Best MTB Suspension Forks for Under $500 (RockShox, Marzocchi, Manitou) [Video]

Suspension technology has massively improved from years past which means you can easily find a myriad of high quality forks that won’t break the bank. With options from top brands like RockShox, Manitou, and Marzocchi, upgrading your bike with a new, wallet friendly fork should be a breeze. 

If you are in the market to upgrade your fork, we highly recommend watching our video on “How to upgrade your MTB fork” which covers all the necessary details in order to get the right fork for your bike. Our video covers everything from travel, wheel size, axle, steerer type, brake mounts, etc. Also, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for this kind of info. Whether it’s upgrading your fork or anything else mountain bike related we have a dozen highly trained legitimate mountain bikers that are more than happy to help you sort out any compatibility details for you. 

The order of these forks is based on popularity in the price range of $200 - $500. However, each of these forks has their own pros and cons, fitment options and is designed for certain types of bikes. So just because one is more popular than the other doesn’t mean it’s the right fork for your bike and your budget. With that being said, let’s take a look at our favorite forks that come in at $500 or less.

1) RockShox Recon Silver RL

The air-sprung RockShox Recon Silver RL is a classic budget fork that ranges from 100mm to 150mm of travel. This fork features the highly lauded Motion Control damper which allows you to fiddle with the low-speed damper and rebound to get it just right for your trails. It’s available with remote lockout, which allows you to lock the fork out for smooth roads and climbs via a handlebar-mounted remote. This fork goes for between $268 - $376 depending on the desired configuration and is a great option for tons of bikes out there. Don't just take our word for it, check out a rider review of this fork.

2) RockShox Judy Silver TK

The RockShox Judy Silver TK is another classic air-sprung RockShox fork. It recently underwent a diet and managed to shed some weight by using shorter stanchions thanks to some fortifying in other areas so as to not sacrifice any stiffness. The Judy Silver TK is rocking the Turnkey damper that locks out but will still absorb those heavy blows without absolutely destroying your wrists. All of this can be had for between $210 - $354.

3) Manitou Markhor

Named after a large wild goat, the Manitou Markhor is a no-nonsense, budget-friendly fork with some serious performance. It features an adjustable air spring with a KwikToggle damper that allows you to quickly switch between fully open and fully locked out with the flip of a switch. It’s available in multiple wheel sizes, QR & Boost Thru-Axles, and all for between $300 & $365 depending on your configuration.

4) RockShox Recon Silver TK

With the RockShox Recon Silver TK and the Recon Silver RL, you might be wondering about the differences between the two. The main difference is in the internals, as well as the TK's ability to accept rim brakes. The Recon Silver TK utilizes a TurnKey damper which gives you the ability to lockout the fork with the flip of a switch, and is only available in 80mm, 100mm, and 120mm travel versions whereas the Recon Silver RL is available with 100mm, 120mm, 130mm, 140mm, and 150mm of travel.

5)  RockShox Judy Gold RL

By now, you’ve probably realized that RockShox is the king of producing high-quality forks that won’t shrink your wallet. The RockShox Judy Gold RL comes in a wide variety of flavors, but what really matters is that it comes with the Solo Air spring and a Motion Control damper tucked inside its 30mm stanchions. It retails anywhere from $349-$439 and is a ton of bang for your buck.

6)  RockShox 35 Gold RL

The RockShox 35 Gold RL is a contender with the Marzocchi Z2 for the heaviest hitting fork on this list. It has 35mm stanchions, boost spacing, Torque Cap compatibility, and accepts Bottomless Tokens to perfectly dial in your progressivity. The 35 Gold RL features the Motion Control damper with low-speed compression, which fully locks out, and rebound adjustments for additional fine tuning. Truth be told, it’s essentially yesterday’s RockShox Pike in budget clothing. In other words, it’s a complete steal at $483.

7) Marzocchi Bomber Z2

Certainly one of the beefiest forks here, the Marzocchi Bomber Z2 is a living legend. Stout 34mm stanchions, plenty of travel, and a thick crown make the modern classic Marzocchi Bomber Z2 one hell of a budget fork. Capable of fitting a 2.8in tire in the 27.5 version and a 2.6 in the 29er, this fork was meant for speed. Its Rail damper has high-speed damping and rebound adjustments and a plush air spring. At $519, this fork will have you thinking that you may have swindled someone.

Conclusion

If you want things that just work well and won’t break your bank, this list should provide you with more than enough options to find the fork you’re looking for. The gold bling and the huge variety of external adjustments are nice, but let’s be real: you don’t need to spend a lot of money to go fast if you’ve got the skills. So if you couldn’t care less what color your fork stanchions are, pick up any one of these forks and surprise everyone at the trailhead with your speed.

If you're one strange human and would like to read a transcript of the video above, continue reading below!

Hello ladies and gentlemen. Today we are going to tell you everything you need to know about the best and most popular mountain bike forks that are under the $500 price point. We made this same video just over two years ago and we figured we would redo it for 2022 with some new models and new information because there is a big market for people who want to upgrade their mountain bike fork and not spend over 500 bucks on that fork. if you are in the market to do that, I would highly suggest you watch our video about how to upgrade your mountain bike fork. In that video we cover all of the really important fitment and compatibility situations when it comes to upgrading your fork: things like your axle, brake type, steer tube size, uh what else is in that thing… a lot of things. offset, all sorts of stuff. so definitely check that video out so you end up buying the right fork the first time. also don't hesitate to reach out to us we sell fork upgrades all the time and we have a dozen legitimate mountain bikers on staff happy to help you figure out the right fork for your bike and get the right fitment and all that sort of stuff. because it's really unfortunately not that easy, it's pretty complex to make sure you get all the right things to fit your bike when it comes to all those little attributes of these forks so that's just a little disclaimer speaking of disclaimers these are ordered based off of popularity but that doesn't mean one's necessarily better than the other some are just a little more popular because of the size and the price point and the pros and cons and the bike type and things like that so there's seven forks in this red seven red seven red seven more or less dominate this category of forks under 500 bucks because they just offer so many different models and variants almost to the point where it's very confusing however they make a lot of really good forks in this price range uh last but not least a lot of the manufacturers out there including some of the stuff on this table do not have accurate information on their website uh they just aren't that good somehow i don't know why a lot of brands in the bike industry they're kind of notorious for not doing that there's also oe things. “oe” is original equipment meaning it's a fork that would come on a stock bike but not available after market. so there might be a thing where you know you see it's only available in this travel range on a website but then it's for sale at a different travel range on this site and then it came on a bike complete at a different travel range i'm confused because i never went to school anyway so don't be too crazy about that pay attention to the product page where you're buying the fork to make sure you get the specifications right all right least but not last let's actually start talking about forks, the most popular fork in this price point is the rockshox recon silver rl this particular fork comes in a ton of different variants when it comes to wheel size and axle and travel and all of that sort of stuff the price point is 268 to 376. the most popular specific sku that we sell for the recon silver rl is a 29 inch wheel 100 mil travel with a 100 millimeter quick release axle so that's the most popular one and that's also 268 bucks so this baby it is an air sprung fork that has a compression adjustment a lockout adjustment and a rebound adjustment but what's important about this is at a 268 price point it has 32 millimeter stanchions which is actually quite rare a lot of forks that are under 300 are coming with 30 mil stanchions uh 32 mil stanchions sort of the larger that stanchion gets the more the more stiff the fork is the more abuse you can throw at it the more trail bikes slash and duroy bikes you can put it on and it's just a more sort of durable fork so that's kind of why well one of the many reasons why the recon silver rl is the most popular in this price point [Music] and the number two spot is the rockshox judy silver tk if you have any idea what reba judy recon silver gold tkrl means let us know because we're totally confused on it i knew you're gonna laugh, the judy silver tk has 30 millimeter stanchions is actually surprisingly lightweight because of that the most popular one that we sell is also a 29 inch wheeled quick release axle 100 millimeters of travel and it's at 210 bucks which is also surprisingly good for air spring compression adjustment lockout and rebound um yeah pretty impressive fork if you're looking for something lightweight that's under that 300 price point or even under that 211 price point because it's 210 bucks this is your best bet for sort of that cross-country general trail mountain bike if you want something lightweight that still performs well impressive stuff judy silver tk [Music] in the number three spot we have something not from rockshox it is the manitou marcor if you are wondering what a marcor is check this out the marcore is the national animal of pakistan where it is also known as the screw horn goat markhorse stand 65 to 115 centimeters at the shoulder are 132 to 186 centimeters long and away from 32 to 110 kilograms they have the highest maximum shoulder height among the species in the genus capra but is surpassed in length and weight by the siberian ibex but if you're wondering what i personally think when i hear the word marcor it is this the Markhor, like all manitou forks, has their reverse arch which makes this thing stand out in terms of looks. it's also got a really cool blue anodized steer tube albeit you don't really ever see that unless you have a stem with a cutout but it definitely is a bit distinctive in terms of aesthetics, and it's also distinctive in some of the features it has. it's one of the few forks that is available in 26, 27.5, and 29, you also can adjust the travel from 80 all the way up to 120 mil just with the spacers internally with this fork and you can i would say most most relatively qualified mechanics can do that theirself or you can do it in your garage if you proceed with caution but that's a pretty cool feature for a fork at this price point. uh starts at 300 bucks goes up to 364. and once again the most popular variant of this fork that we sell is the 29-inch wheeled 100 mil travel quick release axle i think the you're going to hear that a lot with these forks a lot because there's a lot of mountain bikes out there that have 100 mil travel and a 29 inch front wheel and they came with forks that are of pretty low quality right off of the showroom floor and all of these forks that are in that sort of 200 to 500 price point are significant upgrades for those bikes there you go manitou markhor a quick break from forks i wanted to ask you a favor and that is if you could please check out trail one components worldwide cyclery has an ownership stake in trail one components the brand is making fantastic mountain bike components with a range of stems grips handlebars and the brand truly supports the sport of mountain biking by giving a dollar back per product sold to the trail networks that they are named after we are working with bkxc brian kennedy as well as a highly overqualified engineer to really truly make the products that we have always wanted to ride ourselves and build a brand that gives back to the sport in a really unique way so please check it out just google trailone trailone.bike is the website you can also shop the brand on the worldwide cyclery site thank you

[Music] in the number four spot is the recon silver tk not to be confused with the other versions of the recon but the recon silver tk i think is probably going to be discontinued soon enough here however at present it is one of the more rare and probably the best the probably the absolute best fork you can get for a 26-inch wheeled mountain bike specifically and it also has v-brake mounts plus disc brake mounts which once again is no b brake routes on any of these so it's kind of a it's in a rare breed and 26-inch wheels and v-brakes are obviously uh sort of a dying breed of things so this is kind of a rare fork however it still exists and at present we still have them but i don't know if we'll have them for long it is an air fork at 268 bucks it's got a lockout on it and rebound and probably like i said one of the best forks you could buy for a 26-inch wheeled bike especially if you're looking for v-brakes uh in particular so there you go [Music] i'm going to put number five and six together really fast because rockshox is getting a little too much air time right now number five is the judy gold rl at 397 so we're stepping up in price point here getting towards that sort of maybe you could call it mid-tier mtb fork i don't know who knows beginning mid and it's all a bunch of blurry lines in the mountain bike world uh once again the judy series lightweight 30 millimeter stanchions and yeah all the same adjustments that a lot of these have had so uh compression rebound lockout and it is an air fork so yeah nice stuff judy gold rl and number six this is actually a pretty important fork this is the rock shox 35 gold rl so this is the i think that the lowest price point you can get 35 millimeter diameter stanchions um also emtb certified and it has a little bit more modern geometry and travel specifications for trail and enduro bikes so you do have a trail and or enduro bike and you're looking for something 120 130 or plus in travel with a modern 15 by 110 boost axle tapered steer all the good stuff like the air spring compression lockout rebound 35 gold rl is actually a really really good option this particular one is at 376 dollars so under 400 for a 35mm stanchion fork this is your guy very important fork and let's line up 35 gold rl [Music] in the number seven spot but extremely important fork [Music] last but not least but not last can i have this thanks the Marzocchi bomber z2 this fork actually now with this uh 2022 inflation is not under 500 it's 519 sorry but i had to put it in here because i do actually think that this is the best performing fork of all of the stuff you have seen so far and yes it is also a little bit more expensive than the rest of them but at 519 bucks 34 millimeter stanchions a really really good damper and dampers really kind of determined the overall feel and quality of the suspension of fork has so that's where i think this is a really important fork to pay attention to because once you get to that 519 price point you're getting a fork that is starting to feel very similar to those thousand dollar forks whereas the stuff below this hard for me to honestly tell you it feels like the thousand dollar forks whereas this one's actually getting pretty close to that so it's an important fork in this category uh bomber z2 full compression adjustment with a lock out on the end rebound air spring 34 mil stanchions modern day specifications for that trail and enduro bike with through axles tapered steer longer travel ranges so definitely check this out if you can squeeze 519 out of your budget and i think that is it that is all for these forks thank you very much for watching this far we genuinely appreciate it once again we sell forks all the time and we have people on staff constantly helping riders out there figure out which fork fits their bike and is best for their use case and price point so don't hesitate to reach out to us just hit the website should be easy to contact us from there thank you very much if you like this video please share it with your mountain bike friends and subscribe and for extra bonus points hit that little thumbs up button it really helps the video out and uh so we appreciate it thanks again see you later.