My 15 yr old nephew has a Trek Marlin 5, which has a Suntour XCE28 fork. Obviously it's a pretty basic bike with a pretty basic fork, but he likes it which is the main thing. He asked me whether he could get an air fork for it for his birthday, and I told him I'm sure he could but I'm not sure how much difference he'd notice without spending a decent chunk of cash (and bear in mind that the bike itself was only £400).
Now, I'm guessing that the fork has a reasonably firm spring, and he's a 15yr old streak of pi$$, so he's not getting the best out of it anyway. So, is a softer spring available, and how easy is it to swap?
Getting hold of alternative springs can be difficult, but if memory serves me correctly that fork has a spring in each side. If so I've had some success with light riders in just taking one spring out.
If both top caps look the same just unscrew one (there is a special tool which you can get on ebay, but can be done carefully with pipe grips), take the spring out and see what happens.
Yes it's a bodge, but it's a £70 fork so not much to lose.
Alternatively I have a 100mm travel Reba you can have for not much money.
£125 for a RS Judy Air on CRC....
if memory serves me correctly that fork has a spring in each side. If so I’ve had some success with light riders in just taking one spring out.
Yeah, it does (from looking in the manual), that could be an option.
Tell me more about the Reba...
£125 for a RS Judy Air on CRC….
The bike/fork has an 1'1/8 steerer unfortunately
last time i looked there was loads of straight steerer ebay reba's
Looks Suntour Epixon options on ebay. They're significantly better than xcm.
It probably has a 44mm headtube in which case you can fit a tapered fork if you get an EC44 lower headset.
The Reba is 100mm 9mm QR axle, tapered. It came off a specialized Epic carbon expert, so pretty decent. I'll measure the steerer length later if you are interested. I'd be after £70 plus whatever postage is.
My pal's son's £400 Giant has a straight steerer.
He's 13 and also a streak of the proverbial. I removed one of the springs and it seems perfect for now.
Any hints / tips on removing the spring in addition to the post ^^^. I have the same coil spring + teenager issue here and it's 100% trail riding, no jumps.
I think I just removed the top cap
Yup, remove top cap, pull spring out, refit top cap.
If both top caps look the same just unscrew one (there is a special tool which you can get on ebay, but can be done carefully with pipe grips)
This kind of thing?
and, FWIW, he's "just under nine stone" apparently
Yes, that tool should do it.
Those forks weren't exactly active with a 20 stone customer on them so one spring for 9 stone should be a big improvement.
Brilliant, thanks.
Getting hold of alternative springs can be difficult
When I looked at this there were loads of Suntour springs on eBay for a few quid.
my 1 inch socket undoes the top cap without slipping, no special tool required. they're not done up tight cause it's all plastic...
Cool - will yank a spring until the second hand parts market cools down.
Regarding Epixons and Manitous from China/HK/Taiwan bike parts sellers (the only economical source of new, 1 1/8 straight, 9mm QR trail forks), anyone had any complications ordering these either in terms of unreasonable delays, or import duties?