TOTEM retro suspension forks. Ever heard of them?
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Looks Manitouesque..
joglo
Senior Retro Guru
Hi,
Interesting fork!
We had a while ago in the German classic-bike forum also a unknown fork looking very close to a Manitou.
https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/t/was...ou-answer-2-oder-ein-prototype-dieser.967249/
The owner found even a price tag from the dealer where it was sold as "Manitou Nachbau" (Manitou replica) back in time.
Long story short, it was an 3G (Tre G) pro lite R
https://retroforksbike.pl/en/amortyzatory/3-g-pro-lite-r-2/
As the Totem description is in Italian too, maybe the fork was sold in Italy as well and might be officially licensed or produced by 3G?
Or maybe the local law in Italy was back in time not so strictly against pirate copies and Totem was another own replica?
I'm still wondering how 3G could have offered 3 years later a very obvious Manitou 3 look-a-like without being stopped by Manitou lawyers. Already in the Nineties there had been quite some legal fights in bike industry regards suspension patents or names.
Interesting fork!
We had a while ago in the German classic-bike forum also a unknown fork looking very close to a Manitou.
https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/t/was...ou-answer-2-oder-ein-prototype-dieser.967249/
The owner found even a price tag from the dealer where it was sold as "Manitou Nachbau" (Manitou replica) back in time.
Long story short, it was an 3G (Tre G) pro lite R
https://retroforksbike.pl/en/amortyzatory/3-g-pro-lite-r-2/
As the Totem description is in Italian too, maybe the fork was sold in Italy as well and might be officially licensed or produced by 3G?
Or maybe the local law in Italy was back in time not so strictly against pirate copies and Totem was another own replica?
I'm still wondering how 3G could have offered 3 years later a very obvious Manitou 3 look-a-like without being stopped by Manitou lawyers. Already in the Nineties there had been quite some legal fights in bike industry regards suspension patents or names.
Last edited:
fguki
Senior Retro Guru
To be honest ...I am still not 100% convinced by the thread in the MTB forum. I have yet to find more examples from the net. Although I almost believe that there are only VERY VERY few of these exact forks that I have out there.
Maybe they indeed have been a too precise copy of a Manitou 2 and have been removed again super quickly from the market.
Maybe they indeed have been a too precise copy of a Manitou 2 and have been removed again super quickly from the market.
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