Hey guys, I am considering the Manitou Black Platinum. I have a jack flash and will be riding trials and the occaisonal trail. So I liked the idea of adjustable travel. Anyone know if cranking down the travel lowers your front end or just restricts how far it can come up? (obviosly being able to lower your front end would be better for setting it up for trials)
Ryden, I had a Jack Flash before my Echo Urban.. loved it. It took a beating and never quit. A friend of mine bought it and has been riding it for almost a year. Back to the point... I've got an adjustable Psylo that I had run on the JF and now occasionally on the Echo to go trail riding. When you crank the travel down on the Psylo it actually shortens the travel, cutting down the height of the fork too. I hate Rock Shox as a rule.. but it's worked well for me. Couldn't pass up the deal I got it for through the shop I work at. Call Manitou and ask them directly if you're bent on that fork or find yourself a Psylo. The Psylo I have also has a lockout. Marzocchi isn't a bad bet either. I'd definitely suggest having a rigid to swap on when you're not on the trail. You'll progress ten times as fast. Good luck.. :joshers:
STAY AWAY from Manitou.They are crap and don't anyone try to argue. Rok shox are OK but marzocchi are by far the best.Any pro who hasn't got a fork sponsor will tell you that. The manitou adjustment just lowers the crown at increments.You still have suspension at the lowest setting.Marzocchis' set up keeps going down as you hit it more.so you at least end up with the axle to crown race in the range of trials worthyness.It will weigh a lot more though.
rock shox better than manitou?..haha check out the fox 80mm, float or vanilla, rl or rlc..depends on how much yo uwant to spend... marzocchi always a good bet though.
IM ARGUING THAT! manitou have the best dampers, the tpc and tpc+ systems perform better than anything out there. they tend to be a bit flexy because they use smaller stancions.. their travel adjust system does lower the fork. rockshox have good designs and their forks are not bad. the u-turn is awesome. bushing suck, they wear out and the forks develop play early. their dampers work very well but require a bit more maintenance than manitou. marzocchi- their new stuff is horrible, every new marz i've felt feels like clumpy poop. ive seen too many come from the factory way low on oil. the older forks are great. the ecc is a good idea, but that tiny crap lever is horribly weak. the good thing about marzocchi is that they're very low maintenance otherwise. fox- killer forks, period. super plush and track extremely well. this is the only fork i've ever seen that feels as butter smooth as my 99 Z1. i have a 125RLC now and LOVE IT. only drawback, their internals cannot be serviced whatsoever, factory only. of all of the current manufacturers, i like the current marzocchi line the least.
hansy has a vanilla 80 rlc... that looks like a good one... i have never ridden any new marzocchis, just pre-'03 i just sold my manitou sherman fork to buy my new koxx, but i was sad because that thing felt fecking awesome.
Thx guys, I got so much more help here so much faster than my old forum. Its good to know the adjustment does lower the crown (or else it would have skrewed up my geometry). I am going to go for the manitou, also because I put a deposit on it at the bike show, to get 300 freaking dollars off! It will be on my new jack flash custom build by the end of the week.
manitou or fox is ussually preffered by the mountain bike/dirt jump people in know. Marzocchi's older stuff was great, but i have heard bad things about newer models. edit: i guess bigD already said this... oops
Get a marzocchi mx com ETA. It is relatively light and you can lock it down so it acts almost like a rigid.