Dart 1, Dart 2, Motobecane, Marin, I have a headache...
 

So I've been occupying my time picking up bikes off craigslist. I recently acquired two 26" mountain bikes.

Bike 1
Marin Alpine Trails, Dart 2, XT rear derailleur, v-brakes

Bike 2
Motobecane HT600, Dart 1, LX rear derailleur, disc brakes

I added the Dart 2 to Bike 1 because the original fork was junk. Unfortunately, after much research, I still have no idea what the difference is between a Dart 1 and Dart 2. Some Googling suggests the 2 has a rebound adjustment--it doesn't. In fact, the forks look almost identical. Neither has a lockout, no rebound adjustment on the bottom, but both have the preload adjustment on top. Does anyone have a clue what the difference is?

I'm thinking I'll keep one of these bikes for a back-up, or for a friend to ride, and then sell the other. I'm leaning toward keeping Bike 2, but I don't know. Since it has disc brakes, it would be much easier to put a nice fork on it later.

I wouldn't make the decision based on the forks. Neither are recommended for anything even a little crazy. Why don't you take all the best components, put them on one of the bikes, and sell the other one? If both bikes have disc brake tabs then just go with the frame you like the most, if not go with the one with disc brake tabs.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm keeping bike 2. I started to swap the forks as I noticed they both had the exact same steer tube length, but I realized the Dart 1 didn't have v-brake posts, so I couldn't put in on bike 1. And I was considering swapping the derailleurs, but I'm thinking there's not much diff between LX and XT. So I think I'll just sell bike 1 as-is. I'd still like to know the difference in the forks, though. SRAM's website isn't much help.

Hmm, yea I am not sure either. Seems like the Dart 2 should have some extra adjustable options with the most important being external rebound, but if the Dart 2 in front of you doesn't have external rebound I would think the differences in performance would be fairly negligible.

I am starting to suspect the difference is a fixed non-adjustable rebound damping. The Dart 2 makes that wooshing noise, just like my Tora, when it springs back up. The Dart 1 does not. So maybe the Dart 1 has no rebound damping at all.