Manitou’s Marvel, introduced at Interbike, is the replacement for the long serving Minute XC suspension fork.
Designed to bring their forks up to modern spec with various travel, axle and steerer options, the Marvel was shown in an ever-closer-to-production form factor at Sea Otter this year.
The casting shown here (click to enlarge, more pics after the break) is darn close to what’s going into production in May, with plans to have them available in June.
New since Zach saw them at Interbike are some real world appearances of their solid looking new 15mm thru-axle and mention of Iso-Air, a small gasket that’s designed to boost the negative air chamber and enhance small bump sensitivity. We’ve had a Minute fork in both 26″ and 29er sizes around the office on various bikes for quite a while, and the action on them is really smooth, but we tended to run them a bit soft to accomplish what the Iso-Air sounds like it may do while running appropriate air pressures. Even so, they ramp well and rarely bottom out, so we’re pretty excited to put some time on these new forks when they’re out.
Manitou’s reverse arch design goes from smooth to industrial looking for the new Marvel forks. Yes, you’re looking at the back of the fork, hence the cable guide on the left. Production versions will likely have a small hole for a zip-tie to go through.
More heavy casting work on the crown and a tapered steerer option should increase an already fairly stiff fork. Combine that with the 15mm thru axle option (below) and anyone that’s written off Manitou based on forks as recent as a year ago may want to give them a second look.
