Fork upgrade recommendations
 

I am researching forks to upgrade my GT Aggressor 1.0 with. I'm currently stuck with a 65mm travel and I'm looking to improve the travel substantially for trail riding purposes. I'm trying to stay under $200 bucks for the piece, so I'm not interested in anything too crazy. Here are a few of my options:

RockShox XC30TK

SR Suntour XCR RL MTB

RockShox Recon Silver R

Trails I'm hitting aren't mountain trails, they're forest trails with a few jumps here and there of about 3 feet. Any input is appreciated.

Also, the XC28. The only difference between it and the XC30 appears to be the diameter of the upper tube. Is this terribly important considering the 2mm difference? The cost savings are around 50-60$.

If you ask me, I'd say "man-up and go rigid". Probably the wrong answer, which is why I'd suggest asking this same question on the mountainbike forum here, or on the other forums. (Won't say which one, but it rhymes with empty-bee-yargh.com)

That being said, it's been years since I cared about suspension forks, but when I sorta did, the SR stuff was considered kinda wretched. Perhaps they've improved since then, though.

Rockshox have a reputation of being dependable regardless of price range, something which certainly can't be said for SR.

But switching to a longer travel fork will change the steering response and the handling of the bike. Functionally, it's (usually) a non-issue, the bike will still remain rideable.
But you might or might not like the feel of the bike, and it will increase the strain on the headtube/downtube joint.

& aftermarket retail.. $200 is pretty low on the feature count, on SUS forks..