Hot off the heels of the all-new Mattoc fork, Manitou has introduced the Junit, a fork that’s designed to bring the brand’s long-standing suspension know-how into a package that best suits smaller wheels. Here’s everything you need to know.

The new Junit fork has been built around a 34mm chassis and comes in two sizes to fit 24in and 26in wheels, filling a gap in Manitou’s range. Now, the brand offers suspension components to fit everything from 20in kid’s bikes, right up to fully-fledged downhill forks.

2023 manitou junit expert pro crown.jpg
2023 manitou junit expert pro crown (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
2023 manitou junit expert pro crown.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Both of the sizes benefit from the 34mm chassis in order to increase stiffness and allow kids to go big. The fork legs are made using 7000 series aluminium to combine stiffness and lightweight and like the bigger products in the range, the Junit uses the Dorado air spring. Though on this fork, it’s been tuned to better suit the needs of young and lighter riders so they can take advantage of the same small bump sensitivity and support of the adult’s forks.

The Dorado air spring also allows for internal travel adjustment without the need for additional parts with a travel range of 100 to 160mm without sacrificing the initial stroke feel. The Pro build gets Manitou’s IRT (Infinite Rate Tune) that offers riders easy adjustment of the mid-stroke support and bottom-out resistance through employing a secondary positive air chamber.

2023 manitou junit expert pro axle.jpg
2023 manitou junit expert pro axle (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
2023 manitou junit expert pro axle.jpg, by Liam Mercer

Manitou’s latest damper can also be found on the Junit Pro. The VTT-6P features an external compression adjuster that adjusts the high-speed and low-speed damping simultaneously by using a fixed shim stack and a secondary preloaded shim stack that’s pressured by the external adjuster. Another feature found on the Pro fork is that its rebound comes from a half-cartridge system that’s tuned for younger riders.

2023 manitou junit expert crown.jpg
2023 manitou junit expert crown (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
2023 manitou junit expert crown.jpg, by Liam Mercer

The Expert model is slightly less sophisticated, opting for the Expert Air with IVA spring and ABS+ compression damping. The rebound damping is then sorted by an in-leg adjustable TPC. The bottom-end Junit Comp gets a simpler Expert Air spring and drops the air volume adjustment found on the Expert fork.

As for prices, they start at $650 and go up to $800.

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