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Hi,
New to the group, usually ride Thorndon, Epping, Bedgebury . Did search out the jumps at Warley, decided I am way too old , and I would need a BIGGER Brave Pill !!
Got a couple of years old GT hardtail , . Problem is , under normal riding the front forks have virtually seized. They still move , if I get off, strangle the brakes on and throw my weight down on the bars.
Going to take them apart, clean em , and hopefully put them back together,
Question is if that doesn't cure it , what should I replace them with ?

Any help would be great.

cheers

XCR's are hopeless.
personal preference and budget play a big part in fork choice.
Rock shox toras are good value and work well

If you are prepared to take forks apart then it may be worth looking to get some second hand ones ?. You can get some top forks Fox, Marzocchi, RockShox pretty reasonable second hand and then rebuild if they are a bit worn, rebuilding can be a bit of a nitemare..Ive done my Marzocchi's a few times now and I'm very pleased with my last rebuild, softish springs to soak up brake bumps (mainly built for Morzine).

Suntour do a lot of OEM stuff for cheap/mid bikes......some of their top models are ok but others are pretty naff.

As mentioned all depends on budget, you can spend £100 to £1000 +

Andy

Marzocchi forks are made by Suntour since about 2006 aren't they? Kind of ironic. Half the Marzocchi USA guys left to setup DVO suspension, which is manufactured by....Suntour.

Bearing in mind the suntours are pretty naff I don't see you have anything to loose by stripping them down and rebuilding, you'll learn a lot about how forks are put together and inn the worst case scenario you'll just replace them with something better

Sent using the force...

You maybe right..I think the year might be 2007, thats why a lot of people recommend the older Italian made Marzocchi's and say avoid the far east newer models.

Mine are the older originals and very happy with them and as forks go, pretty easy to rebuild and spare parts are quite easy to get, no idea what the internals of Suntour are like but before taking them apart its worth check that a) you can get spares and b) you can get manuals, rebuilding tips/how to's on the web, otherwise you may find yourself stuck amid a pile of springs, tubes and oil with no idea what goes where !

I think Dirt had a recent feature on DVO and explained the whole DVO/Marzocchi/Sumtour relationship..I think it pointed out that Suntour is the biggest fork manufacturer in the world coz they make a lot of OEM stuff.

Andy

Yeah. I have an '03 pair of bombers. Stripped them down for the first time in 3 years and the oil was still as clean as when it went in. Only problem I then had is that the bottom bolts on the legs had seized and would not budge. They're made of really soft metal so may have to find some cheap replacements and then drill them out.

The bottom bolts are connected to the valve internals..you should try and losen them first before you do anything, if you try and undo them last then often the internal valve assembly just turns with the bolt as there is nothing holding it in place (if you try and undo the bolts first at least you have the pressure of the spring holding them in place).

Ive bought the bottom bolts a few times you can get them for a few quid, make sure you get the right ones, there are 3 types, blank ones, ones for the rebound side or compression side.

Ive also got another spare set of forks that I have been using for spares, ive now got enough bits to eventually rebuild them, Ill spray em and get new decals and chuck em on ebay one day.

Andy

Ah these are MX comp Air forks. The bottom bolts don't shift at all, no turning or anything. I've stripped the ETA version before, which is nearly identical. I think it's a case of over torqueing and neglect! Where did you get your replacement bolts from?

Get rockshox toras I have had 2 pairs ( I broke the first crashing into a tree) but my current ones have been on a Xc bike my dj bike and worked fantastically on both

Had a set of 1999 z1 bam bombers on my diamondback x10 so smooth