Originally Posted by
Darth Lefty
I have a 2001 vintage mountain bike (that has a cheap Suntour suspension fork) and I recently looked into upgrading. Here's what I learned. Most if not all inexpensive suspension forks are just springs. In order to get damping you need to spend a few hundred dollars. In the current MTB market the smaller wheels are matched to longer travel, so XC is 29er, all-mountain is 27.5, downhill is 26". Only the cheapest bikes have V-brakes and they're not the ones that come with nice forks. A new cross-country fork of high quality is likely to be 29er and disk, finding a nice fork with 26" and V-brake, much less cantilever, is unlikely.
Therefore you might want to look back a few years in the used market to find what you're looking for. Five or ten years back to get before the 29ers, ten or fifteen to get before the disks.
The Manitou Match is $225 last time I checked on amazon.com
The only reviews I could find on that one were absolutely glowing. I was reading on mtbr and a lot of people say the Manitou forks are above the Rockshox Recon Silver in quality and feel. And some people don't like Marzocchi and Fox so... (If I had a lot of money and built a project just for the fun of it, I'd build a bike with a Manitou Match fork with Shimano Deore V-brakes and levers. Coil forks and V-brakes can be simpler in terms of durability, maintenance.)