Are better forks more fun?

Smiler15

Currently running a 120mm suntour XCR which to my surprise seemed to hold up in the peak district, but i know in the scheme of things it's probably crap. So, will replacing it with a Marzocchi MX Pro Lockout 09 be better. I'm going mountain biking for a week and a half in the summer and basically want to know if I'll have more fun with this fork and how will it improve the ride?

Cheers

JxL

I went from Suntour Raidons to RS reba's and it made a massive difference, so yes any replacement would be great

Northwind

XCRs are actually surprisingly decent as long as you keep them well serviced... The seals aren't very sealey, and the bushings under them are plastic so once mud gets in there things wear very fast. Oiling and wiping the stanchions after every wet ride is essential and even then they benefit from a strip from time to time to clean them out. Luckily, they're incredibly easy to strip down, literally 2 bolts and a good tug- I can do mine in about 10 minutes now. All the damping circuit is self-contained and sealed (and so not servicable, but also almost immune to dirt/wet).

But, keep them in good nick and they work better than most budget forks. They're certainly far from great, but they're also not terrible- they're about as bad a fork as I'd like to live with offroad, but they can do it Mine did a couple of laps of glentress red before I retired the bike to being a spare, and no real issues, they feel rattly and bendy and inconsistent and crude but they work.

TBH I don't think those Marzocchis will give you the upgrade you might think, in fact I suspect they came out of the same Suntour factory, they make the cheaper Marzocchis. Looking at the exploded diagrams, the Zocchi is a very similiarly designed fork, it might be better made or designed but tbh I think it'll still disappoint.

I briefly replaced the XCR120s in my Kraken with Tora 302SL 130mm forks- only about 5mm longer in practice so they didn't cause me any problems- and that was a well worthwhile option, slightly heavier but much better- stiffer and more controlled, and smoother too. 318s would be better still.

supersonic

JE James are still doing a 318 solo air tora for 140 quid. Such a good fork.

GHill

I wouldn't bother with the 'zocchi either.

Smiler15

Thanks Northwind, I agree with you about the XCR, its probably the worst fork you can get away with taking around serious mountain biking I can also relate to the rattly feeling you get, as when I pull up the front half the time it whacks locked out first.

Thanks for your advise on the Marzocchis, I know very little about whats good and whats not, although the review of them on bikeradar was very positive
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... o-09-34190

Supersonic is the 318 solo air tora a good buy? Will that make riding my bike more fun? Basically my bike is low end and I may have some money to spend on it and want to research into what might make my biking holiday better Either that or I save and save for a £1000 full sus (which would be many years off )

realnumber 1

I had some 2007 Marzocchi MX Pro ETA and they were very good for the money imo.

supersonic

It will make the fork more controlled. That should equal more fun for you.

For 2009 the RRP of the Tora 318 air is over £300

Smiler15

ok sounds good, thanks supersonic. If I do upgrade my fork, I think i'll go for the tora over the MX pro. By the way, your Zaskar Carbon Team is awesome

Prowlus

GHill wrote:

I wouldn't bother with the 'zocchi either.

Despite my experience with recent zocchi 09 forks , The 07/08 pro los are the most cost effective purchases I've ever made before i stripped the disc brake mount . The fork offers compression damping , rebound and lockout for an affordable price . Those forks took me from Padstow to bodmin on the camel trail and never once seized up

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... o-lo-31345

Some of these are going for £159 now which caused me to give up in vain after all my lbses had sold out of them and ended up buying the 22 lo POS on one of my current rigs

supersonic

Smiler15 wrote:

ok sounds good, thanks supersonic. If I do upgrade my fork, I think i'll go for the tora over the MX pro. By the way, your Zaskar Carbon Team is awesome

Thankyou ;-). And the fork is... a Tora 318 solo air.

thedirge

be quick if your after that air solo, i phoned jejames and supersonics right the 2009 model is crazy expensive.

there were 2 left after mine was purchased, it hasent arrived yet.

Northwind

To be fair, the only time I've ridden on those Zocchis, they'd seen some use so they might just have been needing a service- they weren't very good though, they felt sticky and really inconsistent. But maybe they just had some muck in the wrong place.

Ingle Pingle

Upgraded forks will make a massive difference to the ride, but the others above are right - the Marzocchis are not much of a stop up.
I'd also recommend the Toras for the best entry level fork. They haven;t changed much over the last few years so an older model would be fine.