Looking for some forks for my son’s new build, in the absence of anything decent on eBay the Judy’s seem the best option for sub £200. They any good?

Yari 27.5″ are £250 from CRC at the moment. Much better chassis that can be upgraded with a decent damper.

The Yari is nearly twice the price and 80mm longer travel than needed, so not really in the same ballpark

I guess as you said under £200 the Yaris at £250 aren’t miles away. Travel can be reduced to 120 or 130mm I think. Considerably better than a Judy.

All the Judy’s under £200 I can see are silver tk models. These have an exceptionally basic damper and 30mm steel stanchions. These are equally both quite heavy and flexy at the same time. Personally I wouldn’t buy one – but for a kids bike they’d probably do a job.

If you can find a recon with the motion control damper and solo air spring – preferably with alloy upper stanchions that’s a better budget fork. The moco is better than tk and it has 32mm stanchions so will be a bit more solid.

I’m not sure what spec you need but a 29er / 100mm version is here for £199:

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/rockshox-recon-silver-rl-solo-air-forks-boost-2021?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=110423329&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=base&gclid=CjwKCAjwy_aUBhACEiwA2IHHQPDsV49vEIQsCmCaGxiWzEBLbSz_8gbm8wSMZYYTfKdVSLcaZEF5khoCW5gQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

There are various other recons on a Google search sub £200.

The Yari’s at £250 are out of budget, even more so after factoring in a travel adjust.

I had found a couple of Recons in 27.5″ at sub £200 but they are all steel uppers still, including the ones posted above.

Yari 27.5″ are £250 from CRC at the moment. Much better chassis that can be upgraded with a decent damper.

So £50 more with a poor damper that needs an upgrade of a couple of hundred more (I am a Yari rider, it is a poor damper).

Suntour Epicon may be a better buy than Judy’s for sub £200, just found a shop selling new on Ebay for £190. Aluminium uppers and arguably better damper than the cheaper RS.

@matt_outandabout

So £50 more with a poor damper that needs an upgrade of a couple of hundred more (I am a Yari rider, it is a poor damper).

I think context here is everything though – having ridden a Yari for a while and then had a go on a recon gold rl with moco the Yari is quite a lot better than that. If you’re then comparing to a 30mm steel stanchion Judy with tk damping the difference is huge.

A steel upper recon is still better than a steel upper Judy – it’ll be stiffer and if it has moco rather than tk then that’s an improvement too.

The Epicon / Epixon is a good shout if you can still find a genuine one. Last time I looked I could find some in Europe but not in the UK and by the time you had VAT / Duty added they weren’t such good value. But at 120mm travel or less they’re a decent enough budget fork.

I had some basic Recons Silver forks and I thought they were ok. They are quite heavy, but I wouldn’t have called them flexy, I actually think they are stiffer than Fox 34s. There are no bottomless tokens available but the stock spring rate seemed fine to me, and the damping was basic but functional. They are also serviceable, which is a plus over a lot of other cheap forks.

I had a Judy Gold RL on my Chisel. I didn’t keep them long. They were pretty poor. Very notchy and under damped. I replaced with a SID.

If a Recon RL might be of interest, I’m about to put a pair on ebay. 29″, 100mm, 51mm offset. Full length steerer, never ridden.

Someone has a 26″ Reba Race in the classified for £100. Could that be made to work?

https://www.starbike.com/en/manitou-markhor-suspension-fork-matte-black-100mm/?country=GB&currency=GBP&keep_params&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq7bgisKd-AIVFZBoCR0mYAbQEAQYByABEgL7fvD_BwE#78654

edit…someone linked to the Recons, but not sure if the above would work?

My lad (10yr old & 38kg) has the 27.5″ wheeled size Judy with the solo air spring and the turnkey damper / lockout and QR axle they’re more than enough fork for him and he races a fair bit of XC racing to a high standard for his age and rides his bike a lot and it certainly doesn’t hold him back in the slightest.

All the talk of flex and crap dampers really aren’t going to impact a child. There’s kids racing national level XC and doing very well on forks that are of a similar standard.

I’d be looking for a well-preserved older Reba or Revelation secondhand.

Assuming he’s quite light and not riding DH/enduro.

Sorry missed the last few replies here. Was put off the Judy Silver after comments here and still looking around for a good deal on something else. Been keeping an eye on Ebay for decent condition 2nd hand stuff but no joy.

Found some Judy Gold’s for sub £200 now, which seems to be a good option, I reckon better than a Recon SL. Same MC damper but the weight difference of the aluminium uppers in the Judy will make a pretty big difference for such a small light rider……he’s only 8 and less than 30kg so reckon the weight savings from the Judy are more important than any stiffness gained in the Recon.

At 8 years old I don’t expect he’ll be heavy enough to have a problem with 30mm stanchions. If it’s actually the same damper but the judys are lighter then it seems a sensible option

Have you looked at Pinkbike buy & sell? Quite a lot on their that is reasonable value and condition