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White Brothers FR3

Average Rating 4/5
# of Reviews 10
MSRP $ 599.95
Weight
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Description:
  • Total Travel: 125mm(4.92")
  • Damping: Judd coil springs w/hardbody damper cartridge
  • Features: Oversize 32mm stantions, wet bath lubrication, dual billet crowns, aluminum steer tube.





  • Submitted by colin McCarthy a Downhiller from Eugene, OR, USA
    Date Reviewed: August 20, 2001
    Favoriate Trail:Shotgun Creek DH
    Duration Product Used:1 Year
    Price Paid: $600.00
    Purchased At:Copeland's Sports
    Strengths:stiffness, quality of travel, damping, ease of maintenance,
    Weaknesses:some people won't like the dual crowns
    Similar Products Used:Manitous, Marzocchi Z1, psylo
    Bike Setup:dual slalom/freerie bike
    Bottom Line:this fork rocks and its for sale on EBAY and MTBR.COM for less than "350
    Value Rating:5Overall Rating:5

    Submitted by josh a Downhiller from way done there
    Date Reviewed: June 22, 2001
    Duration Product Used:1 Year
    Price Paid: $400.00
    Purchased At:western cycle
    Strengths:great overall, i dont know what people are talking about stiction? does fine on 8 footers
    Weaknesses:cust. service blows and it took me 2 months to get a new cartridge.
    Similar Products Used:everything
    Bike Setup:santa cruz heckler
    Bottom Line:good fork, sh*tty customer service=not worth the price of the fork
    Value Rating:2Overall Rating:3

    Submitted by Jason Mansfield a Downhiller from VA
    Date Reviewed: May 11, 2001
    Favoriate Trail:Water Shed
    Duration Product Used:1 Year
    Price Paid: $400.00
    Purchased At:MTBR
    Strengths:Its strong for a light fork, easy to work on and service.
    Weaknesses:A litle flexy
    Similar Products Used:Boxxer, Stratos S7, Stratos SS8, Headshok's and all other
    forks.
    Bike Setup:Cannondale SuperV 1000 FR. FR<3, King, Raceface,Syncros,
    KUjo's, Kore and XT
    Bottom Line:This fork came dry as hell no lube on the seals. WB say to
    break it in first, thats BS. To service this fork takes
    about 10 minutes. This is what you do. Take the front
    brake cable off from the lever. Flip the bike upside down
    Loosen the 2 bottom bolts. If the legs are stuck on put the bolt back in and tap it with a hammer to break the seal.
    Bolts out, now slide the lower legs off. Clean the tubes,
    clean the gunk out of the inside of the lower legs (a glass
    washer with a handle works good). Clean the seals real good
    and dope them up with SLICK HONEY, now slide the lower legs
    back on and tighen the bottom bolts. Done and the fork will
    feel like better then new. never over tighten the crown bolts. BTW this is not my DH race bike I have a Turner DHR
    for that.
    Value Rating:4Overall Rating:5

    Submitted by jason samansky a Downhiller from sacto, cali
    Date Reviewed: February 26, 2001
    Favoriate Trail:sticks and stones(thats right)
    Duration Product Used:1 Year
    Price Paid: $401.00
    Purchased At:my shop(my old job still get the hook up)
    Strengths:super ridgid and fairly plush, it can also take a gozz.3.0 tire,jumped it off a 8ft drop and landed on front end,no seals blew.oh yeah adjustable ride hight.
    Weaknesses:fair amount of stiction,hard to find rebuild kit,high maintance,no rebound adjustment(external),company f ed me on schemematics still have not got them. thanks.
    Similar Products Used:name one! just long travel dh forks superstar,boxxer,dh3,shiver............
    Bike Setup:old school beater frame hard tail,full xtr,monkey bar,tomac BSH stem,intense 2.75 tires, DA FREERIDEMACHINE,yes it is a hooptie.
    Bottom Line:the bottom line is this fork is dope but not sick,cush but not plush,but a good buy at cost,or even at retail(maybe). definatly not for you weekend dudes,keep the company small like old school fox.But if it can take my punishment, it can definatly sack up and take anyones best weekend beat down! wud up to the little folsom freeriders (you know who you are chad,jeff,R.p.churchie).
    out
    jt sammy
    Value Rating:3Overall Rating:3

    Submitted by Mark Capprizioski a Weekend Warrior from Laguna Hills
    Date Reviewed: January 6, 2001
    Favoriate Trail:Mystic Cliffs
    Duration Product Used:3 months
    Price Paid: $590.00
    Purchased At:Helens Cycles
    Strengths:Super Stiff!!! Great action. Looks reely cool.
    Weaknesses:Seems to have a little stiction after a few rides, WB says that the fork need 100mi. of break in time?
    Similar Products Used:Marzocchi Bomber Z1
    Bike Setup:Santa Cruz Bullit, XTR, Race Face, Discs, etc.
    Bottom Line:Very solid fork, though I do not see how 100 miles of riding will help solve the stiction issue. It is to the point that I can compress the fork over an inch and it will stick there and not come back up. How will more ride time help this? Any suggestions will be appreciated!
    Value Rating:3Overall Rating:3

    Submitted by Dale Quarton a Cross Country Rider from Orange
    Date Reviewed: December 26, 2000
    Favoriate Trail:Coopers Run
    Duration Product Used:3 months
    Price Paid: $460.00
    Purchased At:WB
    Strengths:Stiff. Lighter than Marzocchi Jr. T
    Weaknesses:As usual, this WB fork develops stiction after a couple of rides unless you pry up the seals and gob lubricant in the area between the seal and the legs. After a wet ride, the fork would hardly work at all. You can ride a marzocchi for years and never touch it. That is how a fork should work.
    Similar Products Used:SC90, DC110
    Bike Setup:GT LTS 1000, all the BS.
    Bottom Line:Works great when precisely tuned. I do not want to have to precisely tune before every ride.
    Value Rating:3Overall Rating:2

    Submitted by Mike a Weekend Warrior from Concord, CA
    Date Reviewed: November 17, 2000
    Favoriate Trail:Limeridge
    Duration Product Used:6 months
    Price Paid: $500.00
    Strengths:Very plush and strong. Enough travel for free ridin'.
    Weaknesses:Only problem was the white plastic spacer between the 2 springs were getting stuck causing the shock to be sticky. Shaved the spacers down and there is no more stiky feelin.' Customer service is really bad. I work in quality control for a large company and the service usually provided by large companies suck. The kind of service WB's provides are worse.
    Similar Products Used:WB DH118, Rock shox
    Bike Setup:99 Cannondale Super V. Shimano XT Discs brakes. MRP chain guide, IRC kujo 2.35, Rhyno lite rims.
    Bottom Line:Very happy with the fork for the price a paid.
    Value Rating:5Overall Rating:5

    Submitted by Guillermo Islas a Weekend Warrior from Mexico City
    Date Reviewed: October 30, 2000
    Favoriate Trail:Any volcano around the valley
    Duration Product Used:6 months
    Price Paid: $560.00
    Purchased At:cambria
    Strengths:Super stiff, plush and quick responsive downhilling, light and good looking, climbs OK.It is the best freeride fork ever.
    Weaknesses:A lot of problems with cartrige, and rebuilt it my self. I do believe that WB should RECALL!!! and replace them ASAP. It is a shame that such an awesome fork fabricators are such an a...holes with the quality control and the customer service!!!
    Similar Products Used:Marzochi z1-bam, Marzochi z1QR-20, RockShox SID-LT, Marzochi Mr-T, Manitou Xvert-super
    Bike Setup:1997 Intence uzzi-DH /enduro, XTR,mavic,Hayes
    Bottom Line:After using all of the past forks on my bike, I can tell for sure that for the freerider that like long rides with a lot of jumps and quick cornering and speed on downhilling and don't forget uphill climbs, this fork is awesome.
    FIVE FLAMIN CHILIS WHEN THE CARTRIGE IS OK.
    Value Rating:4Overall Rating:5

    Submitted by david d a Downhiller from MA
    Date Reviewed: August 13, 2000
    Favoriate Trail:E Shore
    Duration Product Used:3 months
    Strengths:plush, stiff, really good looking. and light weight. best fork on the market for freeride, and realitivly cheap
    Weaknesses:easy to dent legs, and white brothers custemer service SUCKS. its basicaly non existent. and yes. my FR3 did also come with a messed up cartridge. and they did replace it, but it took them 5 weeks to send me the cartrige, after calling them EVERY day. if their forks were not SO awsome, i would not have bought a WHITE brothers.
    Similar Products Used:X-Vert R. ZOke Jr. T
    Bike Setup:Santa cruz heckler
    Bottom Line:they are the best forks around, but the HUGE drawback is how much the customer support SUCKS. its so hard to deal with them. its almost worth buying a Zoke instead. but they do ride AWSOME. also, if you look around hard enough, like thebikeco.com, you can get them cheap, 450
    Value Rating:4Overall Rating:4

    Submitted by Sean a Weekend Warrior from Aliso Viejo, CA
    Date Reviewed: July 25, 2000
    Favoriate Trail:Hair & Nail
    Duration Product Used:6 months
    Strengths:This fork is very stiff (due to triple clamp) and pretty looking. The travel is just right (not to much and not to little) for climbing and descending fast.
    Weaknesses:The internal hardbody cartridge was reportedly assembled incorrectly by the manaufacturer prior to insertion into the FR-3. I ended up losing most of the travel and the fork would stick after sitting for a while. White Brothers replaced the cartridge (thanks Rob) with no questions, however if they knew that the cartridge was built incorrectly, why didn't White Brothers issue a recall?
    Similar Products Used:1998 Judy XL
    Bike Setup:Santa Cruz Bullet with XT components
    Bottom Line:This fork is fairly light (4.6 lbs.), stiff and has supple travel. It is not mushy during climbs and feels smooth over the small hits. I purchased the fork on sale, saving $150.00.
    Value Rating:4Overall Rating:5






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