Manitou MK1 forks from a 90s USA race team ?

[Joe*Pro]

So I impulse bought these today a few min after they went up I think, as whilst I’ve fancied some early Manitous for a while to potentially go on the rigid 1996 nickle P7, but they always seemed a bit pricey, but these today seemed better value at £125.

They are 1inch threaded steerer, 149mm and still have movement in the elastomers apparently. But are missing the stantions dust top caps !

Questions:
Who best to service them ? Has PACE HQ ever done them for anyone?

Are the stanchion top caps rare as hens teeth or do other fork top caps fit?

Are they definitely the 1st forks manitou made ? Or rather are they close to the 1st forks made by anyone that were any good or publicly available?

How do they compare to the Rock Shox RS1 or Marazochies xc700 ?

I basically wanted some either as garage wall art to see them as an example of a very early front suspension and or then to put on my rigid P7.

 

[Antstark]

They look good. First mass produced Manitou branded forks made by Answer. The original Doug Bradbury Manitou’s on which they are based were similar. With regard servicing you can honestly do it yourself..they are very basic ..you’ll need a very long Allan key. Instructions are probably on here but definitely on the suspensionforkparts website. Top caps do come up ..I might have some.

 

[Joe*Pro]

They look good. First mass produced Manitou branded forks made by Answer. The original Doug Bradbury Manitou’s on which they are based were similar. With regard servicing you can honestly do it yourself..they are very basic ..you’ll need a very long Allan key. Instructions are probably on here but definitely on the suspensionforkparts website. Top caps do come up ..I might have some.

Brill thanks, yes read up on the Doug Bradbury storey, didn’t he end up at Rockshox Soon after or was it on retirement ? And do the DB versions every come up for sale or were they basically prototypes ? I.e I thought they sold it within a year of first fork due to stock/expansion.

would really appreciate some legit top caps to help keep them complete.

previous owner has just come back with some history to them saying:

He picked these up in the USA from a chap who ran race teams back in the early 90’s, they have been sat for a long time without a home.

 

[pete_mcc]

The originals DB forks were around for a short while before Answer bought them. They were effectively rolling prototypes and changed rapidly with things like dropouts and stantions going through a number of changes. They were also available in standard dropout width and 110mm to suit the DB frames that used wide hubs front and rear. They were often used by big stars like Tomac, Furtardo and others on the Yeti team.
The Bradbury forks do come up for sale but sell for lots, upto $1000 dependent on the type, age, dropouts and width.

Over the years I think I’ve had 4 sets of Bradbury’s, mainly because they used to fly under the radar as the decals used to come off and no one knew what they were! Internally they are basically the same as Answer and parts were interchangeable with the later DB and Answer ones.

Here‘s couple of sets of my bradburys, one for standard hubs, one for oversized. These were the last versions of the DB forks.

 

[gtturbo]

Bradbury versions come up very occasionally but not cheap. They weren't prototypes as such you could buy them, along with the Bradbury Manitou frames. Don't recall he ever went to Rockshox though ?. He worked with JT on the Tomac branded bikes that's for sure.

 

[Joe*Pro]

Doug Bradbury:

https://mmbhof.org/douglas-bradbury/
sorry I was thinking of Greg Herbold riding Rock shox in 1990 who then went to work for them. As opposed to Tomac riding manitou in 1990.

 

[Joe*Pro]

So the chicken and egg question - which came first the RS1 or the MK1 ?

 

[Joe*Pro]

Ivd read the RS1 would blow out a lot compared to the MK1

 

[pete_mcc]

There was very little to go wrong in the MK1s, they were dependable and solid but not the future. RS1s were the future, most modern forks can trace their roots back to RS1s rather than MK1. That said, I took MK1s over RS1s back in the day due to serviceability, reliability and weight

 

[Joe*Pro]

Now I feel like I might need a pair of each on the wall, but the RS1s look a bit rubbish/budget in hindsight. Save for the pink writing.