Looking at potential candidates for my new fat build. Plenty of experience with Blutos so wanting to know about the competition.

Mastodon looks ok, has 34mm stantions and a dorado damper, so stiffer and should work well. More money than a bluto, but not too bad

Wren looks ace, 36mm stantions, concerns about stiffness from it being upside down (owned shiver SCs and seen how bad RS1s are…) but reviews seem to be happy with it, bit spendy too

Any experience? Any others? Written off Lauf (want damping…) and Lefty Olaf (CBA with new hubs and mega bucks)

not really helpful… but given how rare Wren stuff is over here…., i’ve got a few of their stems & despite the low weight they’re well made & faultless in use.

Personally I’d go with the Masterdon – wrens are a pain to set up, you need to get both the negative and positive air chambers correctly set and In the correct order for them to provide you with the best performance.  They are also heavier and have rarer parts.

Slam69 deal in both and have experienced both in the real world, so maybe give graham a call?

Had a wren for 12 months, easy to set up, maintain & change travel. Ridden through 2 winters and thre was no crap inside when i took them apart for a service. Nice smooth travel and stiffer than the skinny stantioned blutos ive tried.

Cheers all,

RD, you reckon it’s worth the extra spend/weight over a 100mm Bluto? For aggressive mincing round trail centres, on a Mukluk carbon with both 26×4.8 and 29×2.4 tyres (not necessarily at the same time…)

Not the same fork, but I’m a big running Mattocs and am really impressed with them. Good damping, good stiffness and not too much cash.

I can’t help with the Mastadon or Wren I’m afraid, but clearance on a Bluto with 4.8″ tyres is pretty tight. The pictures below show a Surly Bud and Jumbo Jim 4.8 on BR710 rims. Both just fit (even with a guard), but the Bud was close enough for the hairs on the tyre to buzz and a bit too tight for my liking. Even with the JJ I was a bit concerned about something getting picked up by the tyre and jamming against the arch. Although with the big volume of the tyre and the very low pressures this may be an irrational fear and I may try the combo again sometime.

Interesting. I actually have a bluto already (in white, for sale… I want a black fork…) but haven’t checked the new tyres, minion fbfs, in it yet. This may skew the decision making process…

I think minions are a bit smaller than the Bud. So hopefully you’ll be ok. Worth checking though.

Just checked, plenty of room, though I don’t run a mud guard, so that helps.

Doesn’t help with the decision making though!

Mastodon vs Bluto article

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/article/rockshox-bluto-vs-manitou-mastodon-51741/

Cheers all,

RD, you reckon it’s worth the extra spend/weight over a 100mm Bluto? For aggressive mincing round trail centres, on a Mukluk carbon with both 26×4.8 and 29×2.4 tyres (not necessarily at the same time…)

for trail centres i’d stick with a nice light carbon rigid