racerveza 's List: Manitou Product Reviews

• The biggest thing I have to say about the Manitou Minute Elite TPC (MSRP $650.00), is WOW - what an awesome fork right out of the box!
• The Manitou Minute Elite is one of those forks that, once you spend the time setting it up correctly, you’d be hard pressed to find another fork that performs as well in the same category. I was very impressed with the fork’s performance, particularly its ability to take both large hits (up to 6 foot drops) and rock gardens. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a fork that inspired as much confidence as this one has, especially in the 140mm class. The fork always felt smooth, tracked extremely well, and kept me in control. Under braking and climbing the fork maintained wheel contact and never felt like it was blowing through its travel.

• We will be racing DH on the Giant Glory with all Manitou suspension. The all new Manitou Dorado was the biggest surprise!!!! They have really stepped up their game with this fork. I mean, it just makes you want to go faster knowing how well it tracks and absorbs the hits under you.
• The Manitou Dorado also has some adjustability to let us further tweak the head angle / bottom bracket height more by moving the fork up or down the stanchions.

• the Manitou R7 Super fork can handle pretty much anything you ride it on
• The Manitou R7 Super fork offers 100mm (3.94in) of well controlled travel, with decent rebound damping and a leg top lockout lever that’s great for climbs if you flick it all the way on

• My whole Team is on them for 09. I will say a few of my guys have been racing on them out West at the SouthRidge races lately and they say its way better than the 2008 Fox 40 and 2008 Boxxer. I think you will start to see more people on this fork by the End Of The Year as it will fast turn into a Must Have for 2009 as the Cane Creek DB did a few years back.
  
  Cecil

• We ran a big review of this fork last month, and the good news is that this waif is still going strong.

  Manitou's R7 is the lightest fork in its class by a long way, making it an obvious race option. It corners and brakes predictably enough, once you get used to running wider through corners than with comparable forks.

  The stroke is reasonably supple with no obvious spikes, and while the middle settings of the Absolute compression damping are best ignored, the full open, light platform (number 1 setting) and lockout notches all work fine.

  The hardware quality and overall look of the fork are reassuringly high-class, and R7s have always been one of the more reliable Manitou forks. 

  Add in the reasonable price, and you've got a weight-watcher's dream.

• I found little difference between the five platform adjusting clicks though, but either fully open or completely locked out worked great for me. I attached a zip-tie to measure the amount of travel used and all 120mm were used landing big drops or running trail stuff over.
• In active mode the fork compressed and rebounded smoothly, had a positive feel and didn't nosedive uncontrollably when a handful of front brake was grabbed.
• There was also nothing sticky in the motion once the fork was cycled and broken in, nor any flex in the stanchions or lowers.
• When it came time to lock the fork out, stand and hammer the Minute 29er gave no movement—a true lockout, nothing fancy so you have to flip the knob to reinstate the travel or risk being shook. The fork seals held up fine, no leakage or seepage, and there were no unusual noises coming from the internals to catch my ears. It was just pedal and hang on, problem free.
• Aesthetically the Minute 29er looked awesome and the Rasta stripes served as a reminder to feel the groove of the trail, go with the flow, and just dig being outside man!

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