Forks on budget bikes

supersonic

Seems to be a lot of confusion on what is what, with silly model names and crossover between models. Here is a rough hierarchy of forks on XC/trail bikes that can be found for less than 500 quid, best to worse.

RS Tora 318 - motion control, rebound adjust lockout. Air or Uturn. 32mm.
RS Tora 302 - turnkey lockout, rebound adjust coil or coil uturn. 32mm.
Suntour X100 - coil, hydraulic damping, lockout. 32mm.
Suntour XCR RA - coil, rebound adjust. 30mm.
Rockshox Dart 3 - coil, turnkey lockout, rebound adjust. 28mm.
Suntour XCR RL/LO - coil, hydraulic damping and lockout.. 30mm.
Suntour XCM DA - coil, rebound adjust. 28mm.
Rockshox Dart 2 - coil, rebound adjust. 28mm.
Suntour XCM HLO/RL - coil, hydraulic damping and lockout. 28mm.
Suntour XCR - coil. 30mm.
Suntour XCM MLO - coil. Mechanical lockout. 28mm.
Rockshox Dart 1 - coil. 28mm.
Suntour XCM V2 - coil. 28mm.
Suntour XCT - coil. 28mm.

geordiefreerider

Any opinions on marzocchi mx pro lo 120mm, im hoping to replace my marzocchi exr comps in the near future and had my eye on this fork which i saw in evans for 158 quid ?

Or are the toras a far superior fork, my brothers yukon has 302's on and I dont like the feel of them (coil).

supersonic

The MX Pro is a superb fork, very smooth - if somewhat weighty for is 30mm stanchions. Basic damping, but adjustable.

Tora 318 has it beat.

geordiefreerider

Cool I'll take your respected advice, I would imagine the 318 solo air is a smoother feeling fork than the 302 my brother has ?

I found a set of 09 318 solo air for £139 I dont see how I could go wrong for that price, especially considering it's over 200 gram lighter than the marzocchi !!

cdlelektronik

Thanks for this list of different suspension forks, which has been very valuable to me, as I am currently looking for a second (budget) MTB.

I am wondering where the RST forks would be placed in the list? I know Gila isn't too well regarded, but what about Omega TnL and First Coil (F1rst?) that come on budget Cannondale models?

I briefly tried out the Trail SL-5 with the Omega TnL fork, and the initial impression was a lot better than the Dart 2 Turnkey I had tested just before - save the remote LO i'd say it could be on par with the Dart 3. Unfortunately I could only try it only on paved surfaces... no telling the performance on the trail.
I am also suspecting there may have been something wrong with the Dart 2 I tried, I was very disappointed with that fork, the damping didn't seem to work at all :-/

Any experiences with durability of the newer RST forks? Are they as bad as they used to be?

P-Jay

geordiefreerider wrote:

Any opinions on marzocchi mx pro lo 120mm, im hoping to replace my marzocchi exr comps in the near future and had my eye on this fork which i saw in evans for 158 quid ?

Or are the toras a far superior fork, my brothers yukon has 302's on and I dont like the feel of them (coil).

I bought one as an upgrade from a shitty RST on a bike I had years ago. Transformed it. Cracking forks for the money. Do you still need to let the air out and use the long hex ket thing to adjust the rebound on them?

chedabob

Where does the Suntour Epicon 15-RL come on that list?

supersonic

Epicons are a newer one, and I would place 2nd after the Tora.

RSTs make some good forks, the F1RST is good, but the Gilas and Omega TnL are pretty poor.

The Northern Monkey

Thanks

been wanting to note something like this, my knowledge of low end forks is terrible!