Greetings everyone! One of the bikes that I take into consideration is Rockrider Race 700. It comes with a Manitou Markhor 100mm Aluminium 6000 series fork. I think it's an air suspension fork. This fork brand is new to me. I was familiar with RS Suntour, RST, Rockshox forks. What do you know about Manitou forks in general and about this fork model in particular? Is it a good brand and a good fork model? How would you compare it with the other brands when we take into consideration the same budged. By comparing them I mean a comparison as performance, reliability and servicing, if spare parts are easily found in stores. Unfortunately, Decathlon only replaces broken forks, they don't service them and since they don't service them in my opinion I think they don't sell spare parts for forks. I read that forks need maintenance. The bike has a 2 year warranty for the fork, along with other parts. If I want to keep this fork in good condition for many years and do the maintenance, will I easily find spare parts for this fork model ? Thank you!

has most info you need-if no answers you can agree with try www.retrobike.co.uk or www.pinkbike forums.

I have a Markhor 100 on a hardtail that I built from frameset. It replaced a Rockshox Reba that cracked -- despite rather undemanding use, as I don't ride that bike on anything tougher than easy singletrack.

The Markhor has been fine for eight years now and I wouldn't hesitate from a performance standpoint to buy another, if need arose. The OEM rebuild kit -- just a collection of seals -- is presently not available from Manitou, however. Third-party options exist, which I've not yet tried.

8 years and still in working condition is great. Is this kit for Manitou Markhor ? Product code 141-28528-K004. The name is a bit confusing because besides Manitou Markhor has other information like M30 R7 30mm. The price is $34.

Most seal kits fit more than one model of fork.
Manitou build great forks that stand the test of time well

Just to be clear, that bike is not ridden daily or close to it, so the mileage may be less than you are expecting.

Yes, that does appear to be the rebuild kit.

It looks like a decent fork for the money. Manitou is a quality brand and been around a long time. This would be comparable to something like a RockShox Judy and definitely a big step up from the crappy Suntour coil spring forks often found on budget hardtails. Reasonably light, air sprung with plenty of adjustment and functional damping.

Did you do any maintenance on it in these 8 years that you have had it ?

I have re-lubricated it twice, and replaced the seals once. That's less than the recommended service frequency, but I also don't ride in conditions that are hard on this equipment -- not a lot of dust or mud, and I keep the bike clean. "Hours" is a weird way to measure, to me, but the fork has around 4200 miles on it.

YMMV.

Manual, if you are interested in a little light reading.

guesstimate average speed, in MPH...divide est. mileage by average MPH.. you now have "hours"
we used this to guesstimate hours of use for cars.. 40 or 45 MPH average for cars..
Ag. Equipment was 5 MPH average... etc.
i'd use 10 MPH for an MTB, 15 to 20 MPH for a road bike(depending on rider )...

Really? Is that how miles-per-hour works? Never woulda guessed.

you seemed confused or frustrated.. possibly a combination of the two....
many, if not most, service intervals are listed in hours... especially with bikes. Now others won't need to be as confused/frustrated.
the average speed and simple math info is sound, and you can refuse to use it if you want.
most bikes lack ANY distance or hours used clocking devices.
i'm sure several dedicated riders will now declare that invalid because THEY have such devices... sigh.

there's a big wide world beyond your nose.
try to focus on it, instead of your nose.

I wasn't confused, I said it's a weird method of measurement. If I ride my bike 5 hours, and Nino Shurter rides his 5 hours, and my neighbor rides his 5 hours, what does that tell us? Just about nothing, since Shurter's probably going to travel twice the distance that I do, and quadruple what my neighbor covers, with the same increase in the fork actions. And if the critical issue is just the fork being exposed to air, well my fork has been exposed for about 70,000 hours now.

Even on this board, I don't think I have heard someone quote the lifespan of their bike in hours-of-use -- they universally use distance or age.

what's weird is someone complaining about a well known and widely used maintenance interval standard.

that nose of yours is getting wider

Answer Manitou is a long running brand as good as anyone. But it’s weird to see it in the same discussion as Decathlon

Well it is their budget offering and I think Decathlon do budget bike stuff pretty well.

I guess. I don't think of Manitou as doing sufficient volume to have a budget offering. If it's all aluminum like RS's "Gold" forks then that's great. The only equivalent I can think of in the States is the Intense 951 bikes that are sold at Costco with Fox suspension

The Markhor is a nice fork, and is one of my more common aftermarket fork upgrades for entry level bikes (I'm a shop mechanic). It's fully serviceable and not difficult to work on or find small parts for.