ac691

can some one PLEASE tell me what the RST GILA forks are mainly used for? and what i could use them for....

khuon

If you hold it upside down and stretch a large elastic band across the dropouts, you can use it as a pretty nice slingshot.

Raiyn

I hear they make lovely lamps. You could use it as a paperweight.

anthonaut

No youve got it all wrong. You get four of them and make a stool with them- some may have seen this done with dorados.

Nah you can use them if you want but if you have the choice, get something else.

DjRider04

I second the slingshot idea.

100prcnt Marine

they are also good to sell on ebay

hooligan

They're a bit heavy for sling shots. They make good beating sticks. When you hit someone, the spring springs back at you and returns all your energy for another hit!

BSK

just bought a bike which came with the rst gila's on standard and got the bike shop to change em straight away before i had a chance to see the damn things...... i did alot of my research/lurking on bikeforums.net and suprisingly there is some truth in the crap they all dribble here cos it was well worth paying extra for something else. (thats after riding a friends specialized which had the RST gila's and coming to that conclusion.)
long story short.... waste of time! unless your just using em to ride to work etc.. IMO

seely

The RST isn't as worthless as most people would have you believe. I have yet to personally warranty one, and it doesn't seem any worse than a Judy or Jett. Regardless its not a great fork by any means. Just use it within its limits (ie no 6 foot drops) and you will be ok with it. Its a longer travel cross country fork basically.

ac691

how about 1 meter drops, they ok?

jallen

I have the stock Gila on my Hardrock sport '04. They're not anything amazing, but I've not had problems with mine- yet anyway. I ride on some pretty rugged trails, and it DOES perfrorm heaps and bounds better than my steel rigid bike I used to ride a few years beck before it got stolen. At least my hands aren't as numb with the Gila's like they got with rigid forks.

They're not impressive that's for sure, but I do think they're better than nothing on rough trails.

I wouldn't do big drops, DH, freeride on those.. at least not on big drops anyway.

jallen

That being said, I'm eyeing & budgeting for a ~$200 fork to replace the Gila in the next couple months. I found a place that sell new Gila's online and they retail for $70, so I expect that the wellspend & researched ~200 dollars will show a very big performance increase.

I'm a clyde at 6'2" 215#, so I need something more robust. Anyone have anything to recommend in that price range?

Thanks

cryogenic

Perhaps a Marzocchi MX Comp? Most of the forks I've been looking at are between $200-300, not so much in the <$200 category. Your best bet may be to find something on clearance or on ebay. Being a larger rider, something like a Judy wouldn't be that much of an upgrade for you. I've seen the Psylo XC's going for about $250 at various places because they're a discontinued '04 model.

jallen

I have been eyeing all those forks on ebay.. That is probably my best bet. if I want to stick to the 200ish budget and get a real good fork for my 215#.

Psylos is one fork I have been eyeing, it looks pretty good to me.

trekkie820

From what I hea, Gilas are good for eating Chinese food, small(90CM)drops and cooking marshmallows.

enduro

Psylos are nice, but pretty flexy, about as much as my old Judy Race. I'd want something stiffer if I'd upgrade.

-Stretch-

lol id say my kappa fork is about good for poking a giant pig on a rotisserie(sp) gonna get a judy sl next season i think...hopefully a 2k4

Evo

I thought we stopped belittling and making a mockery of people sugesting budget equipment. It's one thing to point out why budget equipment is inferior and will not perform (obviously) like high end stuff, and just being plain stupid. Although what Holigan said was pretty funny.
I would not reccomend upgrading to a Gila, but for most people who are new to mountain biking and either can't afford or do not want to spend a fortune on a first bike, it makes a fine choice. I had a RS Judy TT which I think is not as good as an RST Gila, and I found it a good first introduction to front suspension, it served me well as my skills developed. And after a while I decided I liked mountain biking enough that I would spend more money on my bike and upgrade it.
Some people may never take mountain biking as seriuosly as the majority on this forum, for them its not worth spending big money on fancy equipment if after a year they move on and the bike ends up rotting in the back of the garage.

jallen

I think it's all funny in here I by no means expect high end performance out of a midrange fork, and I know they don't compare

If I rode a high end bike, it would be hard to go back down... Just like it's painful for anybody to use an original Pentium with Windows 95 when they've been using a modern, higherend AMD or Intel system

Now, leave me alone before I knock ya'll out with my Gila mace!