I've got an Orange Gringo that I bought with horrible 80mm Manitou SX forks. Long over due I plan to upgade to something a bit smoother (one of the things that kept me off the bike is a dodgy wrist).I've survived a couple of offroad trips with my son in the last week and reckon I need to sort the forks while 80mm is still available. Questions:

1) Do chainreaction cycles say if the forks are OEM. I was lokking at the 2004 with ETA, but marzocchi's website sat that the 85 mm version was not a retail fork. I believe windwave won't honour the 3 year warranty on OEM forks.

 2) How much difference in feel between the air and air coil MX pro models

3) Should I spend a bit extra for Magura Odur, are these plush oversmall bumps?

 cheers

John

my odurs arrived this morning, they do seem pretty nice, although i've not ridden them. they look good, although seem a little heavy. from what i've heard, they should be pretty stiff.

i have seen some rebas on merlin for £200 though... might be a good option. 

I saw the rebas but they are 100mm travel. I think the frame won't take that.

 Can the travel be reduced?

 I'd also need a pump (I assume). Do you need a pump for the marzocchi or can you improvise.

 Let us know how riding the odurs go

 John

my revs came with a pump, dunno if 'zocchis would. the odurs (obviously) don't need one.

i'm pretty sure rebas can be reduced with some internal jiggery-pokery... 

2001 I think

 The option was rigid or 80mm forks. It certainly feels fairly slack with 80mm forks. My hunch is that at that point Orange were not really doing suspension corrected geometry

Bike radar says there is a spacer to reduce travel on the Reba. Is this hard? Are they correct?

if you are happy messing with your forks, i can't imagine it is. it'll just be a case of swapping a spacer around.

if its 2001 it should be good for 80-100mm i would have thought... certainly 63mm, in which case 80mm should be fine (but prob not 100mm) 

Rebas can be reduced to 85mm no problem. You need to fit a spacer as Bike Radar say. Rebas come apart with tools you probably have in your shed without too much of a fight.

The Marz forks I bought from CRC came in the normal retail display box with manual and accessories. E-mail them is you want to be sure, they're honest people IME.

Edit: I rather like Marz ETA forks. There's a spring in the ETA side that does nearly all the work if you're light. The air side allows easy setting of sag and stops bottoming out if you get the oil level right. The ETA is a convenient lock down for climbing but still leaves you with some suspension when you forget to remove it on the next descent.

Thanks for the reply John

I think that the Marzocchi will be better for my needs, I think I was a bit dazzled by the idea of Reba's. The ETA would help

so looks like I need CRC again. They didn't reply last time hence the post

But I'm reasurred that some one had retail forks from them

Any other ideas welcome

THe used option has sort of been removed due to the need for a long steerer....

I'm still really tempted by the odur but their just isn't enough imfo on them

i've now used mine once (bloody exams...)

they are a little weighty, and have a slight top out clunk. if you are outside of 75-90kg you would probably have to fiddle around with springs and spacers, rebound is a little fast, but i can adjust this. other alternatives may have more adjustments

thats the negatives over.

its smooth, stiff, looks good (imo), the loc out works very well and is easy to operate, even without remote locout, and i'm pretty confident it'll work for a long while.

overall i AM happy with it. if i were to spend £200 again, i would be very tempted by the reba from merlin. but for a sprung fork, i'm happy as larry. 

some pics

Looks great on the photo

 wood you go so far as to say plush out the box?

 (cost saving over reba, no shock pump needed)

yeah, pretty plush i think...

however, its the first time i've ridden with suspension for 6 months, so that may not be totally accurate!!!

but no, initial impressions, other than the top out clunk, were very good. 

Was it top out (just a few times per ride on big hits) or the spring hitting the side of the fork under a larger hits

magura forum

I have heard that this can be reduced be wrapping the coil in a road inner tube

John

its when i unload the fork, say for a jump etc. just a slight clunk as the fork extends.

don't think i'm going to worry too much, but thanks for the link to the forum...