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I'm planning a 29er hardtail build for XC use and stuff like Dusk til Dawn and SITS etc. and so I'm looking at fitting a 100mm suspension fork. This is not an area I know a huge amount about as I've not used forks in this bracket for ages and I've not got much 29er experience at all. I'm a pretty big lad at 6'4" and about 18 stone so not looking at the raciest stuff but I do want something reasonably light.
What are the best options? What are the Minutes like compared to a Reba? Is the Reba the best option? I know I definitely don't want a Fox fork but other than that could do with some advice.
Cheers all
Just been through this process. I am also 6'4" and around 18 stone.
I looked at the Reba and the Manitou Tower - the 29er Minute has been renamed and I couldn't find any of last year's Minutes with 100mm of suspension. Moreover, as far as I could glean the 120s are not convertible to 100s ( althouth the 100s and the 80s may interchange). I also needed a 1 1/8th steerer, not a tapered.
As far as I could find out the Tower Expert's come with a soft spring and the Pro's with a medium spring and you and I will need at least a firm and possibly an extra firm. Even though the Pro is a hybrid air plus spring system, there seems a fair bit of anecdotal internet evidence to suggest that without the upgrade the spring will snap. The Pro's are a MARS spring and although the Manitou website lists the part number I could not find one in stock anywhere on the internet, neither could my LBS find any record of the part on their system, either by that number or any other, and Hotlines haven't responded to my emails. Finally, the 100mm Pros are out of stock in this country and last time I looked stock is not expected before mid June. Apart from that they look very good.
The Reba is available in 100mm but only in QR unless you want a tapered steerer - and even the tapered steerer maxle has now disappeared off the CRC website and only seems available in america. RS's website says that they have not produced any aftermarket maxle 29er rebas this year. I went with the Reba RLT QR on the basis that by the time I had waited for the Manitou, got the spare spring, if it existed, and paid someone to change it I would have spent much the same as the cost of the Reba. There is also a Recon Gold 29er QR fork which is a bit cheaper.
CRC also do a couple of suntours with 15mm axles, the 26inch version of the air sprung suntour raidon seems to get good reviews but I couldn't find much info about the 29er version, and a Marzocchi 44 which is heavily discounted and possibly un-coincidentally has had some fairly average reviews. CRC is also unclear as to whether it needs a spacer inserting to convert it to 100mm. I already had the wheels for my build and was limited to QR or 20mm without a new hub and a rebuild, so ruled out the 15mm axled forks as not cost effective for me but you may have more flexibility if you have hope pro hubs or haven't committed to a wheelset yet.
Available options for someone our size therefore appear to be the air forks i.e. Reba dual air QR, Recon solo air QR, Marzocchi 44 TST 15mm or Suntour Raidon 15mm in descending order of price.
Hope that is helpful.
Doths cap to that reply
there is also a Maverick SC32 with the 29er conversion
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/4743800172/ ]365/179 28/6/10[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr
How easy is it to get the parts to convert the Maverick? Is it an easy job?
Ta
yea, fairly easy, it's just a bump stop, one on each leg to reduce the travel to stop the crown hitting the top of the tyre, you can do it with the DUC fork too
ratadog summed it up pretty well...I'm about 17st and can give some input regarding the Minute fork. As you probably know the 2010 minute is the same fork as the 'Tower Pro', the 'Tower Expert' is the old Drake. The Minute/Tower Pro is an air fork with coil assist and the Drake/Tower Expert is a coil fork with air assist. The minute being lighter and higher up the pecking order.
I have a set of 2010 Minute 29er 120mm forks, the small negative spring or 'ride kit' as manitou call it shipped with the fork was 'medium'. I bought them between xmas and new year and on the 4th of Jan contacted hotlines chasing the x-firm ride kit who had no record of it. At the end of 2010 the manitou website and hotlines still only had parts listings for the 2009 models and at first gave me the incorrect part numbers from the 2009 fork. After several emails I phoned manitou USA and one of their techs gave me the correct part number and told me they had plenty in stock (141-26744-k003 for 120mm) but being distributors would not sell directly so I had to order it through the UK dist hotlines. After several call to hotlines who still said they had no record of the part number finally told me they would order one for me but also being a dist I had to then order it from my LBS.
I did that and after waiting patiently chased hotlines a few times to be told each time, 'it's on order'. A few weeks ago I got sick of waiting (3 months!!) and emailed manuitou USA and moaned about waiting so long and the guy agreed to do a 'one-time sale' and shipped them to me directly...they arrived less than a week later and 2 ride kits (I got the firm and x-firm just in case) plus international shipping only cost me £10 more than the UK RRP for one kit. Low and behold, a week after they arrived from the USA, hotlines called to say the one they ordered had arrived...
After all the waiting and being messed around the forks are awesome! The correct ride kit makes a huge difference to the performace/feel. I've ridden 26" Fox Talas.. way too harsh due to lack of negative spring tunability and 26" Rebas which are OK but the QR lowers are quite flexy with a hefty rider and you have ramp the pressures up well above the weight/pressure chart specs. The guys at TF Tuned were also a bit iffy about a guy my size on Rebas when I quizzed them about it. 29er Rebas with maxle are probably fine if you can find/afford them.
The minutes received a few negative reviews, people saying they 'blow through' the travel..I'm guessing many of these guys didn't bother to swap the 'ride kit' to the one specified for their weight (maybe because they weren't available 😐 ) or tune the air pressure/damping properly. With the x-firm ride kit and a perfectly in-range 100psi of air pressure these forks are superb! Nice, super-plush ride... the Absolute Plus damper works beautifully with every click adding a bit more damping. I'm very impressed with these forks and so long as I don't have any catastrophic failures in the near future I don't see any need to spend more on Rebas or Fox. At the offer price you can pretty much get 2 sets of Minutes for the price of one set of Rebas or 3 sets for the price of a set of Fox F29s. It's a shame the UK customer service was so poor on this occasion, hopefully it's just me having bad luck...fair do's to manitou USA for shipping one direct though, I just wish they would have agreed to it sooner...
Sorry about the long post but I hope this helps.. 😀
forgot to mention (after all that!)...I have the 20mm axle version and the lowers are nice and stiff (that's what she said 😀 ). big_scot-nanny from around here had the QR version and said they were quite noodly so would definitly stick with the 20mm version...
i'm 12 stone and have 3 sets of minutes. at my weight there is no need for a different ride kit. i've had rebas and toras in the past and they were good forks......until you try something better. i think the minutes are much better they feel more linear, faster acting (less damped)stiffer, lighter (a little bit) and cheaper.
Thanks for the info everyone and some cracking advice. I'll have a look further into the options. Cheers
Worth considering especially at the price you can get them now.
Tried Maz 44 29er's, very heavy, mine were QR and 120mm which were far too long and in truth, far too heavy compared to other options.
Now on a pair of Fox 2011 F29 forks, seem ok but limited riding time.
[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/29er-forks-options ]Previous thread[/url]
Previous thread with a useful link to a German web that lists a Reba maxle with a 1 1/8 steerer. I was lucky to get the second hand one that Clink was selling; fitted but not ridden yet.
The minutes received a few negative reviews, people saying they 'blow through' the travel..I'm guessing many of these guys didn't bother to swap the 'ride kit' to the one specified for their weight
Awesome-o, I am one of those guys. I just could not get the replacement part. You don't have a spare one do you?
Kev
blow through travel doesn't always just mean too soft though does it. It can often mean the fork is too linear so that to get any small bump compliance, the fork is too soft later in the travel.
As long as you are happy to order from Germany or Jenson in the US there's no problem getting hold of the Maxle Reba. I'd highly recommend it.
Sorry to hijack a little, but what size front discs are people running with their Fox F29s? I don't have them to check here, can you run a 160?
im running Juicy7 160mm on my Fox F29s -- fine
Holy thread resurrection!