Submitted by
Greg
a Cross Country Rider
from Seattle, WA Date Reviewed: February 11, 2007
Duration Product Used:
Less than 1 month
Price Paid:
$125.00
Purchased At:
ebay
Strengths:
Awesome value. No frills but solid.
Weaknesses:
Can't think of too many at this price. The only minor annoyance is that the dropouts are unusually thick. I had to go through the parts box to find a QR that went on more than a couple of threads.
Similar Products Used:
Numerous Marzocchi forks, a couple of Manitous, and once a Girvin Vector.
Bike Setup:
'90's Litespeed, no-frills second bike, mostly used parts
Bottom Line:
I travel to CA a lot, so have been setting up a second bike to keep at a friend's house there. Picked this fork up from ebay for $125 to fit a '90's titanium frame that wanted < 80 mm travel (this fork is the 80mm version). Turns out it's perfect. No frills on this fork (open bath coil/oil, preload knob, complete and unyielding lockout switch, that's it), but it's surprisingly nice quality. Hard-anodized -- not chromed -- stanchions, all-metal construction except for the preload knobs (but they are solid hunks of resin held on by big honking machine screws. Breakage seems unlikely). Just a quality coil spring fork. No rebound adjustment, but the stock spring, valving, and oil seem about right for my weight (175#) so far. Presumably a fair amount of adjustment would be possible by changing oil weight. Not even that heavy (bit over 4#). Magura has some nice touches, even on their lower-end fork -- stainless steel face inserts on the dropouts and disc tabs, very nice brake hose routing clip that avoids zip-ties. Haven't ridden it much yet, but so far it's just a solid, predictable fork. There is a bit of stiction -- the word on Magura forks seems to be that the seals take a while to break in, which appears true for this fork as well. Summary - probably not 5 chiles against full-on expensive forks, but worth about 8 chiles against any other low-end fork I've tried.
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Overall Rating:
