I can't take the pounding of the surly rigid fork any more. Age, traitorous tendons and several other bodily failures have conspired against me. The bike is a sigle speed hard tail. That might have to go a few more years down the road but fer now it's too fun, by fun I mean cheaper(( by cheaper I mean keeping the wife happy)). At any rate, I am looking to spend a couple hun on a suspension fork, I realize these two are not top o the line and I couldn't care less. I am a fork barbarian and can not differentiate between the low end guys and the spensive models. Sorry, it annoys my friends too. I have in my meager budget around $250 and have located these two models on Or at if you prefer, JensonUSA.com. The Manitou R7 Comp and the Manitou minute 2. I've had good Manitou forks before so no peanut headed comments on the brand, if they break in a few years... oh no, I'll go buy another $200ish fork. I suspect the Minute is the better deal but who knows, better is very relative........ The bike is ridden on singletrack trails, sometimes to pull the children around the block but not very often. Thanking you for your opinion in advance.
P.S if you know of a similar online deal somewhere, please let me know. I don't have time to scour the ethernet for bike part sites, usually I go to the LBS but for situations like these I use Price point or Jenson.

If you can hold out for a couple of months, the 2006's will be clearanced-out.

Pick the fork you want, then wait patiently for the kill. I mean steal....

I ain't gonna "Bad mouth" Manitou forks, but IMO they're just not as good as
Fox or Marzocchi. I don't (won't) spend the $$$ that the Fox's cost, so that
only left 'Zocchi for me.... Everyone has their own opinion. That was mine

My son has a slightly used R7 that I'll sell for $500 right now... he wants to replace it with a Lefty carbon dlr2.

$500 for a slightly used r7? i dont mean to be an ass but isn't thats kinda too much?
brand new 2007 platinum is like $420

heh jiiiim.

Ah here's a good deal, and it's cheap: https://www.greenfishsports.com/index...ROD&ProdID=872

Yeah, I wasn't sure what to think when I saw the original offer. My first impulse was to rush out and send this person all the cash I had, maybe even offer up my house and two children for the sweet sweet deal. My second reaction was to ignore which I was doing until I saw this response. I HAD to agree. I won't even mention my budget being spelled out in my original post. Siiiiiiiigh... now that I've started, I really want to just run with it. I am not going to do it though. I will remain strong. Thanks for the Greenfish link. I believe I'll be purchasing that. I have no real love of Manitou but I have purchased a Black before and had no small amount of good rides with it connected to the bike. I could go buy a shiny new Fox but why? For a grand or so I could add to the kids college fund, purchase a couple thermal triple paned windows to replace the marginal single panes I have now and so on. I've owned and ridden numerous forks and really all they do is go up and down. Sure some have more length and little knobs that may or may not change the way it feels( I swear I can't tell) but dear god, it is a bike part! I guess I don't place the same importance on these things as some do.

good eye my good man.

I always found it funny, around here where freeride is huge and dirtjumping is even bigger the forks are CHEAPER!

At the end of the year sales, the stores are clearing out DJ3's for around $200cdn.

hey. i just bought a rockshox recon for the equivalent of around 230 us dollars. i think thats a real good fork for the money. it has compression damping and rebound damping adjustments. mine is the coil u turn version, though i mostly keep mine at 100 mm travel (though i did turn it up to 130 mm today while doing a ****load of stairs )

anyway. i dont have much experience with forks, but the recon is miles better than my stock manitou and though i dont have much to compare the recon with, it has some good reviews by others that do. maybe if you look around you could find a 2006 for cheap. its a nice matte black color too.

I must say I have often wondered where my son gets his pricing information! Now I have to do a little R7research & straighten the kid out... thanks for the heads up, though!

ok - $300? R7 super lockout 80mm, black

Um, lets see, one used fork for a hundred more and 20 mm less travel? No thanks. I appreciate the intent behind the offer though. I see on the greenfish site they have an 05 minute one at the same price as the Black super linked above. Hmmmmm, I may lean this way as the minute is coil and the super air if I remember from last nights reading. Any thoughts on these two? It looks to be a close race, both forks got an equal amount of good reviews and both got an equal, though lesser amount of bad reviews. Maybe I should flip a coin

Jameson, what kind of brakes are you using?

I've owned and ridden numerous forks and really all they do is go up and down. Sure some have more length and little knobs that may or may not change the way it feels( I swear I can't tell) but dear god, it is a bike part! I guess I don't place the same importance on these things as some do.

If you believe this yourself, buy a cheap one!

I prefer forks I use to be at least 120mm, because the shock absorption is so minute with 100 or 80mm.

Im running Avid BB7s, EJ123. I went with the Minute by the way. Biker lad, thanks for the keen insight. I've owned cheap forks on cheap bikes. To me, they are the same. I've never noticed a difference in cranks neither, only cosmetic. In fairness it may have something to do with my weight. I top out at a healthy 170. Again thanks for the startling revelations.