I'm going to upgrade my GF's Forks for her. She currently has Rock Shox Judy J3 crap on her bike (approx £60 forks) She probably gets about 2 inches of travel from them despite various tweaks. I think her riding will improve drastically if she has a confidence inspiring fork.

I had promised her an Air fork, but i dont want to spend more than £150 on a new one, so i guess it will have to be spring.

Along with any recommendations ( I suspect the usual suspects Marzochi, Remas etc) what other things do I need to consider:

Measurements of the fork crown/steerer?

Are there woman specific shocks, I know the judy is WSD, but i suspect the usual shocks just require a lighter spring?

Any help would be appreciated.

Luckily, she wouldnt fall for that, despite being blonde.

but i dont want to spend more than £150 on a new one

So how much were your forks then? £400 - £600? I doubt she'd like that either!

Podge, good point!  if you really want to get her in to the sport this might be the way to do it. go for something that really works. It may be bit more expensive but in a long run pays of as she will really enjoy her riding.

 May be keep July beer free and put the money towars decent fork?

well I have Fox Floats but there is no way Im buying her those. She already loves the sport and she doesnt moan about her forks, but she would like some better ones so she can go faster more confidently.

PS, it would take a lot of beer free months to be able to afford some high spec forks.

Tricky to answer but a few thoughts. I'm assuming you GF is lighter and sgorter than the average male and that you do rides that envolve up as well as down

 Everyting I've read sugests that MX Pro or Tora will buy huge performance gains but are still pretty heavy

 I remember watching my GF try and carry her 32lb (rigid) bike in the Pyrenese. It was a huge % of her body weight and all a bit silly. A lighter bike really made a difference.

So if the budget won't stretch and she doesn't need a long steerer then I'd look at used forks. I just paid 18 pounds for a pair of Manitou sx ti for my 11 year old son. Air would have been better to allow for weight adjustment but for under £20.......

Saw these on single track, which might help...

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/read.php?f=5&i=677815&t=677815

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/read.php?f=5&i=677738&t=677738

Looking back I think I worried too much when my GF walked bits. She just enjoyed mountain biking in different ways.

 Possibly the best moment was showing her a video of the Porcupine Rim trail (Utah)a few years ago. She couldn't believe that she done it.To us at the time it was just a day out. She walked a more than me (still on rigid bikes) but we did it

 http://www.petefagerlin.com/video/porcsingletrack.mpg

any way

 best of luck

rockshox Recon Air??

halfway houses between  the Tora and Revlation

scrap that just looked at the prices on CRC i only paid about £160 for mine now they are knocking on £230 

Thanks for the suggestions

Right, Im thinking of these, MX Pro ETAs for £189 , but i get a 10% discount from Evans so more likely  £170 (Has to be evans as thats where i can use the vouchers I get..grr)

Versatile air sprung XC fork

• Marathon series magnesium monolite with post disc mount
• Alloy forged crown with alloy XC steerer
• 30mm stanchions
• Revised RV damper with externally adjustable rebound
• ETA cartridge with lock down
• Air sprung
• 100mm Travel
• 1 inch 1/8 steerer

I take it I only have to worry about the steerer size. What about the length of the steerer tube, do you cut them down to size, it seems her steerer tube on her frame is very short.

GF's current fork spec is:

·  Brake Usage F/R: Front

I bought some RS Tora 318 U-Turns for £144 from here:

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/10100/Rockshox_Tora_318_Coil_UTurn_Forks_2008

They are white though, and there is 2-7 day delay. They are cheaper than the MX Pro's, but slightly heavier. You can adjust the travel from 85-130mm though, and they might be slightly more rugged. On the flipside, if your GF is very petite the springs might be too stiff....  was that any use or just more confusing? They also have air sprung 318's available for £176 with remote lockout. I don't know so much about those though.

The main issue is that I am going to be getting £150 bike vouchers from my Companies bike to work scheme shortly, middle of next month possibly. Only catch is that they valid for Evans, Wizzbike (urban transport bike shop, so whenever i go in there for a MTB query they pretty poor) and Moore Brothers, that dont have a website, but i could probably give them a call.

I like the look of the Bombers and i think my GF will enjoy them. My brother in law has the older versions on his bike and they pretty solid allround fork. my only query now is what sizing issues I need to worry about. I dont want to order the fork and find it doesnt fit. 

You need to make sure that the steerer tube diameter of the new fork matches that of the old fork. Commonly they are 1 1/8" in diameter but some bikes, especially older bikes, will only be 1" in diameter. If you get the wrong diameter the fork wont fit at all. Which is bad. You typically don't need to worry about steerer length, as they tend to be made excessively long so they can be cut to fit any bike. The other measurement of importance is the overall fork length: frames are designed for use with specific fork length. If you change this you will change the handling of the bike, but as long as you only change by a small amount (+/-20mm?!?) it shouldn't be too drastic. There is a good walkthrough of the fork changing procedure on this site if you are feeling bold (search "fork" in the maintenance section, or else I can post a link), or else take it to your LBS.

Her bike has been upgraded to Disc brakes! so thats not an issue. one of the other upgrades she needs is Disc brake wheels, cos i think her Rim brake wheels are carrying dead weight.

Whats the link to the website?

I think the overall fork length will be fine, they both 100mm travels

et voila:

http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/3025

Put your female caps on

Shouldn't that be in?