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BareNecessities
@853Superfly
The Fort William world cup downhill race track has been raced rigid, but with gears not SS, so a rigid is capable of anywhere in the UK.......
Suspension forks are a minefield.
FOX are more race and need looking after, good back up if you follow approved service regimes, costly repairs if not, but fully rebuildable at cost.
Marzocchi are more solid (08/09/2010) certain models had problems, 07 and earlier are bombproof workhorses, 2011 onwards is almost on a par with the older bombproof models, loads of late 1990s still in service.
Rockshox, easy to work on and service, moderate pricing good choices.
Magura, good forks but spares and dealer servicing can be tricky.
BOS, excellent forks.....but..... pricey, poor spares and dealer service in UK.
XFusion building a good rep for well priced and specced forks, wouldn't say no.
Suntour, mostly low end OEM budget forks but they are trying to get into the quality aftermarket business.
Manitou, once made banging race forks, then quality went down the pan and they got called manipoo's, bought out by Hayes around 2010, and making back ground, well priced and some online bargins, the 29er forks have a good following.
They have all had issues and dramas over the years, find a bike, google the fork/model year and go from there.
As a very rough guide, open bath forks tend to be longer lasting but heavier (more oil inside) than the closed/sealed damping cartridge versions which are lighter weight and don't have much oil to help shed grammes. So much to choose from these days and a very focused market for product, so XC, XC race, All mountain, Enduro, Freeride,Park, Dirt/jump/street, Downhill, air or coil sprung, open bath dampers or sealed cartridge dampers, anything from 24hour service intervals to maybe check the oil every 6 months.