Manitou Marvel Forks

Quite keen on these, seem to good to be true

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mani ... -prod90497

Manitou Marvel Forks, 120mm, 15mm axle, £140 from £500.

Any thoughts? Might hit the buy button tonight..

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a friend of mine has a set, he's a very good bike mechanic who has ridden all over the world and worked in shops abroad, morzine and whistler mainly, he's running a set of these in his hardtail and he really likes them and he spends his days predominantly working on forks in a shop.

that said the price drop makes me wonder, that's a huge drop from RRP but that said CRC own the importer Hotlines ,so effectively CRC makes 2 mark ups on the fork, buying it at cost at Hotlines, buying it from Hotlines to CRC then selling on to the customer, so assuming there is a fair mark up then selling them at these prices may well be the "cost" price.

Thanks for the reply

I imagine a lot is in the name, Manitou made some quality forks in the late 90s but Rock Shox and Fox have a much higher kudos factor, so Manitou always seem to go down the discounting route.

Can't really see the harm really, I've got basic 130mm tora's at the moment, should save a lot of weight and feel better.

Re: Re:

jonnyboy666":3boj1v5e said:

a friend of mine has a set, he's a very good bike mechanic who has ridden all over the world and worked in shops abroad, morzine and whistler mainly, he's running a set of these in his hardtail and he really likes them and he spends his days predominantly working on forks in a shop.

Click to expand...

That's good to know

Wouldn't worry about the price drop, they look like a decent set and like you said it's likely a lot to do with the name

Another 100 quid gets you a Fox . Which is probably going to hold its price considerably better than the Manitou :? Might even get 3/4 of that back if you sold them 2 or 3 years down the line.


Given these great deals on forks its worth investing in a cheap discounted tapered frame.


I got one of the manitou R7 pro 100mm That was £180 i think :? 3 years and im pretty happy with it. A little flexy perhaps but its not a top its a mid range and is QR. I may be slightly heavier than i once was

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See what you are saying. But fox forks always seem a false economy when you add in servicing costs and time. That and last few years review seem unfavourable.

If I was going to drop another hundred I'd go to merlin and buy 120mm rebas I think.

I have a tapered frame already. So that's fine.

Still undecided.

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i know they are the current fork brand of the moment but the fox fork servicing cost massively out weighs the performance in my opinion. even with the new kashima coating the life of the fork is simply not long enough. alot of people have those forks on their bikes as OE forks and i bet hardly any stick to the service intervals mainly as they won't know how to service them and if they stuck to the service plan their wallet would be emptied regularly in to the LBS till just to keep them in warranty.

so i'll stick with my rockshox thanks, my rebas on my clockwork, my main bike for 5 years prior to my Demon lasted 5 years before the stantions started to wear and i was lax in servicing them to say the least.

these manitou forks massively reduced look like a bargain, i'd consider them if i needed a fork. so i'd say check some online reviews and see what they say and then make the decision