Manitou Forks ….. Tell me about them :-)

As above really.

My only experience with the brand has been with their pre 2000 forks that IIRC had an elastomer stack 😳

I know in the early 2000s they came under fire a bit for their reliability – damping cartridge?

Been looking around for some fairly inexpensive XC forks and the R7s keep cropping up.

As far as reliability/ease of working on goes are they any good?

It seems that a new pair a la these can be picked up for the price of a second hand Reba.

Interested in thoughts both good and bad.

Manitou make very good damping systems, the problem has been that for a good number of years that’s almost all that was good about the forks.

They almost died a death in this country cos of lack of reliability around 2006/7 iirc, previous to that forks like the Sherman and Black had been very popular. I know I wasn’t the only person with a set of 2006 Nixons with lower legs that failed after about 3 rides that’s for sure!

R7 was well praised as a good performing, lightweight, XC race fork when it first came out (across the pond at least), these days compared to the competition with only 30mm stanchions it’s a little flexy and not that light any more.

For the price, if you only want 100mm and don’t mind it not being the stiffest fork in the world, yeah they’re a relative bargain. But Reba’s are a known constant, and they’re so simple to fix yourself too, you can buy some, service them, use them for ages, then sell them for almost what you paid for them. On One currently have SIDs and Rebas at ridiculous prices new too, hard to resist temptation!

I had Blacks, Nixons and Shermans over the years. Fine damping but were diving through the travel a bit too easily.
I’d buy a RS over the R7 nowadays as RS servicing is more easily available. Or go for a Magura and be done with it.

got minutes on my 29er… light, work well, quite stiff and bargain money compared to RS and Fox..

Cheers chaps.

Hear what you are saying on the RS front.

Hairychested – Member

Or go for a Magura and be done with it.

What do you mean – are they super reliable?

I used to have some old Magura forks, when they were called Rond. Their reliability was magical, never had any problems whatsoever. They took time to bed in but all I needed to do was change oil after 4 years.
The new stuff is more advanced, requires some thought when you set it up but once that’s done they work beautifully. My neighbour has some on his bike, rides in mud all the time (the same mud that killed mu Manitou Black 100/120 in 6 months) and never has problems. A quick hose down, done.
And they do come in different colours as well.

The only Manitous I’ve direct experience of are the Axels that came on my 2003 Rockhopper, which were predictably awful and a set of 2004ish Shermans which felt terrific. The Shermans were stiff, plush and well finished (they were on the front of a mate’s Spesh SX Trail) I can’t help thinking that they deserved a better following, especially those few that shipped here with urban camo lowers.

Today however, I’d opt for Rockshox every time. They’re cheap (but not as cheap as they used to be, sadly), acceptably stiff and dead easy to look after.

Got a pair of year old R7 Elites for sale if you’re interested.
Email in profile.

Everyone I’ve known with a set of Maguras has had issues with the damping, I’d steer clear of Magura above Manitou to be honest!

I had a set of Shermans back when they came out (really wanted the urban camo lowers, but alas had to settle for black), they were ace forks! Stiffer than anything else for their 130mm travel, probably stiffer than a Pike even now, damping was really well controlled, they looked badass etc. Were a bit weighty, but not as bad as Marzocchi anyway.

Main problem was around 2005/6 Manitou decided to significantly lighten their range, and do a reshuffle etc. Shermans and their legendary reliability disappeared, and the Nixon appeared in their place. On paper all was good, similar fork, less weight, but the Nixon was MUCH weaker and they all broke! At the same time Manitou also started messing about with complex 2 stage air springs etc which massively hampered their reliability too. Shame really! Good forks otherwise.

Ironically been considering a new set of 120mm 2011 Manitou Minutes myself recently, though know the smart money would stay with Rockshox.

mboy, I’m sure you’ re correct but my experiences are different. The only thing that Manitou never liked was deep gloopy mud, Maguras have dealt with it superbly. Bear in mind the more upper end the fork the more sensitive and delicate it tends to be. I’m a clumsy rider and go for sturdier forks. Nixons were fine but dive-prone. Maguras – I’ll be having some again when I can afford them.

Maguras are guff. Manitou too. HTH

Maguras are guff. Manitou too. HTH

Proper STW reply 🙄

Manitou have always had duff and good forks in their range – the problem was choosing the peach and missing the turkey.

Evil genius seals were lauded as the best at the time, but they’re surpased by RS these days. Shermans, as has been said were heavy and excellent, Nixons were essentially a stretched Sherman with some often flaky internals. TPC damping was always excellent but a little dively, but Manitou chose to focus on their platform damping as their leading tech, but it was never that competent. Around this time QC got worse (it was always a bit hit and miss) and there were some manufacturaing tolerance issues with the Infinite travel system, and its been down the pan ever since!

That said, I expect there are still peachy forks in the range, although I wouldn’t know, because I’m running a 7 year old Nixon with IT and a retro fitted TPC+ damping cart. – Better than the Pike I used to own and only 0.3lb off the weight of the latest equivalent Revelation.