[ramstein-dh]

Hello

I'm looking at buying some Avalanche MTN-8 forks here in the UK.
The guy want's £400.00 for them= $650.00
They were sent by him to Avalanche , and had the upgraded bottom out cones fitted along with the non recurculation valve ,new bushings , new stanchions ,oil and seals. he also had a re-valve.costing $630.00
My question s are they worth the money and do they perform well in this day and age.
Also weight is no issue as i am building a a 4130 steel keewee cromo 8 with arrow racing DHX rims.
Also i am concerned about the re-valve he had done as he weighs 12 stone= 160lb and i weigh 18 stone = 250lb.
Will i just need a heavier spring or a re-valve.
Also are they single spring or dual spring forks , these will be my forks for a very long time as i'am 30 and will never race , so need to be sure these are the right forks for me.

Thanks allot everybody

Jason

 

[sikocycles]

Best fork out there as long as weight is not a concern. I still have mine and I love it

 

[jonKranked]

Best fork out there as long as weight is not a concern. I still have mine and I love it

this. there's a reason his damper carts are becoming so popular.

 

[ramstein-dh]

Best fork out there as long as weight is not a concern. I still have mine and I love it

So are they worth the money then buddy?
What do you reckon about the valving as don't want tospend anymore money apart from springs.

Also have you any idea on the amount of oil needed in these

Thanks again

Jason

 

[WBC]

Ot:

It is so rad that your user name is Rammstein and you're asking about the mtn 8
..not even the dhf 8, but the mtn 8. Metal!!!

On topic, the mtn8 is dual spring, dual cartridge. Not sure about the re valve question, but I do know that if any fork will survive 2012's apocalypse, it's that fork. I still have images in my head of gnar east coast dudes hucking 15 feet to flat in central park wearing full moto gear on a yellow and red cortina.

 

[IH8Rice]

. I still have images in my head of gnar east coast dudes hucking 15 feet to flat in central park wearing full moto gear on a yellow and red cortina.

back when it was CCycle/Avalanche and when i joined the Cult

 

[captainspauldin]

Regarding having it re-valved and getting a heavier spring, might be best to give Craig a call(yeah might be expensive from the UK). He's very helpful on the phone and will be able to answer all your questions. http://www.avalanchedownhillracing.com/contact.html You can try emailing him, but he's more of a "phone guy", than an "email guy".

 

[jonKranked]

Regarding having it re-valved and getting a heavier spring, might be best to give Craig a call(yeah might be expensive from the UK). He's very helpful on the phone and will be able to answer all your questions. http://www.avalanchedownhillracing.com/contact.html You can try emailing him, but he's more of a "phone guy", than an "email guy".

I agree with this, but he does respond to emails, might take a few days tho.

 

[ramstein-dh]

Thanks for the reply's everybody.
Yeah i emailed craig a few days ago , he does reply in a blunt way LOL!
Well he said he will need to look into custom springs , and will need a re-valve.
Also the guy i am buying them from said they only have one spring in them , don't know f this is due to him only being light or what.
But if they need 2 springs and he has been using only 1 could this cause damage to the other internals.
I have been told parts can be bought from any MX shop?
Unfortunatley i would be unable to call craig as the cost from a mobile phone would be sky high.
I just don't wan't to spend money on an outdated fork , even though they were fully refurbished with proof of receipt.
Also i think this is only 1 of a few sets in the UK and like being different.

This is my build so far and sold the monsters to get the Avalanche.

Thanks again

Jason

 

[ramstein-dh]

Ot:

It is so rad that your user name is Rammstein and you're asking about the mtn 8
..not even the dhf 8, but the mtn 8. Metal!!!

On topic, the mtn8 is dual spring, dual cartridge. Not sure about the re valve question, but I do know that if any fork will survive 2012's apocalypse, it's that fork. I still have images in my head of gnar east coast dudes hucking 15 feet to flat in central park wearing full moto gear on a yellow and red cortina.

Cheers dude , gotta love Ramstein.
The guy says his only have 1 spring in them?
Can a re-valve be done by me , as i have always serviced my own forks.

That cortina is stunning.

cheers

Jason

 

[WBC]

well, I could be wrong about the dual spring, but I was pretty sure they did. I know the dual cartridge thing is correct. I researched the avy forks a bunch a number of years ago when I was planning on buying one...but never did.

Based on what I know about the shocks, it seems reasonable to believe that you could get any moto shop to re valve the thing pretty well. I know it's mostly off the shelf moto parts. I would think the springs would likely be proprietary, though maybe you could modify the springs out of a TTR 125 sized after market fork?? I'd think you'd have trouble finding other springs that are short enough in a spring rate high enough?

And there are tons of free web based voice call systems that you could use to talk to craig. Just do a google search and find the one you like best.

 

[ramstein-dh]

well, I could be wrong about the dual spring, but I was pretty sure they did. I know the dual cartridge thing is correct. I researched the avy forks a bunch a number of years ago when I was planning on buying one...but never did.

Based on what I know about the shocks, it seems reasonable to believe that you could get any moto shop to re valve the thing pretty well. I know it's mostly off the shelf moto parts. I would think the springs would likely be proprietary, though maybe you could modify the springs out of a TTR 125 sized after market fork?? I'd think you'd have trouble finding other springs that are short enough in a spring rate high enough?

And there are tons of free web based voice call systems that you could use to talk to craig. Just do a google search and find the one you like best.

I think t was the other Avalanche forks with dual springs.
The guy i'm buying them of just told me that Crag said they do only have 1 spring in them , so don't know.
I just hope i can get a spring as i am going to buy them in the morning.

Also apparently eibach make custom springs

Never heard of those call system web sites ,i wonder if he has xbox Live LOL!

 

[Sandwich]

yeah, craig definitely has a way of putting things bluntly and expensively. I asked him about a revalve/upgrade for my DHF, and it was going to cost a few hundred less than buying a new one. I have no idea how that works but whatever.

I would say that they are probably supposed to have two springs, as my DHF had two springs and dampers. You might find that if you open it, there will be two in there, since it sounds like the guy had it sent out for repairs, and craig would have done what's right for his forks.

You might find that the damping is fine for you, since A) adjustments on these forks typically work, B) craig tends to overdamp his products, and C) they work so darn well you might just be happy with it.

Finally, I would wager that you could take it to any moto shop and have them tune it for you. I'm willing to bet it's really really close to other moto forks on the market, since craig did use some off the shelf parts on his forks. I would imagine that he wouldn't have had custom springs wound, but rather designed his fork around something that already existed. I find it hard to believe that anybody would want 45mm lower fork tubes, even in the old days, so my guess would be that they used something off of like a kx85 or something. That's where the fork guards came from on the DHFs...

It'll be an adventure, for sure, but when it's over you'll have one of the best and heaviest forks ever created. $650 is a deal, IMO, but you may have to make an investment to get them just right. What the hell was a 160lb guy doing with 16lb forks anyways?

 

[ramstein-dh]

yeah, craig definitely has a way of putting things bluntly and expensively. I asked him about a revalve/upgrade for my DHF, and it was going to cost a few hundred less than buying a new one. I have no idea how that works but whatever.

I would say that they are probably supposed to have two springs, as my DHF had two springs and dampers. You might find that if you open it, there will be two in there, since it sounds like the guy had it sent out for repairs, and craig would have done what's right for his forks.

You might find that the damping is fine for you, since A) adjustments on these forks typically work, B) craig tends to overdamp his products, and C) they work so darn well you might just be happy with it.

Finally, I would wager that you could take it to any moto shop and have them tune it for you. I'm willing to bet it's really really close to other moto forks on the market, since craig did use some off the shelf parts on his forks. I would imagine that he wouldn't have had custom springs wound, but rather designed his fork around something that already existed. I find it hard to believe that anybody would want 45mm lower fork tubes, even in the old days, so my guess would be that they used something off of like a kx85 or something. That's where the fork guards came from on the DHFs...

It'll be an adventure, for sure, but when it's over you'll have one of the best and heaviest forks ever created. $650 is a deal, IMO, but you may have to make an investment to get them just right. What the hell was a 160lb guy doing with 16lb forks anyways?

Hey sandwich thanks for the info
Here is what the guy just wrote to me on pinkbike

They were serviced on 16 May 2008. They had new seals, new bushings, new sliders, anti bottoming system, internal bleed system, oil change, revalve and rebuild for a total of $632.27

We have a problem however.

115mm is very short for the headtube. The triple clamps work in a different way to normal as you use metal shims for spacing. see triple clamp assembley here: http://www.avalanchedownhillracing.com/tripleclamp.html

The forks only came with 6 mm of shims. For 115mm headtube you will need more than 6 mm of shims therefore we need to try and get some more. Its not easy to add shims below the bottom bearing (see diagram in the link above) as you will need to press the stearer out of the crown then drift out the bearing, add shims and re-asemble. would need a shop to do this. Can add as many shims as you like to the top but i dont have enough for what you need. Ideal situation would be to add shims to top and bottom.

Could get some from Avalanche but they are just a metal disc about 40mm in diameter with a 10mm diameter hole in the middle.

Let me know what you want to do.


When I first got these I didn't know much about them. I rode them one day and when I turned them upside down and took front wheel out to put in the car one leg compressed slightly under own weight. I thought this was strange and so sent Craig an email asking about the springs and he said there should only be in one leg.

The reason i had them sent over to him for service was i thought i would get them serviced and checked out so reluctantly sent them to Stendec (they had already messed up a set of fox 40's I had) as they apparently service avalanche and TF tuning dont. He did a cheep service and didn't change seals as said the ones that were in there were still mint even though they were 5-6 years old. Cost me £45 including postage).

Anyway when he sent them back he said had used 2.5wt oil where as it should have been 5wt according to Avy website and they just didn't seem right. I emailed Craig to ask if 2.5wt was ok and he said no way its too light. It was at that point I thought f*ck it the best person for the job is Craig. He will know if anything is wrong with it and will know what needs to be done. I basically asked him to check it, service it and add all the extras as it was a fork I have been after for a long time. He did it all except the high and low speed adjuster as they weren't available anymore. As I said I have got the original invoice from them so you can see that 2moz.

Hows the gym going? I've been going a lot as am trying to do the opposite to you and put on a bit of weight but it doesn't seem to be happening.

I don't know what the re valving involves but it cost me $125. whatever he did.


cheers

Jason

 

[ramstein-dh]

Gonna be really cheaky now , would anybody in the U.S.A Be willing to give Craig a quick call and ask him about the springs in the MTN 8 i would really appreciate it.
If not no worries as it is a cheaky request LOL!


Thanks

Jason

 

[norbar]

Gonna be really cheaky now , would anybody in the U.S.A Be willing to give Craig a quick call and ask him about the springs in the MTN 8 i would really appreciate it.
If not no worries as it is a cheaky request LOL!


Thanks

Jason

Skype/Google talk?

 

[ramstein-dh]

do i need a headset to use this or is it live msn?

 

[norbar]

I use a headset but last time I used it it was 1 year ago to call TF (though as they also use headsets the quality was a bit off ). Maybe it's possible to do it without it. Read.

 

[sethimus]

Thanks for the reply's everybody.
Yeah i emailed craig a few days ago , he does reply in a blunt way LOL!
Well he said he will need to look into custom springs , and will need a re-valve.
Also the guy i am buying them from said they only have one spring in them , don't know f this is due to him only being light or what.
But if they need 2 springs and he has been using only 1 could this cause damage to the other internals.
I have been told parts can be bought from any MX shop?
Unfortunatley i would be unable to call craig as the cost from a mobile phone would be sky high.
I just don't wan't to spend money on an outdated fork , even though they were fully refurbished with proof of receipt.
Also i think this is only 1 of a few sets in the UK and like being different.

This is my build so far and sold the monsters to get the Avalanche.

Thanks again

Jason

do you have skype? call him through skype voip or use www.jajah.com, similar service, works with every phone. i use both for doing foreign calls, so much cheaper (normally around 2 €ct/min)

 

[ramstein-dh]

Just found out they have a spring in the right hand leg only , says so on the web site DOH!
So i'm guessing they are still a good fork , so many years on?
As these will be my forks forever ,as i can't afford anymore after this.
I got £300.00 for my monsters , so i am just seeing it as i went to him with my monsters and £100.00.

So they are well performing forks then?

Thanks again

Jason

 

[yopaulie]

I had the DHF 8 and it performed perfectly. Weight was the only draw back and the upper tubes started to crack. But you won't have that issue with yours (bigger/stronger).

 

[Sandwich]

weight and the amount of trail/offset that the forks have were an issue for me. I loved the damping.

 

[norbar]

I wonder how the bike will handle in the air with such brick forks.

 

[Sandwich]

doesn't matter, the fork will absorb everything!

 

[Jeremy R]

I wonder how the bike will handle in the air with such brick forks.

It will look like a badminton.