Why no love for...

[We_are_Stevo]

...RST forks?

I bought the Judy SL's in the pic below to go on my Raleigh RSP full-susser but the alloy steerer is
too short. Doh! Searching around on eBay I remembered how well thought of Mozo Pro's were BiTD...

...I now have three!

The Mozo Pro's above actually came with longer stanchions/elastomers to give 100mm travel but I
swapped them with those from a grey fork I've bought to go on my Explosif; yes, I did say that!

Compressing the two forks off the bike as they are the RST feels by far the better of the two so I
was just wondering why you don't see more of them?

 

[taffy]

Name snobbery i guess.

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Looking at my pic above I've just decided to ask Gil to replicate the decals for me, but with a P in place of the T :idea:

 

[SantaHul]

They catered for a lot of the cheaper brands. I had some on my 98 Kona Hahanna when I bought it new bitd. I hated them, every time I set off on a cold morning (paper round usually) they were just locked up. Damn heavy too.

Just left a bad taste in my mouth, didn't even consider RST when I saved up for an upgrade.

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Funny you should say that about the weight, because they're exactly the same weight as the Z1 Bam I have...

...and yes, there is some 'stiction' to overcome at first but they're fine from then on

 

[markwashington]

The more expensive ones (still only about £200-250) were usually highly rated, but they just didn't have the brand appeal of the likes of RS, Marzocchi and Manitou. I think the low end models really scuppered the more expensive forks, I can empathise with the woeful quality that was a a pair of RST 281's, They weighed about a ton and didn't seem to have more than about 1cm of travel. I remember a few brands came with RST's back in the day, but it was usually the lower end bikes. I do remember the USA XMO range was very highly rated and they also did some called Sigma which were crazy expensive, never saw a review of them though.

 

[marc two tone]

some love here.

i've had 281, 381 and found them to perform fine , for my needs anyway.

one set had a replaceable steerer too, rather than pressed in.

i once opened a set (281 i think) and found the springs rather corroded. probably a seal issue :? but, removal of spring, clean and re-grease and all was well. overall a de-complicated design for when budget dictates.

thumbs up.

 

[cce]

Mozo Pros were a good "cheap" long travel option back in the day. Basically, what you bought if you wanted a Z1 but couldnt afford it.

 

[Magsy]

I think they are the only RST's that were ever any good? Like others I played with so many that just didn't move a nats!

The bit that always confused me bitd was that the work was already done for them, just copy a damn motorbike/cross fork, scale it down and get the weight off. Marzocchi were the only ones to transfer their tech and make good forks from the start.

Why did they all have to mess about with different ideas? As far as I can see any good modern mtb fork just has what already existed in big bike forks. It is only the last few years they have finally started to deliver everything you really need specific to bicycle and each year is really only a small step.

I still avoid Rock Shox because anybody that thought it was a good idea to put foam turds inside their fork rather than real coils deserves to be shot. I paid a lot for my Judy's but thank god they were stolen because I got Z1's and saw the light

 

[We_are_Stevo]

As I said, I now have three Mozo Pro's; for my RSP, and both my Explosifs...

...the red fork I intend to fit to my Y2K Explosif was a £9.99 bargain on account of it having no brace or canti-mounts/bolts; I then bought a grey fork to go on my '97 Explosif, and as I shall be running disks it donated it its brace, etc to the red fork. This left me with a braceless grey fork but a quick rummage through my Manitou box turned up a Manitou I brace that bolted straight on! Blank off the canti' boss mounts and it'll be ready to go.

Then the yellow 100mm travel fork found it's way into the shed via eBay, rapidly donating its longer stanchions/elastomer stack (the stack has a 2" coil spring at the bottom BTW...) to the grey fork.

The red fork was a little the worse for wear but a liberal application of Mr Muscle oven cleaner to the inside of the stanchions and lower legs, followed by several kettles-full of boiling water and a rag wrapped round a piece of metal tube soon had them looking more than presentable.

Elastomer/spring stacks into a washingup bowl-full of boiling water and Fairey Liquid saw them looking more like they should instead of caked in rusty emulsion!

Putting it all back together produced a perfectly functional fork that has cost little more than pocket money...