The company was Answer, they sold forks with the Manitou label. Answer sold to Hayes in 2006. This is a Manitou 2 fork. Mostly aluminum, bolted together. Elastomer. Adjustable. An okay fork that needs the elastomers replaced every decade.
Looks like some hack has been in this one before. Wood? sheet rubber? sections of PVC pipe? No shortage of Lucas red sticky grease. I can't even guess how bad it rode. Probably even worse than the countless Asian spring only rattle forks.
You can buy rebuild kits for the Manitou forks and that will get them working like new.
The diagram shows the "rubber" pads but they aren't natural rubber, surely some trade secret formula elastomer.
Looks like some hack has been in this one before. Wood? sheet rubber? sections of PVC pipe? No shortage of Lucas red sticky grease. I can't even guess how bad it rode. Probably even worse than the countless Asian spring only rattle forks.
You can buy rebuild kits for the Manitou forks and that will get them working like new.
The diagram shows the "rubber" pads but they aren't natural rubber, surely some trade secret formula elastomer.