Submitted by
Netzman
a Weekend Warrior
from Sacramento, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: June 25, 2010
Strengths: 100mm of travel (4") has served me well. It's a great value for what it is. Durable, doesn't require much maintenance.
Weaknesses: I haven't kept up on maintenance very well and have noticed that I don't quite get all of the travel out of it that it had when new.
Bottom Line:
I've ridden this fork downhill, bashed it up, taken it through the Rubicon for the past 7 years in a row (every 4th of July weekend to watch the Jeepers), and never had a single problem with it. I've broken 3 frames since owning it and never felt it miss a beat. It may not be the most sophisticated fork with all of the bells and whistles, but it sure has been durable, and performed well for me. And for the price you will never find me complaining.
Bike Setup: Once on a Jamis Dakar, Moved to a more aggressive 5" travel Haro frame that I built up myself. My dad and I bought the exact same fork at the same time (same shipment even) and he has his on an Ellsworth Isis. I notice his bike geometry puts you up on the fork a lot more and makes it more responsive. But I weigh about 160 and he's about 195 and it works perfectly for both of us.
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Submitted by
XAlwood
a Weekend Warrior
from Netherlands
Date Reviewed: July 2, 2008
Strengths: Very smooth working fork
Very lightweight
Not too expensive
Lasts for quite a while
Weaknesses: Not very rigid
It can be very bouncy when you drive over multiple small bumps
Doesn't appear to be very strong
Bottom Line:
The fork has worked quite good for me... Had a good five years of fun with it and it massively outperformed the RockShox Judy TT.
The fork does loose its stiffness over the time though... It doesn't provide you with a very stiff frontend of your bike. You feel like it just isnt really fixed to your bike.
Also the holes to put grease in wear out and don't work for me anymore, it's impossible for me to lubricate the fork from the inside and you can't hold your fork upside down because the oil will leak out.
I have always missed the lockout too on this fork. Because it's so flexy you do want to switch it off once in a while, when driving on the road. And after 3 years the damping starts to wear out. Now, 5 years in use it really bottoms out under heavy braking and it just doesn't keep my wheels on the ground anymore.
Bouncy front tire and lifting rear wheel...
Instead of repairing it for 240usd I'm probably switching to a Reba soon...
Bike Setup: 2002 B1 Weblite, 2005 XT-discs, 2007 LX Bottom Bracket, rest of the drivetrain is XT.
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Submitted by
Brett
a Cross Country Rider
from Davis, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: August 23, 2006
Strengths: In my application on a roadbike conversion I can't honestly say how the fork would perfrom in it's intended role. It did feel like it would be a decent performer on the trail compared to similar priced forks. I can't endorse it though.
Weaknesses: Sudden catastrophic failure of the right blade!
Bottom Line:
These forks came on a 2001 Specialized Rockhopper. This bike was a warranty replacement for a 93 Rockhopper which I'd already replaced with an Enduro Pro. As such they have been on a bike that was only lightly used as a roadbike conversion. They have a total of 360 road miles on them, 0 off-road miles, no jumps, curbs, crashes, roof racks, or anything that could possibly lead to trouble.
On my last ride the right fork blade suddenly failed without any earlier indication of a problem. I was fortunate to be only at about 10 mph on level road and able to stop without incident. Looking at the fork, I see an extreme amount of play and slop on the right blade, and oil coming out of the bottom of the fork as well as leaking out of the top when the bike is flipped over.
This is a rather surprising failure on a component that has not seen anything other than smooth roads, and only for a couple hundred miles. Yes it's an 01 model, but I have plenty of other bikes of a similar and older vintage that have never seen such a failure despite actually having seen off-road rising and heavy usage.
I am concerned that even if I spend the money to have this fork rebuilt at my LBS that I will run the risk of another premature catastrophic failure which I don’t want to chance. If this is an isolated event then perhaps it was just a bad batch of materials and a rebuild is appropriate, I don’t know, but if this happened at speed the results would have been ugly.
Submitted by
tom
a Weekend Warrior
from bloomfield ny
Date Reviewed: August 21, 2006
Strengths: absolutely amazing fork for the money. great dampening once its broken in, perfect out of the box for me since im only 130 pounds, anyone heavier may want a stronger spring and heavier oil. i beat this fork to death on my dirt jump bike, i couldnt afford a more better fork at the time, and it has held up. extremely lite wait
Weaknesses: a little bit flexable, takes a LONG time to break in
Bottom Line:
you CAN NOT beat these forks for the money. makes the rock shock jetts look like absolute crap. if you can get your hands on a pair do it, there even good to have as a set of extras in case you bend your forks. this fork would be great for any trail riders who want a light well rounded fork. if your broke and need a frok for a dirt jumper, rest assured that these forks will hold up to anything short of being slammed into a brick wall at 30 miles an hour.
Similar Products Used: rock shocks jett, rst 191c4, marzocchi mx comp, manitou six,suntour forks
Bike Setup: gt moto, hand built double walls with disk breaks, and now i have ordered a manitou sherman slider plus to replace the magnums, but im going to put them on my beater rig since they hold up so well
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Submitted by
Shaun McCloud
a Weekend Warrior
from St. Cloud, MN 56301
Date Reviewed: April 19, 2003
Strengths: Oil damped, can get different springs, fairly cheap
Weaknesses: none yet
Bottom Line:
So far I love the fork. Have to finish breaking it in and then get a new spring and MCU for at as @ 220+ lbs the stock spring is way to soft for me. It is actually my first oil damped fork (just upgraded from a very bad Pacific Summit). I would recommend it to anyone on a budget and/or as a first suspension fork.
Similar Products Used: Manitou Magnum, RockShock Jett, Rockshock Judy TT, and Manitou Mars.
Bike Setup: Manitou Magnum R, Gary fisher Hoo koo e koo hardtail. Shimano parts deore and LX
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Submitted by
stef
a
from thornhill, ontario, canada
Date Reviewed: October 19, 2002
Strengths: good travel, nice look, can hold fairly harsh riding
Weaknesses: tops out (opposite of bottom out)
Bottom Line:
u can do drops just fine, ive done a 5ft ledge without bottoming out, i used to ride bmx so im not a little girl about a hard landing, be a man , if it bottoms out dont cry about it, not for downhill,good for freeride and cross country, RIDE EVERYTHING
Strengths: Simple. Cheap. Probably as mechanically strong as most of Manitou's forks.
Weaknesses: Not terribly sophisticated. Not necessarily built for extreme use.
Bottom Line:
I don't do jumps. I just ride as hard and fast as possible. I'm 155 lbs and I have no complaints. The thing is really easy to strip down and repair (I did only for setup and inspection). Unless you bust the tubes or crown, there just isn't much else to break. The bushings have held up and there is only ONE OIL SEAL to fail. That's right- damping is via oil weight and the valve slider has no o-ring to wear out or blow. Naturally it feels like zero dampening out of the box. Try some heavier oil. It comes with 5 wt. I finally settled on a nice 40 wt engine oil. I am not joking! 40 or 50 wt is perfect to control bob under the slighly higher preload I use. Just be sure to use SINGLE WEIGHT oil. Multi weight supposedly damages seals and parts, and is much more toxic as well.
The preload also works very well for me, but it takes some effort to adjust it while riding. Though low end, this fork is probably still better than most forks available 6 years ago. Given good treatment and maintenance, it should serve riders under 200 lbs well enough.
Favorite Trail: Forest Park in Portland, or anything in Oregon
Duration Product Used: 6 months
Purchased At: On Fisher HKEK from River City in Portland
Similar Products Used: Just low end stuff.
Bike Setup: Fisher '01 HKEK aluminum w/avid disk and mostly bontrager parts.
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Submitted by
Travos
a Cross Country Rider
from Murrieta, socal, usa
Date Reviewed: July 29, 2002
Strengths: works for a while, came with bike
Weaknesses: turns to crap, damping valve is gone, grease ports are stupid because it will just build up in there, extremely flexy, adjuster doesnt do anything, compression is over-damped.
Submitted by
Chuck
a Cross Country Rider
from nashua
Date Reviewed: July 18, 2002
Strengths: good for the money, works good overall, has micro lube
Weaknesses: cant adjust travel,
Bottom Line:
my fart smells bad... oh ya this is a pretty good fork for the money.. its not the best but its not the worst... this is a good buy and it suits me well
Bike Setup: 2001 gary fisher hookooekoo with avid disc and and all xt drivetrain except cranks. and I switched out the manitou magnum for marzocchi bombers
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Submitted by
Andy
a Weekend Warrior
from Sheffield
Date Reviewed: April 7, 2002
Strengths: cost, strength, very smooth once worn in
Weaknesses: looks(stickers are rubbish)ajustment desn't work
Bottom Line:
these were crap at first and i hated them but once i'd worn them in they work like a dream they came on my bike which got for half price so they were a bargin. i've taken big jumps and never bottomed these things out, I am small though but they don't absorb little things with me on the bike. I don't think I could do a 30ft though
