[Thanatos]

I am building up a mojo for AM/XC and can't decide between the 09 Talas and the DUC. Cost and weight of the two are very close and both are touted as being easy to work on without special tools for field repairs. The engineer in me prefers the axle and drop out design of the DUC but the Talas matches the 140 mm travel perfectly. So far they seem to be in a dead heat so it may come down to differences in fit and ride characteristics on the mojo frame for a 6' 2", 200lb + rider. Any thoughts from those who have ridden either, or preferably both set ups, or who have had thier hands on the 09 Talus would be helpfull. Thanks.

 

[Jayem]

The engineer in me prefers the axle and drop out design of the DUC but the Talas matches the 140 mm travel perfectly. So far they seem to be in a dead heat so it may come down to differences in fit and ride characteristics on the mojo frame for a 6' 2", 200lb + rider. Any thoughts from those who have ridden either, or preferably both set ups, or who have had thier hands on the 09 Talus would be helpfull. Thanks.

The DUC is a more efficient design in terms of fore-aft rigidity, but poor with torsion. It's a neat product in terms of the design (bulged lowers welded to lower crown), but a lot of the users have problems with the seals, damping cartridge, and so on. A dual-crown fork is only a more efficient structure when you get to the amount of travel that makes it impossible to use a standard fork and get a decent amount of bushing-overlap. Now, being 200+lbs, that torsional rigidity is probably a big deal for you, and while the DUC isn't exactly a super-wet-noodle because of the dual crown, it's not going to be nearly as stiff in torsion as the fox or most other right-side-up forks. Apart from that issue, look through all of the archives on the maverick board and see how many issues people have had with the forks, consider that there aren't really that many of these things out there compared to the big companies. I'm not saying you should or should not get the DUC, and I'm not saying you should get the Talas, but you should carefully consider these things. Personally, I'd never buy a maverick product based on the shortcommings of the designs (bikes and forks) that I've seen, but they do work for some people.

 

[TNC]

If I were building up a 29'er fork, I'd use the DUC32 in a heartbeat. However, the DUC is a very short A-to-C fork for its 6" of travel in non-reduced mode. That might not be a problem for the Mojo, as it's about a 5" or so bike, isn't it? I wouldn't put the DUC on a 6" or bigger bike because of that low A-to-C.

I think the later models of DUC32's are pretty reliable overall. There were a good deal of niggling problems with it at first like those mentioned by Jayem, but we've had quite a few of the later ones through the shop, and they've been darned reliable. I think it's the best 29'er wheel fork, and it's a darned good trail fork and not-too-radically-aggressive AM fork for a 5" or so bike.