[telebiker]

Just bought myself an '04 Salty for Christmas. I'll call it my "Santamontes".

Help me decide between a Fox Vanilla 130RLC or a Marzocchi AM1. I am 200lb plus rider who likes fast technical trails with the occasional small drop. Any other suggestions would be great too.

 

[FoShizzle]

i think you nailed 2 of the 3 forks i would recommend. in addition, it is hard not to consider the Revelation. While I have not tried it myself, I hear good things from people who certainly have more experience than I with forks.

I have used the AM1 and Vanilla on my X5. Which AM1 are you talking about? 110-130 or 130-150? i think the 130-150 is gonna be too tall but the 110-130 will be sweet.

only reason i went to Vanilla from the 130-150 AM1 is because i went back to 5" travel and wanted to lighten my bike up a bit (~ 0.8 pounds savings in fork).

cheers

 

[telebiker]

Thanks FO. I was thinking 130-150 AM1 so that I could swap it over to my 6 Pack if required. I hadn't considered the 110-130, good call. I'm leery of Rock Shox products. I have had problems with every RS fork that I have used. I hear that the product has improved though. Isn't the Revelation an air fork? I'm a coil guy myself, hence the two choices.

 

[FoShizzle]

Thanks FO. I was thinking 130-150 AM1 so that I could swap it over to my 6 Pack if required. I hadn't considered the 110-130, good call. I'm leery of Rock Shox products. I have had problems with every RS fork that I have used. I hear that the product has improved though. Isn't the Revelation an air fork? I'm a coil guy myself, hence the two choices.

Tigman will certainly post in this regard and I defer to him.....he seems to really like his Revelation on the Salty. I am extremely happy with my Vanilla, though it is a PUSHed version.....i doubt i would like the non PUSHed version nearly as much.

 

[RoundRockTJ]

I would not run any more than 115mm on the Saltamontes. I ran it at 105-110mm. Also, if you are going to keep the 6-pack you should leave some seperation between the two bikes. Put a RS Reba on there and keep the bike as a 26lbs screamer. If I had the money for two bikes I would have kept my Salty as a 4" bike and bought an X6. But I cannot so I just got the X5. Good luck.

Oh yea, I should have the bike shipped out Mon or Tue. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 

[TIGMAN]

Fork choice?

Thanks FO. I was thinking 130-150 AM1 so that I could swap it over to my 6 Pack if required. I hadn't considered the 110-130, good call. I'm leery of Rock Shox products. I have had problems with every RS fork that I have used. I hear that the product has improved though. Isn't the Revelation an air fork? I'm a coil guy myself, hence the two choices.

Leery ? So was I !
Problems ? the older RS forks just sucked period !
Improved ? Biggest understatement of the year !
Air fork ? Yes it is ( Revelation)!
Coil guy ? So am I but the Revelation is as plush as anything I ever
owned ! Well close anyway to a couple of Marzocchi coil
forks I owned its been awhile !

As far as choice I like all the above choices but still like the ability to ride at 130mm in front hence the U-Turn feature ! That's just me , everyone is different ! In fact I think I'll send them all to PUSH and be done with it ! TIG.

 

[El_Scottamontes]

I agree that I want to keep the long travel ability without changing forks or buying another bike. I am running a 2004 Minute and find that the 130 mm is great for going straight down, but it does tend to push and dive in hard corners and become unweildy in tight maneuvers and steep climbs.
From what I can gather by the geometry specs, the Salt was designed around a 485mm Axel to Crown length (not to say that this is not up to the rider). Most 130mm forks are 505mm ATC. Therefore, I am looking at the Reba Race 85-115 U-Turn, RS Rev 100-130 U-Turn and 2006 Minute 3:00 100mm.