Strengths: Very light, solid construction, masses of height and reach adjustment.
Weaknesses: Paint scratches a little too easily for a bike that will see many crashes Front side pull brake more or less useless.
Overall: This is a great little bike. The biggest thing is the (lack of) weight, when we went looking for my daughters first bike we were amazed at just how light it was compared to the others in the shop, and they were proper makes (Trek and Giant) not halfords specials.
'HOT SUNNY AND AS TECHNICAL AS YOU COULD WISH FOR.'
Strengths: Great climate. Technical rides were great, look out for the "Descent of Oh's" (short for Oh sh.. that's gonna hurt), Rock-bush-rock and the Mongoose run. Excellent guiding form Pimp Master Jazz. Cheap beer and pizza
Weaknesses: 2am is not a nice time to arrive in the resort with you bike on top of a wobbly boat!
Weaknesses: Expensive Bolt is very weak and snaps easily
Overall: I've wasted money on 2 of these after snapping the first one I reckoned I must have done something wrong, I mean Hope just don't make bad products. Took the second one out at the weekend when I was replacing my headset and found the bolt was about to snap again. Now maybe I'm doing something wrong and without any instructions I don't know, but I'm going back the the old faithful star fangled nut.
Strengths: Fantastic frame/components, None of this "XTR rear Mech and Deore front mech" nonsense you see on other bikes. Handles like a dream.
Weaknesses: Not terribly disc friendly, combined brakes and shifters, stickers badly scratched after a huge crash (not as badly damaged as I was!)... err thats it.
Overall: I've been riding this for 12 months now and have so far made the following changes: Easton EA70 riser, Hope Disc Brakes. Thats all - everything works well. Perhaps when the Manitou forks die I'll fit some Pace forks.
A dream of a bike that need very little care apart a drop of oil here, a blob of grease there. I can't recommend it highly enough
Strengths: Fantastic frame/components, None of this "XTR rear Mech and Deore front mech" nonsense you see on other bikes. Handles like a dream.
Weaknesses: Not terribly disc friendly, combined brakes and shifters, stickers badly scratched after a huge crash (not as badly damaged as I was!)... err thats it.
Overall: I've been riding this for 12 months now and have so far made the following changes: Easton EA70 riser, Hope Disc Brakes. Thats all - everything works well. Perhaps when the Manitou forks die I'll fit some Pace forks.
A dream of a bike that need very little care apart a drop of oil here, a blob of grease there. I can't recommend it highly enough
Strengths: Very light. Handles beautifully. Piece of cake to service. Greaseport. Includes both funky orange colours and Carbon Fibre "effect" which looks far groovier than anything from Rock Shox ever will!!!
Weaknesses: Disc mount, poor mud clearance. A bit flexy
Overall: If you have no plans to use disc brakes and aren't going through claggy fields then this is an excellent fork.
However (1) - The cut out in the left leg will only take a 165mm disc, with a disc mount converter Hope require a 175 or 185 mm disc leaving you with Avid, Hayes or the Hope C2 with specific 1/2 caliper. All fine brakes but not the best on the market.
However (2)- To stiffen the forks Manitou have brought the legs as close together as possible reducing mud clearance to bugger all and meaning that your tyre catches on your rim brakes when you remove your front wheel, this may not be true for all tyres but both the 2.0 IRC Notos and 1.9 Conti Navigator Pro's that I've used have caught badly.
Basicly if I had to replace them tomorrow I wouldn't fit them again mainly because of the disc compatibility - I'd either go for Marzocchi or Pace
