Budget long travel fork options/opinions.

I bought a FireEye Flame frame off here a little while ago and had built it with a Pace RC41 150mm travel fork (frame specs say between 130 and 150mm travel fork*) but that fork leaked both oil and air so got sent back to the seller. Refund should clear into my paypal account soon.

*I also need a straight 1 1/8 steerer at least 180mm long, would prefer IS disc mount and 9mm QR dropouts

I then bought a Rockshox Tora U-turn fork which looks great, seals and stanchions and everything seem really good but I'm way too heavy (200+ lbs) for the spring in it.

I have a few options and can't decide between them,

1. Buy an extra firm spring for the Tora bringing the total spend for that fork to just a bit over £100.

2. I've been offered a '3 rides old' Fox Vanilla RLC 130mm travel fork on another forum for £120 plus postage but the seller of this reckons it'll need the foam rings re-oiling so I think I'd be another £20 or so in oil, crush washers etc. I've not seen this fork and it's in London but the seller isn't so looking at £160ish (which is pushing the envelope on my budget to it's furthest I think) plus a couple week wait for this option.

3. Buy another fork from ebay. I reckon I'd be better getting an air fork so I can tune it for my weight but I really can't be bothered with another leaky/otherwise problematic fork. I'm struggling to find forks that suit my requirements and match my condition/quality to price ratio. Marzocchi forks appeal to me as I've heard they are easy to work on yourself and I'm watching a couple but they are either purely coil with good damping or Dirt Jumpers that are coil with air preload but supposedly have crap damping that doesn't deal well with actual trail riding. I'm coming from riding nothing but rigids since I got back into mtbing though so not sure I'm going to notice crap damping? There's a DJ2 going for £75 or best offer posted so the price is definitely right on them. I'm not opposed to buying a bolt through fork but if I do that then I need to buy a new hub/wheel which eats into the budget. Same story with a post mount, it'd mean using an adaptor and a larger rotor so that nibbles the budget too.

Am I being unrealistic in expecting to find a decent quality, non-buggered, long travel fork for around £100?

Is the Tora a half decent option given my budget? It seems to get a good right up on bikeradar.

Nevermind, I've just bought the springs for the Tora.

Aah blooming TFTuned, website said the spring was in stock but turns out it aint and it's discontinued. Suspension be damned, I'm building a 69er!

imho, fox vanillas should be avoided if you are a clydesdale. they have a very linear spring rate, to make them feel like air forks, and even with the heavy spring they feel odd. i tried adding oil to the damper side to get them to ramp up, but it still didnt give the desired feel.

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You should be able to find a Magura Menja or Laurin for about that price. The 2007 models are all extendable to 130mm by removing spacers. The Laurin is the better fork, having adjustable compresssion damping. At the time, the QR models were stiffer than early 20mm efforts from Fox and RS.
Spares are still available!

Talk of the devil...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAGURA-LAURIN ... 46343f2d19

Nowt to do with me, but if I didn't already have some I'd be after these!

I saw the Laurin, and liked the look of it. But the ad speaks of a leaky seal.

The Surly Krampus fork I have now bought will never, ever leak from the seals.

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You should get a good fork for that kind of money.

I picked up my Z1 Anniversary for just over £100. My Z1 Freerides sold for about £70. Don't be put off by the air preload; I reckon it works pretty well and you kind of get the best of both worlds. Coil plushness with the adjustability of air and yes, their a peace of cake to work on.

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It seems that many of us have the same problem in that the forks we need were made after disk mounts were fitted but before 15mm axles and tapered steerers were introduced as standard.
These didn't have a long production run and so there are more of us chasing a dwindling number out there. And of course "our" forks can be fitted into new frames and used with modern hubs.
After a lot of searching and waiting I've been able to pick up two long travel Revelations one with 9mm and one with 20mm dropouts which fit my frames and hubs but I did factor in the "just in case" cost of a service before buying, [one of the forks bought privately has been perfect whilst the other bought from here collapsed after 10 or so rides].
There's lots of good second hand forks out there to keep our frames on the trails but my opinion would be to set aside some money for repairs.

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Sektor: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 19&alt=web