Where the best prices to be found on new forks these days ? Is it still the German shops ?
I'm after a 120mm to 130mm lower/medum end fork for a 29er homebuild (I don't have a frame yet but likely a Cotic Solaris max or Sonder Signal Ti). Budget is around £300, hoping for a recon or possible a little better (Reba) ? Would also consider second hand.
Im gonna be selling my fork very soon. Fox factory 34 130mm none boost.
I've got the Solaris max and my advice is go 130mm travel ,I found this the best for the frame ,and get the best fork u can afford because the max just wants to smash everything
Selling my fox 34 Factory 140mm for 350 mate
I’d probably be looking for a secondhand Pike in decent condition. Think I paid £275 for the one on my hardtail. It’s not as good as the Lyrik on my fs bike but it’s decent on a hardtail.
Still seems to be
Bike-components
Bike-Discount
R2 bike
Diese deutschen still seem to carry heavily discounted forks frequently. Just be careful if you buy a RS one, they set Soloair forks as being Debonair all the time
Best price for a new (2020 model year) Pike about a month ago was Rose bikes. Cost me about £455 inc. postage. So, quite a bit more than your budget but still good discount vs. UK. The other German sites referenced above had older models around £500 at the time - but I wanted to go as new as possible but keeping it under £500.
This has gone on my Solaris Max and is 120mm. I considered 130mm - but after discussion with Cotic settled on 120mm (Boost) for my fairly XC oriented riding, (I figured changing to 130mm in the future would not be too painful if needed). I also considered a Reba (my last three forks have been Reba's in 26 form) but again Cotic thought they would not do the bike justice. the Pike select is only about 300g heavier than the Reba but a lot stiffer - so a good choice I think.
Worth considering forks that are the wrong length - obviously this involves a bit of additional effort, but the parts aren't expensive and it's not a difficult job to do. My SolarisMax ended up with a set of the 150mm Yari's Merlin had cheap at the time, updated with a 130mm air shaft. Note that this also means you can upgrade an older fork to the latest spec air spring.
I've got a 150mm Pike I'm looking to sell. Came off my 2017 Hightower. I'd take £270 shipped inc PayPal fees. Low mileage on them too. You'd just need a new air spring to shorten them which would no doubt be a nice upgrade too.
I'd look for a used Pike or 34 at your budget.
I had a 34 and never felt like I needed a burlier fork on my SolarisMAX.
