Suspension forks, your views/experience please

Mike Muz

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Happy Sunday folks,

I would like your opinions on some forks. I'll be setting up a nice steel hardtail soon, I have a choice of RockShox SID or Manitou Mars. Both from the same around 1998 - 2000 ish era
I ride xc so I don't want to ride over cars, just get from a to b quickly, even though I don't actually race.
So, which would you choose for ride quality, ease of maintenance etc given that?

Ta,

Muz
 
The SIDs are nice working forks, though I have always found them noodley, lots of flex.

Only ridden Manitou a few times, a bit more basic in use from memory.
 
I've ridden Manitou Mars for a couple of years in the past. Nice fork, quite plush. They tracked well and didn't flex much but I'm quite small and light. Popped a seal quite easily and it damaged a stanchion. I do XC riding, no jumps or silly nonsense.
 
Manitous from that era were in my experience were better made, stiffer like for like, had a much better damper and were generally a higher quality product. However, both are now impossible to get things like wiper seals for so I'd choose based on condition (inside and out). If the Mars is a non-air version (I think they did one?) then the elastomers are likely dead although only half the stack is elastomer and it should be easy enough to replace it with a full spring taken from another fork.
 
I think sids were a bit flexy, if go for the mars. Are they the carbon bridge version. Always liked the look of them, no experience myself of them though.
 
I would be interested to know more about the difference between these two forks too as I was thinking to fit a sid on one of my bikes for the same reason like Mike.
 
Had SID’s back then and they were pretty flexy fore and aft. You could feel it under heavy braking. OK laterally and steered well for an XC fork. There was a known bushing issue around that time, mine were replaced at their first service. Probably no way of knowing if yours have been done though.
 
Thankfully I came across this thread just before making a ‘99 Sid purchase.

Now my question is: aside from Manitou Mars and Sid what are other v break compatible forks that fare better from early 2000s?

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
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