Upgrading suspension fork
 

Maybe some of you know about my previous thread about trying to get a mountain bike for £200. Well I did it, down from £700!!! The bike is great apart from the front fork. They are sr suntour M2000, and bottom out at just about anything. If I sell them, I would probably get about £40 I want to upgrade them to something cheap that won't bottom out when coming down from wheelies as a bench mark. I only have £30 plus the £40 if I get it to spend on them. I am fine with second hand forks as well. Does anyone have any ideas to what I could get???

Edit: Is this fork any good, I have a feeling that it really isn't but am not sure!!!

http://www.jejamescycles.co.uk/rocks...tem162252.html

Ah 100mm
...........
10cm
...........
ah
...........
about 3 inches of travel, correct?

Seems pretty good, see the reviews:
http://www.mtbr.com/cat/suspension/2...2_6743crx.aspx

If it fits, go right ahead

Sounds about right!!! My current fork has about 5cm of travel!!! How do I know if it will fit???

Thank you very much though!!!

Edit: It is 4 inches or 3.95 inches to be exact!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I was doing it off the top of my head

I'm not good with suspension, or forks for that matter. I've only replaced them to what other people tell me to do.

I advise you to go to a local bike shop and ask them for a replacement fork. They'll show you one and you ask them how that one will be able to replace your current one, sizing and all that. They'll tell you how and then you ask for the price and the name of the shock. Write all the info down and tell them "I'm going to look around before I buy, thank you so much," and research. Also ask them about free install.

So then head online and research it.

If the price of the fork
+
the tools and lube
=
the price of the shop's fork and install

I would go for online, because you get the tools and some learningz

If it's:

the shop fork
+
free or cheap install
=
less then the part online and shipping,

then go into the bike shop.


I would bike to the bike shops and ask them all. Some are "special" and think they are a high class dealer, and some will give you great deals on used parts and free install with service on their parts. But make sure you research the part before you buy it!

Thanks, will try that. Other than that does anyone recommend somewhere where you can buy good quality forks for good prices or good deals with second hand ones? Does anyone have a decent one to sell?

Thank you very much.

What £700 bike did you get for £200 ?

It was a Carrera Banshee X Mountain Bike 09. I got it second hand of a friend who bought it, found he didn't like mountain biking and decided to bmx, which he preferred. He had this bike for 6 months hardly used it, for some reason, it came with sr suntour m2000 forks, which bottoms of when coming of a curb - absolute useless. Money isn't exactly a problem for his family so I got a massive discount. Now I just need to change the front shocks.

According to this the rear travel on the bike is 150mm, you should be looking for a fork with a similar amount of travel as the rear.

What would you guys recommend then???

Look on ebay for a second hand fork like a Marzocchi, Rockshox, Manitou, ect.

Something like these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marzocchi-Bomb...item3cb81d4b8f
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marzocchi-Bomb...item3f0a0eb23d
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Marzocchi-44-T...item35b22db841
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rockshox-Pike-...item3a6645eadc
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rockshox-Pike-...item2310f13014
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Manitou-Sherma...item45fabff634

More here: http://sports.shop.ebay.co.uk/Bike-P...4.l1513&_pgn=1

* If you buy a second hand fork make sure the steering tube is long enough.
* You might need a new front wheel too if these forks use a different axle to what your current wheel uses.

Thank you very much, will probably get one of those, however, will check shops out first!!!

That is quite interesting actually, I bought my son a bike from halfords and he loves it except he claims that the front suspension keeps 'bottoming off' or something like that (what ever it means). The bike I bought him was an Apollo Paradox 20" with what I think is the same front suspension that Music Guy has (sr suntour m2000 I think!). Is there a cheap upgrade for this, I don't really want to spend lots. The first link that Music Guy put seemed just in my price range, would it be any good???

As you can probably see from reading what I have put, I am not very knowledgeable on this subject. Any help would be much appreciated.

Chris

Yeah, I know how bad that fork is, I have just ordered another one - hope it works!!! For you, maybe try the first one that I posted, does anyone know what they are like?

Just trying to help Chris here - does anyone know what the fork that I posted on my first post is like?

What did you get ?

The Rockshox Dart 1 would be a upgrade over the SR Suntour m2000 but in saying that it's still on the bottom rung of the Rockshox ladder so it's not the greatest fork out there and it won't perform like a fork that costs 5 times as much.

Without knowing how Chris's son rides and what he's doing to bottom out his current fork it's a bit hard to say what to get as he might encounter the same problem with the Dart.