http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/08/29/eb13-first-look-manitou-mattoc-long-travel-enduro-suspension-fork-finally-hammered-out/

thoughts?

I like the look/sound of it. That arch is whack.

C’mon you lot. Bump. Or does nobody even care about Manitou? I had an excellent set of Blacks – can’t Manitou get their customers back?

I liked Manitou forks, they have some of the best damping units. Felt lovely most of the time.

I’ve ridden a total of two good Manitou forks – Dorado DC’s and Dorado SC’s.

Never got on with anything else.

The arch is still on the wrong side.

I knew people back in the day who raved about their Shermans and Blacks.

But is there room in the market for another 160mm fork at the circa £600-£800 bracket?

I liked the Travis forks I had with the TPC+ damper. I would use Manitou if they ride well.

A friend and I have been riding Manitou Tower Pro forks on our 29ers for over 2 years now – no problems whatsoever, nice and plush.

I don’t think they’ve ever been off form as such, just they seem to have stopped marketing. Although to be fair, their 20mm axle is a right faff to do up with old skool bolts.

This looks nice, very nice indeed.

34mm stanchions = good, plenty strong enough and light. I guess these will be pitched up against 55s / Pikes / Fox 36.

Crikey its taken a long time for Manitou to make a long travel single crown.

Also, is it just me thinking its a bit odd to go from open bath to cartridge for the expert/pro price jump, even though they keep the same feature set? I would have thought the lower cost fork would have lost low speed comp / bottom out, or similar.

I’d have preferred a 20mm, but 15mm or 20mm axle, ultimately not that big a deal.

I have a Manitou shock and its lush. Am now thinking I’d like a Mega with the Manitou fork and my existing shock…

Never liked manitou rear shocks, always likeed manitou damping. They were always a binary sort of company, in that their forks were either shocking or pretty good, with little in between. I still have a set of manitou IT Nixons in my garage with TPC+ which is easily plusher and more controlled than RS motion control, except you can dial out their quite divey nature.

I’m just chucking the cash together for a set of Towers, they seem to be getting good reviews. The bigger offset should help bridge the gap between the 45-46mm RS and others and the 51mm G2 a bit, since it’s a Trek I’m building.

I think they went off the boil in the past few years because of the owners and importers – I remember talking to TF about servicing my old Radium shock and being told that they couldn’t get hold of spare parts. That would have put a few previous owners off!