In response to increasing numbers of calls from women wanting lighter spring rates and damping set ups, Manitou has announced on Bicycle Retailer.com it will be producing a women’s specific fork for next season.
We’ve always found even the “custom tuned” forks offered on womens bikes like Trek’s WSD way too hard and sluggishly damped, so it’s great someone’s doing it properly at last. The top line ‘Diva’ fork will be based on the air sprung Mars Super so spring rates will obvioulsy be totally adjustable, but the damping cartridge will also be re-oiled and re-valved to work with lower rider weights and fork pressures. The fork will get a white and sky blue finish and will retail for around the same price as a Manitou Super (currently £410) but no news on whether it’ll have “anti-bob” lockout fitted.
The fork will be released as a 2002 season item in September, but hopefully we’ll get a sample on our WSD testbed before then.