120mm fork throwdown 2023 edition

Discuss light weight issues concerning mountain bikes & parts.

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spartacus
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by spartacus

Curious what people think is the best overall fork for general riding with the following priorities:

150lb rider that likes going fast and sometimes does multi-day climbing heavy adventures. I never use the lockout.

1.) plushness / ride quality
2.) Weight
3.) Durability, servicability, access to parts

Currently considering in approximate order:

A.) Pike ultimate charger 3 buttercups (expensive, not light, and hard to find. But has bleed valve and I bikepack sometimes)
B.) Sid ultimate 35mm raceday (can get a good deal from Italy but potential bushing issues, light)
C.) Manitou R7 PRO (not much info on these to make a decision, looks kinda goofy IMHO)
D.) Some other version of sid (same as above sid except cheaper and the other dampers have more adjustment)
E.) Fox whatever with grip2 (seem expensive and scarce)

spartacus
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by spartacus

Did some digging,

Pike for $900 after tax
R7 PRO for $650 shipped
Sid Ultimate 35mm $800 shipped
Cheaper sids around $500 shipped
Fox the cheapest I can find is around $900-950

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Hexsense
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by Hexsense

If you plan to use it as 120mm travel fork, and don't want to mod, and want it now.
Remove the current Manitou R7 Pro from your list.
Manitou R7 Pro , IMO, is a perfect fork at 110 and 100mm. At 120mm, it performs better (to the point I like it more than Pike) with a bit of mods (read on MTBR). Manitou is releasing a new fork soon. That one will be more optimized for 120mm out of the box.

spartacus
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by spartacus

Hexsense wrote:
Fri Mar 03, 2023 7:12 pm
If you plan to use it as 120mm travel fork, and don't want to mod, and want it now.
Remove the current Manitou R7 Pro from your list.
Manitou R7 Pro , IMO, is a perfect fork at 110 and 100mm. At 120mm, it performs better (to the point I like it more than Pike) with a bit of mods (read on MTBR). Manitou is releasing a new fork soon. That one will be more optimized for 120mm out of the box.
I'll need to get something by May probably when my new frame comes, what about a last generation Pike with the 2.1 damper? I'm not completely opposed to modifying the R7 either but I've never workjed on a fork before to be completely honest. I would really prefer some kind of set and forget type experience, ideally.

EDIT: read about the mods and it looks easy. Looks like the 100mm and 120mm are the same fork. Deals to be had here, coming in at close to 1/2 the price of the fox or pike.

greatstewie
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by greatstewie

thin the fox stepcast be good choice light and lots pros use it.

DanW
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by DanW

I am on a similar lookout with similar desire for a great handling fork in all situations and not wanting to touch the lockout.

The "not wanting to touch the lockout" thing for me means looking for separate high speed and low speed adjustments.

Fox 34 Grip2, Pike with a Charger 3 and XFusion Slide HLR seem like the obvious forks but they will not be all that light.

SIDs or Fox 34 with other dampers will be lighter but not so easy to balance climbing vs descending needs if you are picky on setup.

EDIT: Other downside on stepcast versions of the 34 if not a huge amount of tyre clearance if you like big tyres and/ or mudguards (in the UK so yes to both for me)

DT Swiss make some interesting forks and they will be my next stop to dig in to.

spartacus
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by spartacus

FWIW I decided to go with the new pike ultimate. It's a couple hundred grams more than the sid it replaced but it rides SO MUCH nicer.

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robbosmans
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by robbosmans

Rockshox has a new 120mm on the way, their athletes have been testing it for a while now

DanW
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by DanW

If there's a SID with adjustable LSC and HSC and it stays solid for years then I'm all ears :)

Hexsense
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by Hexsense

DanW wrote:
Sat Apr 22, 2023 7:07 pm
If there's a SID with adjustable LSC and HSC and it stays solid for years then I'm all ears :)
That's a big request for a Sid.
The current Charger Race Day damper in Sid Ultimate don't even allow you to adjust any compression damping level. No HSC and also no LSC.
At this point, get just LSC alone would already be an upgrade.

DanW
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by DanW

Hexsense wrote:
Sun Apr 23, 2023 7:12 pm
DanW wrote:
Sat Apr 22, 2023 7:07 pm
If there's a SID with adjustable LSC and HSC and it stays solid for years then I'm all ears :)
That's a big request for a Sid.
The current Charger Race Day damper in Sid Ultimate don't even allow you to adjust any compression damping level. No HSC and also no LSC.
At this point, get just LSC alone would already be an upgrade.
Fully aware of that :) Tone doesn't come across well on the internet :) I was more trying to be a little sarcastic (?) that I'll get excited by a new light RS fork when some of the basics can be addressed.

What do we reckon the lightest fork with a full range of HS and LS tuning availible is?

A Fox 34 Stepcast Grip2? I haven't seen one in shops so maybe it isn't available in that combination- non-stepcast only???

Hexsense
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by Hexsense

34 SC doesn't use same damper cartridge as regular 34.
Even Fit4 in 34SC is smaller than the Fit4 in regular 34 to fit in the more restricted space.
Grip 2 in the current form won't fit 34SC.

DanW
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by DanW

^ That is great information, thank you.

So lightest HS and LS adjustable 120mm fork is likely to be around the 1700-1800g+ mark (Pike or regular Fox 34)?

The only other light option I can see is the DT Swiss 232 around 1580g and looks highly adjustable.

I've been struggling to find good information on this fork but this page seems to have a good run down: https://bikerumor.com/world-cup-winning ... stiffness/

Very minimal reviews as well. Only a handful of first ride reviews and this is about the longest one I could find: https://www.ambmag.com.au/feature/teste ... ion-559226

It seems like a great fork in theory but it is very hard to find information about and I haven't seen any DT Swiss forks on the trails for years. Does anyone have first hand experience of the DT Swiss 232 fork?

Hexsense
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by Hexsense

Dt Swiss is in a tough spot to sell their fork.
Their forks are not OEM on stock bikes. So their main market is aftermarket upgrade.
Yet, people who buy aftermarket forks are entheusiest who do research before buying. They also want to buy fork that is easy to live with and they or local bike shop can service it when it require any attention.
The problem is, Dt Swiss forks does not fit that criteria. They demand fork service every 200 hours at Dt Swiss service center. Other forks have 200 hours service interval as well but they can be done at a bike shop in an hour, so you have minimal down time.

When you need to do 200 hoursfork service on Dt Swiss forks. You'd have to send fork to Dt Swiss to service and ship it back to you. That hassle cross it off the consideration list for a lot of people.

Speaking of HSC.
Manitou R7 Pro doesn't have HSC dial. However, the shim stack setting is really easy to change. I can do it in less than half an hour. With 4 pre-calculated Platform stack settings and 2 lever modes (position 1 and 2) other than lockout (position 3). You technically have 8 different HSC levels (or 4, if you don't cross consider position 1 and 2 of the lever). LSC can be dial further than what graph shows using LSC dial as usual.
https://www.mtbr.com/threads/2020-manit ... t-15915532
Image

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Hexsense
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by Hexsense

Just saw the news about SR Suntour which reminds me that I don't know their fork at all. Maybe consider their XC fork as well?
https://bikerumor.com/sr-suntour-shows- ... ids-forks/

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