Sus forks for 29+

[FLV]

Only just woken up and spotted these

http://www.manitoumtb.com/products/forks/magnum/

Look pretty good, boost front hub required but might make a krampus or similar feel a bit silly for a while. Not like they arent always a bit silly

[DrMekon]

I'm running one on my Stache 9. Stiff chassis - tracks really well. After 900km, still feels lovely and smooth. Recommended PSI is way off for me, I've dropped 15psi from min setting. Others are saying drop 20. Even at min setting, I had to wind off all compression damping to get anywhere near to full travel. Still not bottomed out. Hexlock QR takes some learning. Wouldn't like to have to faff about with is when I'm tired and it's cold, dark and wet. There's no lock out, but maxing out the compression damping is the recommended alternative and works well for road sections. Don't feel the need for it otherwise.

[FLV]

interesting, thanks for that.

[DrMekon]

So my pair of these developed a 4cm vertical scratch on one stanchion whilst riding the Peak 200 in dry weather. IMO, and in the opinion of my LBS, this could only be from something getting stuck in the seal, and in that they were 3 months old (but admittedly 2000km), it was very disappointing. The magnums don't have a service interval, but I wipe the stanchions down with finish line dry, and generally keep my bike obsessively clean, and got them regularly looked at by the shop. The scratch was deep enough that it catches your nail. The mechanic at my shop said that in his opinion, they would let grime in to the fork leg whenever it was wet.

The shop sent them to the distributor (H**lines I think), with a note asking to be called back. A couple of weeks later, after chasing, the forks arrived back at the shop with a note saying "cosmetic damage, nothing to be done, replaced seals". I let the shop know, if they didn't get these sorted at no cost to me, because the bike was under 6 month old, I'd obtain a engineers report and reject the bike (this was done nicely - the shop are really good to me, and this is the fourth bike I've bought from them in 2 years - and was more so they had a strong position to go back to the distro with).

Distro came back and said they found nothing in the seals when the replaced them (why did they replace the seals if nothing was wrong with them?). Shop said that wasn't acceptable. Distro have gone back to Manitou, who've agreed to give me a new stanchion / crown assembly. Sorted at last, but this has taken maybe 6 weeks.

If there is a moral to this story, it's that Manitou need to work out their service intervals, and that if something goes wrong, get the shop to strip the forks before sending them back to the distributor. I had heard that Manitou stood by their stuff, and that's proven to be the case, but be aware that the UK distributor may not be as immediately attentive.

I'm still of the view that the forks feel absolutely amazing, and work really well with 29+. The small bump stuff is shockingly good.

[jameso]

DrMekon, I had the same issue with a set of forks in the Peak Dist years ago. Forks flex at the seal/bush area and if the dust seal opens up a tiny gap and lets a bit of grit in, that then scores the fork really fast. I think one ride with grit in the seal like this can cause some damage. It's a rare, crap-luck thing though so not something I'd worry much about, more an accepted risk. Annoying all the same. I filled mine with araldite, smoothed off with a hard edge while wet, all was ok.

[DrMekon]

DrMekon, I had the same issue with a set of forks in the Peak Dist years ago. Forks flex at the seal/bush area and if the dust seal opens up a tiny gap and lets a bit of grit in, that then scores the fork really fast. I think one ride with grit in the seal like this can cause some damage. It's a rare, crap-luck thing though so not something I'd worry much about, more an accepted risk. Annoying all the same. I filled mine with araldite, smoothed off with a hard edge while wet, all was ok.

I had read that was a solution. Maybe I was a bit harsh, but my LBS mechanic was onside (he has the same forks), and both the shop manager and director are good to me.

It did dent my confidence in the forks a bit, and maybe unnecessarily. Cheers for the info.