Another trail fork with downhill DNA, Manitou's Mattoc is impressively controlled and adjustable with the travel you get.
The steeply sloped crown shoulders and rounded rear arch structure are distinctively Manitou but 34mm legs are bang on trend, and it's a reasonable weight for a 160mm fork.
The unique hexagonal ended bayonet lock 15mm axle is quick and secure once you get the knack of using it. This keeps the Mattoc usefully obedient on the trail and it never obviously misses a gap or fumbles an aggressive against-the-grain move on roots, rocks or ruts. The smooth Dorado DH-derived air spring gets stuck in to sieving out small bump stutter and rattle straight away.
With separate rebound, high and low speed damping adjustment and independent bottom out control there's a ton of damping adjustment to refine all aspects of the stroke to your taste. Just remember that Manitou - unlike every other suspension company - uses red for compression dials and blue for rebound. Very ine pitch valving means you have to wind them for a while to detect signiicant changes in damping too.
Once dialled, smoothness and control are excellent and it actually takes a while to realize that you'll rarely, if ever, get more than 130-140mm of travel out of it on the trail even on near bar breaking, front tyre blowing slams. Obviously that means your bike never dives too deep, but we'd rather get the choice of having full travel especially when the rest of it feels so good.
Travel 160mm
Wheel size 650b
Weight 1910g
PRICE 1020$
