Mountain Biking - Trek or author, manitou or rocks shocks

I'm buying a mountain bike with shimano XT equipment. I can't choose, trek or author. Trek has rocks shoks, author manitou. The price is quite the same. For me is very inportant frame of the bike. Thanks for tips.

answer makes manitou :p

I have a manitou Axel elite, and it's a pretty nice fork, considering it came with the bike. Not good for big jumps or anything, but even for hard urban riding it really takes the bite out of the rough spots.

Alot of people don't really like Manipoo. Although, who am I to talk. I have a RST that I have no problems with...

I HATE my Axel Elite, its extremely flexible, enough to cut your confidence to do big hits. Even on the road with this bike, you shake the bars from side to side, and the forks flex and the tire sometimes hits the legs. (I do have quite a large tire on, but still its not a well made fork). I wouldnt be too attracted by the "reverse arch casting" as from what ive read, this is what makes the fork so flexy, and therefore feel like an elastic band.

One memory i have of using this fork, was when i blindly jumped off a bank into a river bed following a riding buddy (3 feet or so), and had WAY too much weight over the front wheel and faceplanted, the forks bottomed out, and the wheel came into contact with the leg of the fork. Heard a big "rrrrrriiipp" as i landed and thought "**** my forks ruined" it was actually the legs flexing toward each other, trapping the wheel in between. They are also much too soft, and the adjustment features dont do jack ****!

If i had known how bad Manitou was, id never have bought this bike.

So in short, get whatever bike feels best, but maybe budget for a better fork, should it come equipped with manipoo. :rolleyes:

I have an Answer Axel on my bike, and I have noticed it feels MUCH too soft. Even in it's minimal travel setting, there is too much bounce in its step. It will be one of the first things I upgrade. My girls bike also has a manipoo fork, it's so soft she can't hop the front end very well. :( boo hiss.

I HATE my Axel Elite, its extremely flexible, enough to cut your confidence to do big hits. Even on the road with this bike, you shake the bars from side to side, and the forks flex and the tire sometimes hits the legs. (I do have quite a large tire on, but still its not a well made fork). I wouldnt be too attracted by the "reverse arch casting" as from what ive read, this is what makes the fork so flexy, and therefore feel like an elastic band.
i have a manitou six on one of my bikes, but i can't say i've ridden a bike with a manitou axel on it, so i can't really say with certainty that the complaints from these guys are warranted or not, but one problem that i do see with this rant is the fact that manitou axel forks weren't designed to take big hits. they're intended for xc use only, not agro-xc/trail or freeriding. from what you're post describes, i think it's pretty safe to say that you're misusing your fork. so bashing it for not being able to take what you dish out isn't really a fair criticism.

Manipoo sucks. My Rockhopper FSR came stock with an Axel I had the shop swap it before I even took it home

yes, the soft travel pisses me off a bit, but ive been working on a way to deal with that.

what i think is happening is the fork is so soft that when someone takes it jumping (like the sticker on the left leg said not to), it bottoms out, hard. After a few of these, the revers arch gets fatigued, and thus sloppy. Eventually it just breaks outright. I bet if the suspension is stiffened up none of that will happen.

i think it's pretty safe to say that you're misusing your fork. so bashing it for not being able to take what you dish out isn't really a fair criticism

True, i suppose i should be criticising Giant's poor choice of fork, putting a pure XC fork onto a HT frame which can take much more. Even still the fork as i said is terrible even on road, and im sure no XC track is completely devoid of small objects, pebbles and whatnot. :D

Theres lots of "strictly XC" forks that are FAR superior to Manitou, so why can't Manitou get on the ball and get their product up to par? All my "strictly XC" forks (Fox F80x, Marzocchi MXR, Rockshox Judy TT, Rockshox Indy) all withstood aggressive XC and were reasonably stiff. Two best were obviously the Marz and the Fox, but even the cheap Marz was incredibly stiff.

I think it was a matter of focus. It seems to me that Manitou in the last few years has tried to focus more on the dh race, dh and freeride market than anything else. Maybe they will try to expand but I think they recognized some discontent in 2002 with Marz products and really tried to break through then.

Xc has soooo (rockshox, marz (although aren't they too heavy for most people), fox, any 3rd tier company on the planet) much competition it might not have been seen as a viable area to try and compete. Of course this is just conjecture based on what Manitou seems to have been building (dorado and shermans) and honestly it seems to have forced marzocchi's hand in regards to the 888 (the first race fork by Marz) and building TRUE djing/freeride sc's (steel, variable travel for various aggressive applications).

Oh and to answer the question. I would not buy a manitou for xc or regular use:)... far better forks for the same price point from Marz and rockshox (I personally don't like fox as they are outrageously prices and CS response has sucked imo)

yep, I think the next fork i will buy will be a Marzocchi. I haven't heard a single bad thing about them, and they would look sooo pimp on my bike.

rockshox makes grest forks, their under-rated i think. i have a duke xc and its not too plush or anything, i take it off 6 foot drops with no problems. of course as i get heavier ill have to buy a heavier spring kit, but its still good.

axel elites suck. im 120 poudns and i can bottom them out jumping off a curb :-p

What do you think, which bike should I buy. I need it for freeride, a lot of jumps, roks... Which? Trek, author, giant... Cannondale is to expensive for me.

what the heck is author?

You seem to be mixing up your components, fork and frames...

Pisti, how much money do you have to spend, that'll give us a better veiw of the sort of bike your looking for

what the heck is author?

You seem to be mixing up your components, fork and frames...
http://www.author.cz/index.php?en_home

I'd go with the author, never heard of the company, but it looks like they make some sick bikes.

I'd go with the author, never heard of the company, but it looks like they make some sick bikes.
I've actually built up an Author - can't say a bad thing about them they seem to be a decent quality bike

I'm planing to spend about 1100 eurs. For that price you get bike with shimano XT commponents.