Forks (very slight rant)

Blinkin’ flip. I thought I’d have a look round for a fork that’s light, a little longer than the 130 I have, and maybe with a 20mm axle. So how come in the couple of years since I last bought forks nothing I want seems available for less than bloody £700?!

When I bought my Paces £450 was a lot of money for a fork, now it’s bargain basement! The Fox Talas I fancied are £750! OMG WTF !!!111 oneoneoneone!!!

😯

Its a difficult one. On one had inflation and the pound. On the other is that really value for money, you pays your money and all that.

Go Wotans[/url] Wiggle have them on offer (still over £550 though)

I’m with you there.

All I want is a pair of 20mm bolt through forks up to 130mm for a sensible sum. Looks like I should have stuimped up £250 for Pikes last year, as everything has doubled in price.

I’m sure it’s not *just* the current exchange rate….

I found these. Don’t know if they are suitable?

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=1096&categoryId=18

95-140mm
Maxle 360 20mm (that’s not quite bolt through though is it?)
£300

Or these:

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=1634&categoryId=17

but only QR.

Or these:

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=869&categoryId=18

out of stock but available in 7-14 days….

or these:

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=873&categoryId=18

I looked at forks a while back, and came to the conclusion that it was all getting quite silly. I ended up with Marzocchi MX comps at 120mm Q/R with approximately no adjustment whatsoever, which cost something less than £200. I am riding within their (admittedly not insignificant) limitations and spending the other £500 on other things.

🙂

yikes, 855 quid for some lyriks!
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/RockShox_Lyrik_2_Step_Air_Fork/5360039318/

there can’t be anyone actually buying them for that much can there??

I got some (admittedly much shorter) RS Reba Race (or team?) Air 85-115 U-turn with poploc, floodgate and all that stuff towards the ass end of last yr.
Should have been £480 I think and I got them for £300. I always try to buy things just as they are looking to bring out ‘next yrs must-have’ – you can get some real savings.

Those Pikes at Merlin are fine. Why pay £700 ?

I knew suspension was too expensive.

I got 2009 Rev 426 air u-turn with maxle lite last week from CRC for £450.

Bit more than I’d have liked to pay, but still not unreasonable. Get in there if they still have stock at that price.

Just go second hand…

Don’t think i’ll every really buy any new parts again lol

I agree. I can’t believe anyone spends £700+ on a set of forks. When I needed longer, 20mm axle forks I went for a set of 2nd hand Pikes (about 6 months ago). Cost me £250 and I thought that was a lot! I’d ride rigid forks rather than spend £700 on suspension (well, actually I’d find something 2nd hand or get one of those forks off Merlin above)

Second hand isn’t an unreasonable option. Me and the GF are both running/rocking second hand Marzocchis (66rc and AM1) which work well and show no signs of stanchion wear or leaking. Both were around the £100 mark. I was also offered some ’05 Fox Talas 36s for £200 recently. Problem is, with the price of new kit it’s going to be harder to snaffle up a second hand bargain soon.

I don’t really want 5lb forks on a bike that already weighs 26lbs. That’d be adding 2lbs… I do seem to be wanting the moon on a stick though – anything light seems to be less travel, and anything light and longer travel seems to be £££.

I wish they still made Pace RC40 fighters.

Miketually, shame on you for editing the stock STW response of “get some rigids” – you’re contributing to the demise of this place, and you know it! 😉

140mm seems to be where it’s at, doesn’t it? I admit I didn’t try Merlin so those are some good options. I’d rather have had 150mm tho.

I quite like the look of those MZ 44s but they are QR only and I’d be worried about reliability.

95-140mm
Maxle 360 20mm (that’s not quite bolt through though is it?)

What does this mean? What’s the difference?

The more threads like this i see the more i am chuffed i did my bike build last summer!*

*2008 Pike 454 Coil U-Turn for £284 from Freeborne if i remember right.

stumpy – well spied. I went to have a look at the merlin site afterwards.

Just about to buy a track bike (for £175 – bargain!), so forks are further down the list of priorities (which also means I will likely miss out on them when I do have the cash).

Moon on a stick? No, Magura Thors:

http://www.cotic.co.uk/partners/magura

More info:

http://www.cotic.co.uk/news/archive2008#magura2009

£530 is still not exactly cheap though is it?

Paces were £450 how long ago? How much are they (DT) now? The Thors are better and in real terms no more expensive than your forks were. Oh, and Talas have always been silly money at RRP. There are some big price hikes though, RS have been pretty affordable in recent years, but not now for new stock.

its a wonder that TF and alike haven’t start snapping up all the forks up for sale at the moment, refurbishing them and then selling them with a 6mth warranty at half the new cost?

Will all the price hike forks stocked really sell though? When you consider the up to recent availability of 07 and even 06 model Pikes, I’d wonder if there may be more than a few more reasonable bargains to be had in a few months time…

I have a set of 10th anniversary z1 RC2 ETA Mazzorchi’s if anyones interested? Less than a months use.

I really don’t think it has helped that Rock Slop have suddenly decided that they’re a premium brand and jacked their prices right up. So now there’s no mid market American brand…..which is rather lame, because for the past two years RS quality seems to have decidedly poor.

Fox have always been pricey and their prices this year are definitely more pricey because of the exchange rate. If you bought a pair of Vanilla R’s at $2/£1 exchange rate they’d cost you £230 direct from Jenson (excluding import tax etc), at the current rate they’ll cost you £330.

Time to find some friends in the States me thinks!

Mmm.. Thors – that’s the chap. I can do without the extra travel for that kind of low weight with maxle, and £530 is fair for that lot I reckon. Still, not that much longer axle-crown than what I have tho.

EDIT Thors are 520mm, I think my Paces are 509, so that could actually work out well. Now to find £530.

Hora, are those the forks that were the subject of numerous lame rants on the old forum perchance?

Hmm, I forgot that Fox are American. Could pick some up next time.. hmm…

Aren’t the Thors supposed to be a bit divey? or has that been fixed now?

Also LoL at Hora’s ad, especially after slagging them off so much over the last few months.

You can sort out the “Dive-y-ness” of Thors, just takes a wee fiddle. It was the dirty great big crack on the left axle mount that pissed me off most about mine, oh, that and the warranty experience.

Magura seem to be the only company that haven’t put their prices up so it makes sense to look at them. I have both the Thors and the Wotans (brought last year) and they have been great and the RRP on the Thor is the same as when I brought mine.

Miketually, shame on you for editing the stock STW response of “get some rigids” – you’re contributing to the demise of this place, and you know it!

I was slightly more forceful than that, which is why I edited it 🙂

Fox have always been pricey and their prices this year are definitely more pricey because of the exchange rate. If you bought a pair of Vanilla R’s at $2/£1 exchange rate they’d cost you £230 direct from Jenson (excluding import tax etc), at the current rate they’ll cost you £330.

Time to find some friends in the States me thinks!

don’t really see how that will help you, unless your new friends are so nice they’re going to buy you a set of forks for your birthday, you’re still going to have to make your pounds into dollars at some point?

Grumm, my comment about maxle 360 20mm, saying in brackets ‘that’s not quite bolt through’ or something like that was because to be honest I am not too hot on all the latest standards for QR and the like.
I have QRs on my bike, they work, so I don’t really see the need to change.
But now there are 15mm/20mm/Maxles etc. and I thought that bolt through were actually bolted up, rather than QR, which I think the maxle is. Could be wrong though.

Does that make any sense at all?!

Bit of a bummer this one!! I scored big time about 8 months ago when I bought some 6 month old Fox Talas for £200 fro the USA (Ebay), absolutely immaculte condition and hardly used, work perfectly and didnt get stung for import duty, I know a few how have done this, bit of a shame on the exchange rate now though, might still be worthwhile checking though, what about used section on here or other sites????? just check the steere length when buying 2nd hand.

I’m not really sure on what all the terms mean either, but I have the maxle 360 on my pikes. It’s a kind of quick release, but you have to undo the normal QR, then slot it into a little groove and unscrew to take the whole bolt out before you can get the wheel off.

Magazine seem to be going on about it giving increased stiffness and that making a big improvement, but I couldn’t really tell you as I only have my crappy old MZ forks off my hardrock to compare to, and the pikes are so much better in every respect.

Not sure how that differs (if at all) from a non-Maxle bolt through though.

i recently managed to get some Coil Pike 426s the version i have are lighter than 454s apparantly dunno how true it is will only be a few grams either way for sub £300 BNIB and not off e-bay in the uk! from Je James, they took a while to be sent and they were last years ones