Submitted by
David
a Cross Country Rider
from Arroyo Grande, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: October 17, 2003
Strengths: Very light and durable.
Weaknesses: None to speak of.
Bottom Line:
I too, can't believe all of the negative press that this shock has received on the MTBR product reviews. I ride year round, at least twice a week and have not had one problem with this shock. I ride many different terrains and this shock is so supple and just floats over rock gardens, washboard and slickrock, with nary a wimper. To tell you the truth, I have never had it serviced yet. It's been that good. It ain't broke, so I'm not fixing it. I think that the guys having problems with this shock, are probably bombing downhills and landing 12 foot jumps. This is a XC shock, not a DH.
Bike Setup: Specialized FSR S-Works, mix of XT and XTR components. All stock. BRP X-link
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Submitted by
Ryan Lipski
a Cross Country Rider
from Milwaukee, WI
Date Reviewed: August 27, 2003
Strengths: Really Light Looks great on bike Lockout Disc mounts
Weaknesses: None thus far
Bottom Line:
I have had this fork for 3 years and have yet to have a problem with it. Lockout works great, never leaked thus far. Have been to Moab, Tahoe, Mammoth Mountain and everywhere in Wisconsin. It has held up to everything that I have tossed at it, and has worked great. Completely submerged didn't bother it one bit. I am 6'0", 180lbs, and ride 4-5 times per week on trails between April and November....sometimes more if work doesn't get in the way. Bottom line, I love the thing. I am amazed by the probs that people have had with this thing. Just my luck, after writing this it will all fall apart.....
Bike Setup: 2000 S-Works M4 Hardtail, Hayes Discs, Ritchey bars, XTR everything, Thomson seatpost....
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Submitted by
Cesar Ochoa
a Cross Country Rider
from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Date Reviewed: May 9, 2003
Strengths: Light & efficient
Weaknesses: None yet found
Bottom Line:
I upgraded to this fork from an older version XC Manitou fork that came with my bike. This is a much better product. Lighter, more responsive, suppler. I stopped racing pretty much at the same time I bought this fork and now I use my bike primarily for light trail riding and, three or four times a year, for multi-day epic rides. The fork climes well and performs flawlessly on long descends. It also absorbs well the small stuff, so it is a comfortable fork. I am 152 pounds, and a fast but not aggressive rider. I have not had any of the problems mentioned by other reviewers. I guess you just need to be kind to your shock and it will be nice to you.
Bike Setup: Specialized 1998 FSR, full XTR, Mavic CrossMax wheels
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Submitted by
Craig Benn
a Weekend Warrior
from South Africa
Date Reviewed: February 21, 2003
Strengths: Light weight, was quite happy with the shock when it worked
Weaknesses: Is high maintenance.
Bottom Line:
Bought the shock 2nd hand from a mate, happy with the shock while it still worked, BUT now the shock is just over 2 years old, and needs some parts to be replaced (lower assembly) but guess what Manitou no longer have that part available as once a shock is over 2 years old they don't carry spares for it. Too expensive apparently! Hello Marzocchi MXC here I come.
Weaknesses: Same as everyone else...they wear out after a couple months. Seals blow, response weakens, and, they are wimpy.
Bottom Line:
They were awesome for the first couple months. So plush, no bob, light as hell, and very responsive. But, after several months of use, they start to give out. They feel like a low level rock shock. They kleak oil and the lockout failed. I had it serviced and it works now, but, not like it did when it was new.
Submitted by
Derrick Stoll
a Cross Country Rider
from North Liberty, IA 52317
Date Reviewed: August 2, 2002
Strengths: Very adjustable, light, lock-out is nice for climbing.
Weaknesses: Too much flex (side to side), not very durable.
Bottom Line:
This has been a good fork for me up until about a month ago. It started creaking when it topped out. After taking it apart 3 times I finally discovered that a lock-ring in the air chamber had broken. OK, no big deal right? Come to find out this part cannot be removed or replaced, so my only option is to buy a new fork. I'm not qualified to say that this is a crappy fork after my experience, but I sure thought this fork would last more than 1 1/2 years. Maybe I'll make a lamp out of it.
Strengths: Very adjustable, looks cool enough, funky carbon arch, lockout
Weaknesses: Yep, its a little sensitive, but what lightweight racing fork isn't? If you wanted a fork for thrashing around big trails, you got the wrong fork..
Bottom Line:
Nice light race fork with plenty of adjustability. lOckout works, so do the other adjustments, just don't be doing crazy drops or leave the lockout on as the seals will blow in an instant. The Mars super may be a good fork, but I havent talked to a racer who hasn't been too dissapointed with this fork, even if it a little high maintence (like a woman I guess!). Go ride
Submitted by
craig
a Cross Country Rider
from denver, co, usa
Date Reviewed: July 9, 2002
Strengths: lightweight and very responsive
Weaknesses: break, fix and then rebreak
Bottom Line:
i loved riding this shock but after a full overhaul and fix by the manitou guys at the worlds last year in vail (Thanks), i goes and break again. not just a minor seal, but the lower stays in the legs just feel out. they are supposedly factory pressed in and glued. kinda weak if you ask me. i tried to post the other day with nothing good to say about manitou, but after a few phone calls by me and my LBS (wheatridge cyclery - thanks for your help), it sounds like manitou is going to stand behind their product and help me out with a new shock at a reduced price. that is cool considering two years of bashing on this fork. bottom line, stay away from this fork and the anti-bob thingy cause i have gone trought two of them as well.
Similar Products Used: manitou SX, old school Specialized pre-Mag 21
Bike Setup: s-works w/ full xtr and chris king
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Submitted by
Luis Otavio Alencar
a Cross Country Rider
from Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil
Date Reviewed: May 7, 2002
Strengths: lightweight, anti bob system
Weaknesses: the urethane ring of the anti bob system and the inner axle of the anti bob
Bottom Line:
I own a Manitou Mars CL 2000 despite the problems with the urethane ring of the anti bob system and its axle which, after some time became hard to turn on/off I was extremely well surprised by the excellent service provided by Manitou especially by the customer service's speedy handling of the problem by sending me brand new ones. Congratulations, Manitou!!
Strengths: The color matched my bike. It enabled Specialize to advertise a lighter bike.
Weaknesses: Creaks, leaks, sucks
Bottom Line:
It is crap like this that will give a company a bad name. This fork is light as heck, but at 155lbs, this weekend warrior managed to blow the sh** out of this thing. I raced it 3 times because, well its a race fork. Not only does the fork allow you to feel every grain of dirt on the trail, it blows oil like a derrick, and creaks like my grandmas knees. An occasional washboard on the trail feels like a rock garden with this thing. My arms are aching by the end of the ride not to mention that the lock out broke in the first week and has never worked since.
So I returned the fork to Manitou through Supergo 2 months ago to fix and get me back on the trail. Well, 2 months later I still have no fork but they tell me that they are replacing everything but the lowers. Well great, but how about just giving me a decent fork!
I am SOOOO pissed that Manitou left me hanging for 2 months and counting. What the hell do they expect me to do! Well, problem solved....in a bit of irony, since Manitou left me out to dry and off the trails, I found a used Marzocchi X-FLY on mtbr. Dear Jesus I have seen the light! I now know what I have missing out on. Those same washboards that threw me around on the Mars CL have been turned into slight vibrations as I blow over them. The weight gain on the bike has not been noticible, and I just flat out am having more fun. So much so, that I just bought a Marzochi Atom 80 just to experience absolute bliss (havent tried it yet).
I think that it is afe to say that Manitou lost a customer on this one. Not only because of performance, but becasue of crappy customer service. The moral of the story is that if you make a crappy fork, then market it as such and dont attached it to $3200 bike and expect people not to notice. Specialized already shoots itself in the foot by attaching its crappy in-house components to the S-works, and now they seem to be in-cohouts with Mantiou to fleece mountain bikers. This experience has made me realize that in the long run building up your own bike is the way to avoid a lot of sunk costs.
Strengths: great place to store oil. carbon arch cool to look at..great for holding head tube off of ground while sitting in garage. I am whimpy wanna be mtbiker, who loves to climb (reason I purchased this fork after leaving C-dale Fatty). works great as long as you are not climbing anything while on your bike.
Weaknesses: sent back 3 times (I DO not do drops/race alot/ride hard or extreme). thought it would be ready to go for race season since it has only been ridden a few times since it was shipped back-WRONG!! air blew on course pre-ride..new seals sent to me, but it is not POSSIBLE to install without damaging them!) luckily LBS has SID SL (although that seems a tad flexy) so I can "race" this weekend and next.
Bottom Line:
lets get together with Local Bike Shops and send them in one shipment to Manitneverworked. I know of at least 6 not including mine which are waiting to go back-thats just me. not that they stand behind this product-but I dont want this thing any more...
PS-$20 dollars is great price as long as you making a lamp out of it! Oh, wait, what a great idea...does Mantheycallthisafork sticker come off?
Strengths: Cheap at swap meets. With some fiddling I was able to turn this thing into about equal to a '94 quality fork. (I have a Manitou 4 that is it's equal)
Weaknesses: No support from manufacturer. No parts availible. Shame on Manitou.
Bottom Line:
Straight from the swap meet to my bike.
Just got the fork on the other night. It was dark and the street doesn't reveal a whole lot as far as performance. The fork needs to be rebuilt. Anti bob doesn't work. As far as flex goes I am used to the Fatty Sl on my C'dale so any other fork I ride feels flexy. I also Have a Jekyll 900sx with a lefty DRL that I like a lot. I think the flex seems to be similar to it's copetition in the same weight cat. Now I just have to find some parts to fix this limper along.
Similar Products Used: Manitou 4, Most of the lower end Rox Shox stuff.
Bike Setup: Pole Sonic Tonic (bonded Al), Sram/gripshift, Avid SD 3.0s, 98 XT V-brakes, Thompson post 0 deg., Salsa Moto Ace stem, Dia-comp ahead-set, Tioga seat, Bear-trap ped., Truetemper Bar, IRC Notos tires, Rolf Dolomite rear wheel, Superfly front hub with a Mavic 517 rim and straight laced DT spokes. Oh, Bullet alloy valve caps. An I cant forget the Cheesemano drive train stuff. This bike is a medium and, hold on to your hats, weighs under 20 lbs! I checked the weight on sveral scales to be sure. Wow!
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Submitted by
jason
a Cross Country Rider
from Vancouver
Date Reviewed: November 15, 2001
Strengths: light, fast, TCP works great, grease ports keep things smooth.
Weaknesses: could be stiffer
Bottom Line:
I don't know where all the problem forks came from. I had a recall on my fork for the crown and had it fixed. Since then I have been riding hard on the fork with no problems and love the performance. The only thing I would like to see is a little more rigidity in the fork. Rember this thing is a super lighr race fork, NOT a big hit fork!
Bike Setup: Specialized M4 with XTR and all the goodies
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Submitted by
Chris
a Cross Country Rider
from Boise, ID
Date Reviewed: October 28, 2001
Strengths: Light and perfroms well with no problems
Weaknesses: the plastic damping knob, a metal one would be nice
Bottom Line:
I weight around 160 and the shock works great, I ride 5 to 7 times a week over the summer and definatly puch the shock. It has been a good value and I am very pleased with it. The shock fits my bike and my riding style and is taken care of.
I got the bike headed off to the NORBA national race and the fork went flat, Manitou was there so they rebuilt the fork and it seemed to be good. A couple of weeks later it did it again so this time the LBS replaced it from another bike to save me the hassle. Now this completely different fork has done the same things, leaks oil is flat won't hold air for more than a couple of hours and the lockout will not turn. I would never recommend this product to anyone.
