Which fork upgrade?

The Recon Silver isn't a great fork, bit heavy and not a very good damping system.

I haven't ridden the Z2 but it seems to get good reviews and wouldn't be overkill for your bike.

If you can take boost spacing and a tapered steerer I have some 5 ride old RS 35’s about to be taken off my bike, currently 130mm travel but adjustable up and down internally.

Will be cheaper than either of those options. DM me if you’re interested.

Do you accept C2W vouchers?

I like to think they’d be cheap enough not to require one

The recon is a definite upgrade over the suntour - mostly in terms of longevity / lack of corrosion if it has the black stanchions. It is heavybish and fairly basic though.

Functionally the Z2 is a better fork, but it’s not just a Fox 34 in disguise, it has some bits made cheaper and not quite so good.

Just thinking aloud but there is a RS Reba on there for £469 that’ll be lighter than both the options you’ve mentioned - although motion control damping is probably slightly worse than the damper in the Z2.

For me I’d probably be looking to pickup something 130mm travel as that bike can take it and it sounds like you ride fairly lumpy stuff.

Is it only tredz you can use? Personally I’d be trying to find a RS Pike or Fox 34 I think.

Just completed this swap for my mate on his Bizango. I pursuaded him to part with £234 for a 130mm Rockshox Revalation (Ebay Alpkitoutlet). Not C2W though.
Needed a new headset as the Raidon steerer is a straight and the Revalation is tapered, but found one on wiggle for £15 or so.
He says its changed the bike very much for the better.

I had the same rust on my suntour stanchions around where they interface with the bushings.

The wiper seals must have been letting water in. I just cleaned and polished and smoothed off the surface rust, replaced the wiper seals and foam rings, greased and oiled. Been running them for two years like that and there's no play.

Thanks for the replies everyone. And I thought I'd got down to 2 options! So, now I'm at:
#1. Z2 120mm (140mm option is more expensive) @ Tredz
#2. RS Revelation 130mm @ Alpkit outlet
#3 RS Reba RL 120mm @ Tredz
All of these come out at a very similar price after considering the C2W discounts.
My C2W is only Evans or Halfords. Some independents take Halfords, but thats too much to consider at the moment.

@pimpingimp - Thansk for the offer of RS 35's, but after my recent experience I am going to go new, give myself a good chance of longevity considering the wear of Peak Grit.
@droplinked - Thanks for that feedback, I have cleaned, lubed & reassembled, so my other option is wait another year and see how they go.
@joebristol - Not really wanting to go any more expensive than current options & I think Pike & Fox 34 would be even more?

Or there is the nuclear option of going for a full sus on C2W as never had one, a boardman 8.9 or 9.0. But can't really justify it as don't ride enough, & that would be more maintenance I won't do.
So any comments on which of the above would give me good performance with less risk of issues very welcome.
Cheers!

Out of those 3 I’d take the revelations by miles. It’s essentially a pike chassis and airspring with a moco damper that you could always upgrade later with a charger damper for a pike. Personally I don’t think I’d pay over £400 for a Z2 or a Reba

I've got a Revelation on my Voodoo Bizango. Bought it cheap a year or so back. My son has the Z2s on his Vitus Airdrop. I'd take the Z2's over the Revalation.

Edit: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/ridden-and-rated-four-affordable-trail-bike-forks.html

Edit Edit: My Rev's have the cheaper Motion Control damper.

Which Revelation though - the 32mm legged one or the 35mm legged one? I’d take the 35mm one over the Z2 - it has better quality materials / replaceable bushes / is lighter I imagine and also has upgrade potential.

The revelation on Alpkit is the 35mm legs. I am swaying towards the Z2 at the moment as it will cost roughly the same as the Revelation on Ebay. And that Pinkbike atricle seems to also go for the Z2 over the revelation. I think they're both very close to 2kg.

Have jsut realised I'm looking at new forks with different rakes, 44mm & 51mm. I think the current is 51mm. Would going for a 44mm have any negative (or positive) effect?

You will hardly notice any difference.

I would absolutely go used if you can, the suntours are solid performing forks but they're not the most durable, the seals aren't as good as the average rockshox. Magpie-ism means there's endless lightly used Pikes and Lyriks and such that are 1 or 2 models old and therefore no longer valid forks for a carbon fibre santa cruz 😉 But they're still excellent, and better than what you'll find new.

Thanks, thinking about it, I have a 13 year old Trek with a Rockshox fork which when I opened for the first time a few ears back had a lot less wear than the 2 year old suntour.

If I start looking second hand, what travel is best for that bike? Should i go up by no more than 10mm (ie to 130mm) or could i go to 140?

Depends on the fork. You can always replace the airshaft to alter travel but you'd need to take the cost into account.

I wouldn't suggest jumping up 20mm in travel, unless the actual axle-to-crown height is similar.

You'll raise the BB too much and the handling won't be as good.

Secondhand, you can probably get a non-boost Pike for cheaps. But do budget for a full service (£110ish).

If you can get a new Revelation for £230-odd (?) that would be a fantastic and economical upgrade anyway.

Would going for a 44mm have any negative (or positive) effect?

I notice difference between 51 and 44mm. 51mm will corner better and 44mm more stable.

Trek pioneered 51mm years ago and nearly everyone followed suit, but the current trend is now back to 44.

I tried 44mm on a Trek Stache 120mm and hated it.

I'd at least consider the "value" of the bike before in terms of both sell and upgrade or spending more
The External headset lower will cost you ... and add 10mm (Hope) or 12mm (Cane Creek) stack height and another £10 for the spacer kit then cost of forks vs do it up and sell it and buy something more upgradeable used?

What is the rear axle? A lot of more modern non-tapered frames also tend to be QR ... which can lead to another dead end economically.

One of my friends has 2 kids with 2 Carerras slightly different models (or version of the same model) .. but the one with the straight steerer has a freewheel not free hub .. both have straight forks but the more expensive one has a converter you can take out and stick in tapered directly. The "economic" upgrade vs not path is fairly different IMHO

I really liked my Bizango. It was a £80 frame only effort from eBay and a set of Revs made it a great bike. My current hardtail has more extreme geometry but it was at least twice the price and I still rate the Voodoo

Thanks everyone, I am going to stick with the Bizango, go for a Tredz voucher & likely get the Bomber Z2 fork. (or possibly a RS35 Gold RL with Debonair spring & MC damping - but it says EMTB & I cant really work out if that means anything or not)
Next issue is which tubeless tyres to go with it for the peaks. Is Maxxis Minion DHF Folding 3C EXO TR2.5 a good shout?

I think functionally the Z2 has a better damper. Emtb on the 35 might mean it’s got extra reinforcement or it might just be waffle.

Don’t ride the peaks but if it’s rocky and not too muddy then the DHF is a good all rounder. I’d it gets muddier and it’s an all year round front tyre I’d go for a Magic Mary.

Wtb Vigilante / Specialized Butcher are quite similar in use case to the DHF too - although I found the dhf was more reliable grip than the Butcher at the limit.

More drag but I’m quite liking the 3c maxx terra exo Maxxis Assegai I’ve replaced the DHF with. Going to sell my DHf on eBay now as I can see the point as I also have a Wild Enduro and Hillbilly to cover all scenarios for gloop / dry trails!

On the rear it’s hard to beat a Maxxis DHR2 as an all rounder.

I have ridden revs (35mm) and z2s a lot. Z2s are fit and forget and the better fork. But I'd say that they hold poor value second hand so you can buy a decent second hand pair around £200 on pinkbike. That's what I would do

I've fox 34's on one bike and Pikes on another. Prefer the 34's for more XC as they have better small bump compliance but are still decent at absorbing the bigger hits. The Pikes are stiffer and better at bigger hits but they're not a subtle fork IME.

But either of the above would be a big upgrade over what you have.

Will Halfords buy in a fork from the likes of Chain Reaction? They bought in a Croix De Fer for me on a cycle to work scheme in the past.

Marzocchi z1 on crc wiggle are £367 way better than a z2

Yes you would need a new air spring to bring travel down but hey for that price

Isn't OP's bike a 29er?

I can only see 27.5 Z1s at that price.

Huge fan of the second hand market, I’ve got a set of red Lyrik RC2’s arrive today that were a little over £300, I’ll need to change the air shaft to suit my bike but they’re leagues ahead of anything I’d have bought new.

Even if you don’t buy my 35’s I’m still going to do the aggressive forum thing by insisting my way is the right way 🙂

Good luck in your hunt

Thanks again everyone, I really like all the different opinions here. To answer a few of the posts:
My bike is a 29er.
Great tyre recommendations, will definitely be using them.
I reckon a Z2 will be £240 with the C2W discount, so prefer that over the slight risk of 2nd hand and maybe needing to send it off for a service.
Can't bring myself to sell the bike yet as it was ex display also on C2W so didn't cost much and I have made it tubeless (but struggling with leaky sidewalls on the stock tyres) and added a brand X dropper. With new forks it will have cost around £800 total so think that is a good place to end up. I need to do a lot more miles before I can justify moving on to a new bike.
I went to the bizango 2020 from a trek 6700 2009 so a huge change in geometry and it made loads of difference to how much I enjoy the trails I ride, especially when going downhill.
And just to make sure I am sticking with my decision, the window for my C2W voucher timed out this afternoon and I was not able to get back to it before. So it's done 🙂