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WHAT WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT THIS MONTH
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MANITOU MATTOC PRO £1,323
The new Mattoc is a multipurpose fork that you can fit to most bikes, from XC to enduro, thanks to its light, stiff and tuneable nature. Manitou has made some serious changes to the old version, released in 2016, to let it make this bold claim. For starters, the travel ranges from 150mm at the top end down to 110mm, meaning on paper you could ride both XC and enduro on it. Better yet, you can adjust the fork travel at home, with the travel spacers you’ll need included in the box.
Those disciplines require more than just the right travel length, though. The new Mattoc is indeed impressively light at 1,790g on our scales in the Pro model, although it’s not the super-light 1,500g ballpark of a RockShox SID or Fox 34 Step-Cast. Manitou also says it’s 30% stiffer than the old version, the new 34mm chassis uses the trademark rearward arch that’s claimed to be more solid than a forward-projecting brace, and it has removed material while adding strength. There are also Trail Side Relief bleeder valves on the lower legs to release pressure, but unlike with Fox or RockShox, you’ll need an Allen key to purge them.
Inside, the Dorado Air spring uses self-equalising positive and negative chambers like most other models out there, and that helps the fork break away into its initial travel. More interesting is something called Infinite Rate Tune (IRT). Manitou says you can independently adjust the air-spring pressure at the beginning and end stroke, effectively creating a secondary positive. What that means is you could have a soft main positive spring for a slurpy feel off the top, then a firmer second positive to add support around the mid-stroke and stop it diving through the travel.
All that’s left then is the damper, the Pro model gets Manitou’s premium Multi Compression Control (MC²) Sealed Cartridge system with independent high and low-speed compression damping. There’s a separate damping circuit called Hydraulic Bottom Out (HBO) that controls the very end of the stroke and stops a harsh bottom-out. It’s not adjustable as it is on other Manitou forks, but the sacrifice is presumably for weight reduction and simplicity of set-up.
The Mattoc Pro could be many things to many riders, and has oodles of adjustments to get set up just right (or very wrong). What it really can’t be any longer though, is an entry-level fork. hayesbicycle.com
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