Following on from mboys thread with his new ride why are maverick forks so loved and hated in equal measure? Ive used one a few times and to be perfectly honest never been that thrilled by it, its stiff laterally but i never felt that impressed by its action. Also I know a few people who have blown seals in them. I know you can fettle them forever but when pretty much all the RS ive used have been competent without being flash straight from the box im not sure why they have such a strong following? add to that the hubs bearings dont have a great reputation plus you need a different wheel if you wanted to run a rigid fork and if anything there should be very few reasons why anyone would like them.

So i hand to stw, maverick forks: pro or pish?

I have previously had SC32's and am currently on DUC32's, I think they are great, half the people who slag them off have never even tried them, merely heard of someone who knows someone….

I am 16st+ and I can assure you my forks take a beating and the mavs have always performed great and never let me down. Stiff enough for me, esp when you consider the weight of the DUC's…

When they were launched, there was nothing else close in terms of performance/travel/weight. Hence everybody wanted one!

These days, there's loads of forks offering approx 6" of travel for a 4lb weight, and all of them offer the convenience of either a 20mm or a QR front wheel compatibility. And most of them are torsionally stiffer (well, at least the 20mm axled ones are) nowadays.

I'm less of a fan of the forks than I am the frame to be honest, I had toyed with the idea of putting a 140mm Revelation with 20mm axle on my new bike. It came down to price and convenience for me though… The frame fork/combo I bought was a bargain basically, to then sell the fork at a loss and buy a Revelation at circa £500, plus a new wheel (already had a spare Maverick front wheel) put me off.

I do like the fork though, have had a DUC for a while now (this is my 2nd). They do require a bi of a tune up to get them working as you'd like, but they are easy to service. The old black seals were poo granted, the new blue ones I've had no issues with.

Oh yeah, the front hub bearings ain't great indeed, but not many hub bearings are these days! Hope Pro 2's don't last anywhere near as long as the old XC's do…

And FWIW, I still think they look cool, especially when they're the same hard anodised colour as the frame! 😉

i had a pair of the dual crown 6" travel ones. yes, they are light but compare them to their competition and really i cant see any pros. when you can get a revelation with 150mm travel and a bolt through axle that actually stiffens the fork rather than just gives you an axle that doesnt fit anything else, a damping system that works well and seals that dont p!ss on your brakes, weighs pretty much the same and costs .about halfthen i dont see the point Or spend a bit more and go for a float with 160mm travel for less than 5lbs, you can pick those up with change from amaverick fork. even their travel adjust wasnt that great, just a shorter, locked out fork if i recall correctly. u turn, 2 step, talas etc are IMO much more useable. im not being a troll i just dont understand people using them for any other reason than brand loyalty.

I think people are too fetishistic (if that is even a word…) about 'stuff', people read in the mags or on forums that 'x' fork is better or stiffer than 'y' so they go and get them thinking they will ride better blah blah, but when it comes down to it it doesn't really matter if x is marginally stiffer than y it will make sod all difference in the bigger picture. My point is that they are good forks which perform well but someone will always have more money than sense and slag off what isn't flavour of the month. Sad but true, but more bargains for people like me in the classifieds…

interesting to see how diverse these opinions are already! mboy's point of view is pretty interesting as he is someone who obviously loves maverick frames, anyway on with the debate!

loddrik you dont fancy a duc in limited edition brown (ie off a trek 69er)

I love the action of them, like loddrik I'm nearly 16 stone & they just take everything I chuck at them & the fact that people don't like them means you can pick them up for £150ish is great.
I've got them on three bikes, one pair have over 10000 miles on them & the only expense has been about £70 in service kit parts/oil & one £43 damper rod.
Had Pikes on this frame but changed to Mavericks after 5 rides

I have a two bikes one with SC32's and the othere with Revs

both good forks

so the only reason people dont buy maverick is because they have more money than sense rather than these performance margins you speak of? if my fork rather than me is deciding what line i take then i know which side of the performance margin ill choose. FWIW i spent my cash on a pair of forks that have the same travel and weight and are significantly stiffer yet cost me £200 less than a maverick. (are they still £550 BTW). i dont know quite how that sits with the more money than sense argument if i spent less for better performance but perhaps you could explain it to me? admittedly they did only come in white so im bang on trend now, the shame of it!

I have three sets all purchased secondhand the most I've paid is £163.

that is definitely a bargain 2nd hand, couldnt get anything better for that i wouldnt think.

Slowrider, i will leave the far stiffer forks to people like yourself who are obviously emphatically more skilled than I where miniscule amounts of stiffness don't make a blind bit of difference out on the trail. Like I said, there is lots of drivel talked about them. I had wotans before the duc's, marginally stiffer, heavier, and I didn't ride not one bit different on either. I allowed myself to be suckered in to the fork stiffness thing and though 'is that it' and if it was that big a difference, I should just pay more attention to the line I was taking.

I am just not the sort of person the marketing men working for the large manufacturers are targeting I guess.

But then if I was, I wouldn't be riding a maverick would I?

I have three sets all purchased secondhand the most I've paid is £163.

Fair play

I've done even better in the past, bought a bike for the forks, sold the rest of the parts off for the same price I bought the bike for, ended up with a free pair of DUC's! They did cost me a bit though, cos on their first ride the seals blew, had to get them replaced with the new blue seals straight away… Not too bad all told though!

Have a pair of SC32's too. Would prefer some 120mm Reba Team's with the Maxle, but they're £500ish. My brand new SC32's were £180!

Yeah, Maverick stuff at RRP is VERY expensive, buy it 2nd hand or find a bargain though, and you're buying a reliable, easy to self service, highly functional bit of kit. It may not be the most up to date, lightweight, high tech piece of kit it once was, but they are a second hand performance bargain!

i am considering an older trek 69er at the moment but dont need the mavericks, i thought 300 plus postage for fork and wheel was a reasonable price?

i thought 300 plus postage for fork and wheel was a reasonable price?

You'll be lucky

I've had mine at £250 for ages, then dropped to £225 including wheel… Still no takers yet! As they owe me not very much, might just keep em for spares…

so perhaps it comes down to whhat kind of rider you are and what kind of riding you do rather than more money than sense then? just because maverick work for you doesnt mean everyone else is wrong, if you can ride exactly the same on mavericks as stiffer forks you are either far more skilled or far more sedate than me, TBH it matters not to me which the answer is.

as for the marketing comment, i cant remember a single rockshox add, thats how influenced i am. i went for them after trying mates out and finding them at the right price. same for the fox forks ive had, though i do notice their adds, boring as they are. your comment about 'larger manufacturers' suggests you may have fallen for the 'niche is best' hype commonly found on here though. whatever floats your boat.

You'll be lucky

damn. in that case i prob cant afford a 69er, at least not if i want to hold onto my 240 29er wheels, which i do. ah well never mind.

Slowrider, your response has just confirmed my suspicions….

i have no idea what that is meant to imply, the litle dotty things suggest you have more to add?

Nope, nothing else say. The dots can merely imply a train of thought.

glad we cleared that up!