|   Which fork to upgrade from Manitou SX ? Skareb or Duke ? | Birdy
Jan 8, 2003 1:34 AM | | I would like to upgrade the Manitou SX fork on my '99 Klein Attitude. I narrowed down the choice more or less to the Rockshox Duke XC 80mm and the Manitou Skareb Elite. ( I don't need a lockout).
I am not racing and I weigh about 135 lbs.
Which one would you advise ? If it is the Manitou, is it necessary then to exchange the coilspring ? ( Which spring is factory-fitted ? I cannot find any data on this.) |
| 99 SX info | PBK
Jan 8, 2003 9:52 AM | | If you've got the OEM 99 SX on a Klein Attitude Race (the black/red/white one), then remember that it is a 70 mm spring in there. Any 80 mm fork will make the steering a bit slower, just in case this is important to you. A bit more sag will compensate for the extra 10 mm. The standard spring in Manitou forks is medium, and you might be on the light side of that, depending on your preferences. You might need a soft spring kit, or you might consider an air fork. |
| 99 SX info | Birdy
Jan 8, 2003 11:15 AM | | Thanks PBK.
My Klein Attitude has a blue frame and fork. I bought it as the Comp model but, due to a misaligned frame, the frame was exchanged under warranty. The new one has the same colour but now with the "Race" sticker on it. I assume that this also has the 70 mm fork ?
As for the Manitou fork, I understand that the Skareb Elite is an air/coil fork. Is the coil only for the negative part and if so, does the spring rate have much influence ? (I heard that a soft spring kit is not available here, so i would have to order it somewhere else). |
| 99 SX info | jw25
Jan 9, 2003 7:05 AM | | You might have an 80mm fork, as the 99 lineup had one 70mm holdout for racers, the SX-Carbon. You'll know if you have one, as it has a carbon arch bonded to the lowers, and no disc mounts.
I'd bet you have the plain SX, though, which in 99 was 80mm, disc-mounted (though the spacing was 70mm, not the 74mm Hayes standard, so finding calipers is a pain). They're decent forks, but the damping adjustments were all internal, I think, so tweaking them was a pain.
For the Skarab Elite, I think it's actually using the coil spring as a first stage spring, to help with small bump sensitivity, and keep the spring rate more linear. Straight air forks tend to get very progressive at the end of their travel, and more so the longer the travel is.
I ride a 00 Mars-1, which uses an MCU in the same system, and it's decent. The MCU was replaced by a coil to get rid of the sudden transition from MCU to air, and by most reviews, was successful.
Manitou's been fairly good about spring swaps in the past, so it's worth a call to them. If they refuse, springs are available for the Mars series, and should fit just fine in the Skareb - the changes are mostly external, but the internals should be similar. |
| 99 SX info | PBK
Jan 10, 2003 8:39 AM | | You're correct that the 99 aftermarket SX was 80mm, but Klein ordered 70 mm OEM versions for the Attitude Race model (I've been through all the tech info and have serviced the fork myself. There's a spacer in there so you can convert it to 80 mm with a longer spring kit.) The 00 Attitude Race frame was Sky blue, so that's probably your new frame. |
| 99 SX info | Birdy
Jan 10, 2003 1:38 PM | | Thanks for the info |
| |
