump 👍 I nearly launched myself over the bars on that with a textbook nosedive.
probably because they got hung up on boring stuff like function and performance instead of what colour they should be.
They had a lot of issues.
They stuck with 28/30/32mm stanchions long after everyone else dropped them.
SPV was just awful both to ride and for reliability.
They bet on 1.5"steerers over tapered.
They had faffy bolt-through (but again, much stiffer in principal).
To be fair it makes sense. It can be lower on the back meaning a better weight to stiffness ratio can be achieved and it does protect the stanchions so why wouldn't you? Small benefits maybe but what's the downside? I think aesthetics is only because people aren't used to it.
TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTRFull Member
Manitou went from making one of the best looking forks ever (X-Vert)
Had some – still have. X-Vert Supers no less 😉
I was thinking of these:-
Finally Halfords will fit a set of forks the right way round. Thank Fox!
oh great a whole new generation of halfords/ Smyths employees will now fit forks backwards
(i actually saw kid on a new BSO riding through the park with his torks backwards- disc calipers the wrong way & everything, but he was going to fast for me to lecture him)
Can't say I've noticed a difference in stiffness between my two 34mm forks, one with reverse arch, the other conventional.
There's a few little details about Manitou forks I like. The HBO and dual air chamber on their pro dampers has been around for years while you had to modify other brands forks for similar functionality. The Pro dampers are excellent, (pretty much silent in operation) gobble up big hits and are up there with the best. The only downside is they are not as easy to setup until you get the hang of their quirks!
They also have a deeper crown steerer interface (think it's about 5mm) than most of the competitors. Whether that helps keep steerer creak at bay I don't know, but you don't hear many complaints about it with Manitou forks. It could of course just be the fact hardly anybody has them!
I only service my forks as and when absolutely necessary (I do use fork oil to pull dirt out of the seals and occasionally PTFE polish the stanchions) and I've found my Manitou and X-fusion forks have stayed more consistent and need less attention over time. They don't seem to suffer problems like the compression dial not doing anything after a while like you get with some Fox forks. I do like an RS Lyric though, such a well sorted fork!
Manitou supply theirs with a mudguard that fits fine.
I found the Manitou-supplied mudguard to be only marginally better than having no mudguard at all.
Trimmed down double ended muckynutz works fine on reverse arch forks
Ass Savers work quite well too:
I found the Manitou-supplied mudguard to be only marginally better than having no mudguard at all.
I've been reasonably impressed with the one included with my Mezzer TBH, horses for courses I suppose. I guess the main point is that fitting a fender/guard with a reverse arch is entirely possible.
Speeder
I was thinking of these:-
Yeah they are pretty tbf
They are. The graphics remind of the ones on my Dorado SC.
Old PACE forks were brilliant – way ahead of their time.
They looked good, but didn’t actually work very well.
Looks like the US patent expired in 2021, so they waited a while
I don't care how good the engineering arguments are, it looks weird and I doesn't like it.
(I have one of those MRP forks where the arch is on the front but it looks like they fitted it back to front, and that's freaky enough)
Old PACE forks were brilliant – way ahead of their time.
They looked good, but didn’t actually work very well.
Agreed. RC-35s were a revelation compared to rigid forks on my Rockhopper but were wobbly, easily gummed up, and distinctly not anything like a Revelation or subsequent fork.
You are comparing a near first generation fork with a 4th or 5th generation fork in that statement though...comparing them with the forks around at that time - Manitou (Ones, I think?), Rock Shox Judy (actually Judy wasn't first generation either) and the Marzocchi forks - they were very good and as reliable as the others, just had their own issues - like all the others.
RS judy's were the turning point for rockshox I reckon.
My old RC35AB's worked well, my RC36 Evo proclass worked well, but had bushing knock from new. my RC36 Evo3's were great, reliable and easily servicable. RC36 stealth were OK, but performance was a bit iffy, RC 38 air force were also a bit funny feeling.
by far the best forks I've had were a set of manitou tower pro's, with the 20mm bolt thru. well damped and just felt right. weirdly similar ride feel to fox float 32's from around 2002 ish, before they went a bit rubbish.
but now, forks feel vastly different, even to ones only a decade old. less on the spring for support and more reliant on damping to control the fork.
Pace RC40 and RC41 (proper reverse arch) forks were actually very good when in use, easily comparable to a Fox 32 and especially to a Reba, but they weren't exactly reliable.... The DTs that replaced them went a long way to fixing some of this.
Off topic a bit but the dual arch RC-36 was a fine bit of kit for its era.
You could dismantle it with a 3mm and 5mm Allen key, it was plush and had little grease ports for the wiper seals.
I remember it being a lot less twangy and a lot more reliable than a number of other brands of the day.
The RS Judy's were a lot better than the Indy's.
