Help with Manitou Axel Diva forks

Iain C

My other half's Rockhopper has decided to go fully rigid halfway round Cannock last weekend...I guess the fork needs a service. Forks are Manitou Axel Diva, however I am not sure of the year as we bought the bike second hand. Could one of you expert bike shop types click on the Rockhopper linky in my signature and let me know what year they are? I can provide more detail/numbers etc if you need it.

Also, is the seal kit for the girlie specific Diva the same as the regular Axel and it just has a lighter spring? I can't find a Diva seal kit anywhere.

I just want to make sure I'm ordering the right bits, and try and download the manual so I can work out how much/what type of oil is required etc.

Thanks in advance!

nicklouse

Spesh have an archive showing all their bikes back to about 2000 you will find all the info there.

supersonic

The fork may not even have any oil in - in all honesty a pretty poor budget unit! May be worthwhile upgrading than servicing and replacing parts.

Iain C

Nicklouse...thanks for that, useful stuff. Looks like either an 03 or 04 year, colour is not quite right but it might just be the Spesh website not specifically showing the WSD model but it's certainly close enough.

Supersonic...I think it's damped, certainly has a fluid flow lever at the bottom of the right hand fork leg. If we can rebuild this I think we will, but if the internals are that bad we might look at replacing it.

Cheers for the tips guys!

nicklouse

i would go with it being an '04 with disc wheels off a Trek.
and a few other changes.

EDIT: maybe not. does it have the disc mount brace on the disc side of the frame?

Iain C

Originally had Avid V brakes and Spesh wheels, previous owner had replaced the worn out back wheel with a non disc version hence the two new WTB wheels courtesy of CRC. Discs/calipers/bars are from my Fuel when I upgraded. Not sure about the brace thingy...I think it has one IIRC, but it is a disc ready frame and fork.

dave_hill

FWIW I'd ditch the Axels and look at upgrading to a Tora.

Iain C

Nick

Checked again, and no, there's no brace (assuming you mean the tube welded in from under the disc mount to the top of the chainstay).

Unsure what to do here...having some issues trying to find any parts, the UK distributor is struggling, my LBS reckon they might be able to get the parts but it will £40 as from my description of it's now rather rubbish 30mm of undamped travel they say the damper has gon. They want to do the fitting and charge another £30 to do so (say they need to strip the fork really to identify exactly what parts are needed so I guess they need to give it back to me as a complete unit)

As there is a bit of rust just starting to show on one of the fork legs I think I'm inclined to go with an upgrade...Merlin are doing the Tora 318 air + poploc for £139, what do you think? As she is quite petite/light is it better to go for an air system as per the 318 as she can tune it to her weight rather than a coil spring which is probably tuned for heavier people? Also, can I go up to 100mm travel without any really ill effects? She rides with a very short stem anyway so it won't kill the steering too much...

dave_hill

I'd say that 139 bats for an AIr Tora with Poploc is good money. The beauty of air sprung forks is that they are easily tuned over a much wider range so I'd say that they would be ideal. The only thing is that depending on HOW they are tuned, they can have more inertia which makes them harder to get moving.

Having said that, RockShox and Fox seem to have got things nailed on the air forks front, and there's really not a lot to choose in feel.

The other advantage of air forks is that they will be lighter than the equivalent coil sprung model.

nicklouse

Iain C
i would then guess at a year earlier.

bin the fork and fit a air sprung RS.

Iain C

Nice one, thanks guys. I'll "persuade" her that Toras are teh way forward then!

Mid you, look at the travel on these babies from Merlin!!!!!! Might slow the handling down a tad... :shock:

Rockshox Tora 302 fork with poploc remote lockout


Travel 800mm (not U-turn)
Target Weight 2400 g (5.3 lbs)

Spring Coil
Spring Adjust Change Spring / Preload
Damping TurnKey Lockout
Damping Adjust External Rebound, remote poploc Lockout,
Lowers Magnesium, IS Disc Mount, Disc only (No V-brake bosses)
Crown Forged, Hollow 6061 T-6 Aluminum
Steerer Tube Steel
Upper Tubes 32mm STKM Steel
Colour - Black

NOTE: Disc only

supersonic

the toras can be reduced to 80mm internally. 318 air is a superb fork, use one on my zaskar team.

Iain C

Thanks Supersonic.

My better half agrees with ditching the Axels for Tora 318s is the way to go, are you saying then go for the 100s and if tehre are handling issues we can wind it back to 80mm with some internal jiggerypokery?

supersonic

Yep! Fairly easy to do at home if need be, but I'd guess you'd be fine at 100mm!

Give the fork a few rides to bed in and it comes alive. Also have lots of damping adjustment.

This is the sytem used on top end RS forks so fo 140 quid at the weight of a RS Revelation coil, is an utter bargain!

Iain C

That's great, thanks for the tips. I'd heard that the Tora is not very nice to start with but just gets better and better...in fact I was checking out a WMB sub £1k full susser test from a year ago and a Tora equipped bike beat Recon kitted bikes. Must admit I've always loved the Recons on my Trek and at leat now if I do need to ride her bike I can stuff a bit more air in it rather than hitting the bumpstops as soon as I climb aboard!

Will order tomorrow and "after" pictures to follow!

Thanks again for all your input guys.

supersonic

tora and recon are identical except tora has cromo legs.

Iain C

Got the Toras...total bargain. Just so much nicer than her Divas and look the nuts too...pics to follow. Fast delivery from Merlin too...nice one chaps!

supersonic

Aye, good choice!

How much beefier do they look too?!

chrisga

Iain,

If you want help to change them to 80mm if Kath needs the travel reducing let me know and I can assist as I changed my recons up from 80 to 100mm.....