[dropmachine]

Thought you guys might be interested in the details on the new Dorado. Looks good, to be honest. How it works is another story...

http://www.dropmachine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=357378#357378

 

[jonKranked]

those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it.

 

[MtnbikeMike]

Absolute Platform? Haven't they learned their lesson yet?

 

[Pow pow]

New damping system, Absolute Platform damping.

This is the bit that makes dubious. If they put TPC+ in it then they'd be on to a winner

 

[rosenamedpoop]

Ahhh...why are they doing this again? Manitou is so weird.

 

[karpi]

34 mm inner tube? why didn't they just go for 35 or 36? would be wisser

 

[Ian Collins]

the guy who posted that said the air chamber will be low volume low pressure so it won't have stiction......didn't he mean high volume low pressure??

looks a little better than manitou's in the past.....

oh, thank god it's got a LOCKOUT!?!?!? just what i always wanted in case i take my DH bike for a ROAD ride.......why are these designers such idiots......always overcomplicating things......lockouts are useless on forks like this and the boxxer(which also has one).......total waste of engineering

 

[jonKranked]

why are these designers such idiots?

manitou?

 

[Fonzie18]

it has a lockout?

 

[jonKranked]

it has a lockout?

well, sometimes the fork just stops working and won't compress. they can't figure out why so they added a button and labeled it "lockout"

 

[dropmachine]

No, I meant low volume low pressure. Thats what I was told. Not sure how that works, or if its correct, but we'll see i guess.

keep in mind, that fork was pre-production, so the lockout might have jsut been something they are messin aorund with. Doesn't make much sense to have a lockout lever on the bottom of the leg, so I am going to guess that if it is platform damping, thats the adjuster. this fork was also missing the high and low speed compression that is supposed to come on the retail version. they are also still trying to figure out if they are going to go witht he RS compatible stem mount crown, or the old manitou one.

 

[DavidMakalaster]

If the lockout is the compression adjuster and is a byproduct of a wide compression range than it's not a bad thing.

If absolute platform means there's no platform and it's stiff and doesn't have plastic internals than it might be worth a look.

 

[bizutch]

does it come with a return shipping label and RA# in the box?

 

[JohnnyBoyDH]

does it come with a return shipping label and RA# in the box?

HAHA nice...


I actually loved my Dorado. Mine was an older one but it was friggin awesome with absolutely no problems.

 

[Ian Collins]

it has a lockout?

yeah, on the bottom of the right leg.....look at the pics on the link jeff posted and you can see it in there....

that just made me realize something else.....great place for a lockout....underneath the hub, nice and accessible

 

[UiUiUiUi]

looks nice...

i still have the MRD X Works sitting in my basement.
no manitou ever again...

 

[John P.]

does it come with a return shipping label and RA# in the box?

LMAO. It should also include a quart-sized jug of Phil's Tenacious oil - all the guys who used to have their Dorados feeling great would dump an ounce or two of that stuff into the top each leg before riding.

 

[seth505]

I rode a dorado for over a year and it was as smooth as a babies bumbum

 

[jonKranked]

I rode a dorado for over a year and it was as smooth as a babies bumbum

pedophile!

 

[Pow pow]

I had an '03 dorado and it had awesome damping, but it was also heavier than a boxxer didn't have enough travel and was to flexable. I had no problem with reliability though. If you want a high preformance part you have to expect to maintain it. I had it a year and all I ever did was undo the top caps and dump some oil in them every month or so. Not exactly loads of maintenance, infact the boxxer WC requires roughly the same really.

 

[Jeremy R]

LMAO. It should also include a quart-sized jug of Phil's Tenacious oil - all the guys who used to have their Dorados feeling great would dump an ounce or two of that stuff into the top each leg before riding.

Hell yeah,
I used that Finish line stanchion lube to keep mine from feeling stickier than Pee Wee Herman at a double feature.

 

[jonKranked]

does it come with a return shipping label and RA# in the box?

its post like this that require having a reputation system again!

 

[kidwoo]

I don't know why you guys are complaining.

Other than an expensive price, completely inconsistent performance, constant breakage, plastic internals, the inability to deal directly with the company, and the addition of useless features that compromise the essential function of a suspension device, manitou makes really good suspension pieces.

 

[jonKranked]

I don't know why you guys are complaining.

Other than an expensive price, completely inconsistent performance, constant breakage, plastic internals, the inability to deal directly with the company, and the addition of useless features that compromise the essential function of a suspension device, manitou makes really good table legs.

fixed!1!

 

[xy9ine]

i'm amazed they could get that chassis down to 6.0lbs. there's a bit of material there (as well as stantion guards) in comparison to the boxxer. if it's an accurate weight i'll be all over it (not considering if it actually works of course).

 

[OGRipper]

Maybe "Absolute Platform" IS the lockout. As in, it's always locked out. Pretty smart actually, that will help them avoid pesky problems like quality of suspension performance.

 

[norbar]

I feel sorry for them somehow.Dunno why but it would be good if they would finally make their 1st good fork. (and it would increase (real one cuz now...) competition which could be good from tech development reaseons(as probably it would not affect the price)

 

[karpi]

we'll just to wait and see how the come out, the old dorados were so nice, I'm loving the look this one has, hope it's not just looks...

 

[Sandwich]

I don't know why you guys are complaining.

Other than an expensive price, completely inconsistent performance, constant breakage, plastic internals, the inability to deal directly with the company, and the addition of useless features that compromise the essential function of a suspension device, manitou makes really good suspension pieces.

oooh, also dealing with a company that may be completely defunct in a year is a great asset- you don't have to ride the same fork for two years in a row!

 

[FlipSide]

I feel sorry for them somehow.Dunno why but it would be good if they would finally make their 1st good fork. (and it would increase (real one cuz now...) competition which could be good from tech development reaseons(as probably it would not affect the price)

Manitou forks have not been always stellar in terms or reliability and everything...but there's not much to argue about the fact that the 2003 Sherman Slider was an excellent fork.

They screwed up with the SPV, SPV Evolve...as well as the Travis Intrinsic-whatever...but the 2003 TPC+ Sherman Slider was great. It's just too bad it was only a 6" travel fork...

The 2001 XVert Super was also a very good fork. I seem to recall some people had problems with it...but personally, this fork served me very well for several years (OK, it was not bone-stock as I replaced the seals by those used on the Black and replaced the lubricating grease by motor-oil in order to have semi-bath lubrification irate2: ).

 

[Ozzer]

Deng, all the hatred. Kinda cool it gets a lot of peep tight knotted and worked up.

It ain't that bad.

This one felt crappy.

The pre-prod dampers were still suspect but once they get their facility up and running, the 08 Dorado seems promising. I'm not a fan of their air-backed damper.

 

[Ozzer]

looks nice...

i still have the MRD X Works sitting in my basement.
no manitou ever again...

$50 shipped to California for that POS manipoo stool legs would help you rid of your misery. Why hold onto it? Ok, $60... paypal?

 

[karpi]

looks good on the YETI ehehe

 

[norbar]

it always looked good until you ridden it

 

[deadatbirth]

i loved my Dorado...until i sent it to them to get serviced and they sent it back saying to never ride it or i could die or get hurt because of the cracks on the upper carbon. and of course they stopped making parts for it 3 months before i sent it in.

 

[UiUiUiUi]

$50 shipped to California for that POS manipoo stool legs would help you rid of your misery. Why hold onto it? Ok, $60... paypal?

na... after like 3 years of misery it actually is working right now thanks to tim flooks and his guys.
they got done what manitou never managed... whatever i'll keep it as a reminder: never buy manitou again
never buy a product in it's first year of production.

 

[Ozzer]

whatever i'll keep it as a reminder: never buy manitou again
never buy a product in it's first year of production.

That's an oxymoron. It's like saying you hate someone yet you're sleeping with that same person. You won't profit from it on Ebay...cough it up.. $70 shipped and you can even take the Flooks internal out for keepsake if you want.

 

[Spunger]

na... after like 3 years of misery it actually is working right now thanks to tim flooks and his guys.
they got done what manitou never managed... whatever i'll keep it as a reminder: never buy manitou again
never buy a product in it's first year of production.

That's what happens to all forks there when they have a production...better word......design flaw is someone in the after market will pick up on it and fix it. I'm sure when a Dorado was tunned correctly it worked like a champ, but a lot of people never wanted to futz with it that much. With the other forks out there feeling good out of the box, it was why people didn't jump on the Dorado band wagon.

On the other half though my Minute forks I've had worked great. I dunno if it was something with their DH forks or what, but I had a couple of different Minute forks and they worked fine, and were stupid easy to set up and get right as well.

They'll make a fork to keep things going. It's just how well it holds up to a Boxxer/888/40 in terms of performance as you can get any one of them, new they are expensive, but used are pretty decent. It's just all what people are willing to play with.

 

[sikocycles]

I cant wait for it. A light upside down fork.

 

[pinkshirtphotos]

if sam hill rides it will everyone fall in love with it?