How good were/are Judy XLs?

[Gotte]

Might be able toget my hands on a pair. Any good? Were they sprung or elastomer/springs?

Read the reviews on MTBR, and they seemed to get a decent write up, but the last review is pretty old. What's teh general feeling about them now - a classic? Not that good in hindsight? So-so?

Also read on MTBR that they were prone to "blowing" - what exactly is blowing?

 

[cce]

pretty pointless tbh. 4in travel dual crown fork? why?

 

[legrandefromage]

pretty pointless tbh. 4in travel dual crown fork? why?

I always had issues with fork waddle on early designs - being a heavy lad, early suspension was always lacking in the steering department and these were the first fork that I managed to get my sticky mits on that actually worked. I was later sold a long travel kit. I dont think I ever bothered to fit this (or if it was even the right kit!) but I'm sure the option to add extra travel was there.

 

[Gotte]

Thanks for that. So the XL had the same travel as the single crown unless you got a kit for extra travel? Did any ever come with the extra travel as standard?

 

[cagiva gezzer]

When they (98' judys) came out in 1998 they were a huge leap forward from the 1997 models (MCU-II), but the XL (and other juydys) were outclassed by the bomber Z1's as if you wanted 4" travel you could just have the bombers and a single crown.

Picked mine up new part way through the year for £199, down from the original £549, as the judys were not selling. They have 80mm or 100mm travel out of the box. Slightly longer springs than a normal judy for that year. When purchased as a standalone they were 100mm.

Single damper (C3 - sealed) which lost adjustment after a few weeks. Initial comments from the press at the time related to the "why bother, just get the Z1s" and the overly harsh top-out of them (solved on mine by replacing the top out bumper with the negative spring from some old MAGs).

They track well, look OK and are easy to service, but don't really fit in either class well and are probably outclassed by a fork only a few years younger than them. They sell for £50-£80 on ebay.

XLs are an eggplant colour. Cheaper, heavier XLCs are gray legs. These ones have a steel stearer and maybe steel stanchions.

They don't have much love on here and I've replaced them with some early 2000 SIDs which are much smoother / responsive, but more flexible. In hindsight, i think the XLs are too heavily sprung for my 11 stone.

 

[Gotte]

Thanks for that.

I appreciate the input. I was watching a pair on ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230887543258? ... 1438.l2649

they are actually marked up as RST hi 5s, which, if the picture is correct, they obviously are not. from the price, I guess a good few people realise this as well. I imagine the price will go a lot higher, as it went from no bids a few days ago to 11. I'm pretty sure you'd be hard pressed to get 11 bids for a set of hi 5s.

Anyway, I've got my eye on others, so not bothered about ducking out of this one, especially as I've seen bombers and various Manitous go around the £40 mark. Damned if I didn;t miss out on a pair of Manitous a week ago which went for about £40. 130 travel, if I remember correctly.

 

[We_are_Stevo]

As you say, definitely not Hi-5's, though the last Hi-5 I did see went for £55 plus shipping...

 

[gtRTSdh]

I bought a set of new Judy XL's with 80mm of travel and one piece lowers around the '98 period.

Were coil sprung and perfectly good for normal riding. Unfortunately the damping cartridge shat itself on every jump and drop off, but they weren't really designed for that.

 

[cce]

Unfortunately the damping cartridge shat itself on every jump and drop off, but they weren't really designed for that.

They were aimed squarely at the then-new "freeride" market


So that's exactly what they were for...

 

[cagiva gezzer]

The ones in the ebay link are XLCs and will be 100mm max travel.

The C3 damper cartridge was not a step forward and mine cavitates at full travel. AFAIK they're sealed for life.