Manitou 1 Forks

PDL

Dirt Disciple
Hi,

I've just joined the forum and wonder if anyone can help.

I have some Manitou 1 forks fitted to a Dynatech MT4 frame. I built the bike back in 1993 / 94, following an accident on my previous bike, but had lost my bottle and it has ended up covering only a couple of hundred miles to date :oops:

When I was out a couple of weeks back the forks collapsed onto the front wheel... I've sent a PM to Slim to see if he has any replacement elastomers he can sell to me.

However, as well as the elastomers, I also need to get a couple of other bits for the inside of the fork, and wondered if anyone had similar experince with Manitou or other elastomer forks?

At the top (or bottom; can't remember without looking at the manual) of the elastomer stack but there's a hard black rubber washer that is about 1/2" long. I've managed to melt that on one side as well. It's a slightly smaller diameter than the elatomers, but I'm not sure if this is significant. I was thinking about cutting an elastomer to the right length to replace these. Has anyone else had to replace a siimilar bit? Is replacing it with a hard elatomer okay do you think?

Finally, the allen bolt heads get tightened down on something like a foam rubber washer, presumably to stop air from the gap between the inner and outer fork, and keep the compression. They melted on both sides. I guess I may be able to buy something similar that is fairly dense but still squashy (very technical description) and perhaps drill a small hole through for the bolt head, but has anyone ever managed to find something suitable to replace these sorts of things?

Any advice gratefully received, as the alternative is going back to the original rigid forks, which would need a new steerer tube fitted.

Thanks,
Damien
 
Welcome to the forum!

Chances are that the 1/2 inch elastomer is the top-out bumper, just cut a standard one in half and it does the job. Don't worry about the spongy washer on the bottom but make sure that you have a steel washer in between each elastomer and the big steel washer at the top to hold the bush on the stantion in place (am I making any sense, all sounds a bit gobbledeegook). If you need I can see if I can break down a set of mine so that you can see the order of bits.

Out of interest, what are the original rigid forks that need a new steerer? Get some photos of everything posted up, we all love looking at interesting kit
 
Pete,

thanks for your reply. Makes sense to me. I have the Manitou manual, but it's at my Mum's house 100 miles away. I'll get it when I'm next there and check the order of bits before I put the forks back together.

The original forks with the frame were chromoly (something steel based anyway). I cut the steerer tube on them to fit an old Ridgeback frame many years ago to make a fairly rough winter bike, and the tube's not long enough to go back in this Dynatech frame. Time to see a frame builder and get a new threaded steerer tube fitted I think.

Once it's all working again I'll post some pics, as I've got the forks off and it all looks a bit sorry for itself at the moment.
 
I found some packing washers from a sink faucet in the plumbing small-parts section of my local hardware store that are a good fit for those hard black Manitou top-out bumpers.

I have the M3/M4 manuals to scan in and post someday...
 
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