As of this Summer, all of Manitou’s single-crown forks come with their new Absolute+ compression damping and platform system, which separates high- and low-speed compression damping. Above is a cutaway showing the different internal systems in their air forks.
On the left is the damping pistons. The top part is the Ab+ compression damping, and the middle section houses the rebound damper. On the right are the springs. The top section is the air spring, and that white piece is to set the travel. It tops out when the fork’s out of travel. We asked if it could be trimmed down to increase travel slightly and were told something to the effect of “hmmm…that’s a good question.” Roughly translated, that means “probably, but you will a) void your warranty and b) possibly ruin your fork.”
The coil spring on the bottom is the negative spring. Manitou uses a coil negative spring to give the fork a more supple, reactive initial movement.
Hit ‘more’ for close-up details and a few pics of the new alloy Dorado…
The black rod that the foam bumpers are wrapped around is the Speed Needle, and that handles low speed compression. The silver shims at the base of the Speed Needle is the Pro Stack, and they flex to release more oil flow when you hit something big (high speed compression).
The new Absolute+ damping provides separate high- and low-speed compression damping. The lever on the top provides external low speed control, but you’ll have to replace the shims internally to adjust the high speed damping. We posted some more tech info on this here.
New for 2010 is an alloy version of the Dorado. It cuts costs dramatically with only a minor weight gain. Performance should be about the same. We covered this in more detail here.
