Manitou/Manipoo?

Right, I'm currently looking at a new pair of forks to replace my 5lb Z1's… Mainly as they are 5lb's and just aren't great.

However I'm a little behind the times with forks.

It always used to be Fox or Marz as the preferred choice and RS as the alternative. Avoiding Manitou like the plague.

So what is the general consensus on forks these days?

It seems everyone is running RS or Fox, Marz are having reliability issues, no-one seems to even mention Manitou and then theres DT.

Im currently looking for 130/140mm forks for XC/AM useage and I've got it down to Pikes/Revs/Floats but what about Minutes? or DT XMC 140?

I am looking at buying the same type of fork. I want a Revelation but I think my budget will dictate that I will go for the Marz All mountain.

I have a budget of around £500, and there seems to be a large range of stuff available. It's just narrowing it down to what would be best.

Considering that the only forks I've used are Judy TT's, Marz DJ1's, Fox Talas 36 and now the Z1's. My experience of forks isn't great so I don't know what I'm really looking for.

magura thor 140's? 399 still at on one i believe, decent review in the mag for the 2010's.

If I had my pick it'd be either a Maxle Lite Air Rev, or a Magura Thor, both sit at just under 4lbs off the top of my head.

They've sold out of those recently (the Magura's on On-one)… CRC are selling them for £680 currently 🙁

Everyone is recommending the Revs to me, but why are they the better option that the floats? or the DT's?

Have you seen the service intervals on the floats? and the price of the DTs?

They're cheap , good performing and comparatively reliable.

Have you seen the service intervals on the floats? and the price of the DTs?

DT's are only about £100 more than the Revs… I have seen how often you are meant to service the floats, but if you look after them well enough you don't actually need to service them that often (and most of it can be done at home anyway IIRC).

You can service Fox Forks at home quite easily, it's just you do have to properly look after them and clean them out regularly (at least twice as often as most other forks, especially in bad weather) or you get stanction wear and the fork starts falling apart. It's not difficult, just very time consuming (time better spent on the bike).

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the Pike yet, coil pikes are fantastic and better than the Revelation which is more of a burly trail centre type fork. You can get them in u-turn as well. They are a bit heavier than the revelation but TBH I don't think you'd really notice much.

Check out grams light bikes reviews, think they compared all of the forks you're interested in might be nice ofr choosing between them in relation to each other rather than against a 'standard'

The only fork I have ever trashed was a manitou (sherman).

steerer snapped which resulted in a pretty nasty crash which has put me off them for life.

Pikes would get my vote if your heavy / hard hitting otherwise Revs.

I read a recent review on bikeradar (I think) that suggested the latest Minutes are quite twangy, and the through-axle a bit fiddly.
Shame, cause I thought they looked like a relatively cheap (for '09 model) alternative to Revs, at a length that my frame can take.

got 2 sets of minutes – an 80mm 29er QR and a 120mm bolt thru 26"

both lovely forks in use. i'm very impressed. had the 29ers for about 16 months, had the 26" for about 2 months. got them from JensonUSA for much cheapness.

Have a set of 130mm minutes, think they are the '08 model. Really nice forks, plush and really adjustable by playing around with the air pressure/TPC. Also lighter than most forks (3.3lbs) but come with bolt-thru so pretty stiff still. No problems with mine and I'm not exactly light myself (14ish stone).

as with the other fella, the only pair of forks i ever snapped were manipoos where the steerer unbonded from the crown.

they actually warrantied them for me… like i'd ever ride their brand again!

got shot, and have never even sat on a bike with some fitted since…

one would think that RS/zocchi etc never break, huh?

oops

😉

cracks i can live with.

unbonding isnt great but looks like a cheap fork… and at least one side was still on!

my £500!!!! manitous failed much more spectacularly!

Yes well, when my manitou's steerer let go I suddenly found myself on the skyline descent with a set of bars not attached to the bike.

I was very very lucky to walk away from that one. Especially as I was luckily going fast enough that when I went over the bars I missed the jagged spike that was sticking out of the headtube.

Like I said put off for life – I've got some pic's somewhere…if I can find them I'll put them up

There's some bargins Swiss DTs to be had ot the moment on the Pace website, I don't know much about suspension but my XCMs or whatever they're called have been wicked

i can totally see why personal experiences would put people off buying a company's products, what i meant though was that someone who had broken some RS, or some zocchis, or somefox etc could come along and say 'i've broken these, therefore don't get them'

and the OP would have no forks to buy at all…

🙂

anyways… mebbe i'm touchy cos i love mine 🙂

@hungry monkey..

Those ones were made by Suntour.