OLNEY, IL (BRAIN)—Magura hit a homerun with its lightweight Marta, but its forks have been a bit on the heavy side. Rather then reinvent the wheel when it came to a complete fork redesign, Magura focused on what makes Marta great, performance as good as its heavier competitors at a weight none can touch.
Enter Magura’s new cross country race fork, the Durin SL. Its sub-three pound weight, in 80-millimeter travel guise, is not much more then a rigid steel fork but its no flimsy lightweight. All Magura ’09 forks are designed to be used with 210 millimeter rotors, including the 3 pound Durin SL.
“Marta put us in the market as the cross country racing brake, and now customers see it as the best brake on the market. So it has put expectations on us to keep Marta developing and to deliver other light products, like the our new sub 3-pound Durin XC Race fork,” said Jeff Enlow, Magura USA’s general manager.
Enlow is quick to point out that even though its products are the must have of the lightweight cross country crowd, Magura has pushed the weight savings to its all-mountain forks as well. In addition to internal weight savings, all caliper mounts on the forks have been sized to mount what the company expects will be the rotor size of choice adapter free, saving a bit more weight.
And even though the ‘09 Marta SL Magnesium drops 30 grams, 300 grams complete, Magura is touting its all-mountain use on rotors up to 203 millimeters, since the new design dumps heat better. The Marta SL, carbon lever with alloy caliper and lever body, and Marta, all alloy, remain in the line and all have redesigned calipers that use the same pads as Louise.
—Matt Wiebe
