Weight: 2,041g (4.5lb) / 80, 100 or 120mm travel / 30mm stanchions / Axle to crown: 495mm / Coil sprung, air assist / Rebound damping / Lockout cartridge / Aluminium steerer / Contact: www.windwave.co.uk [left-hand pic]

Measured from the axle to crown the MX Pro is 20mm taller than the other forks on test, which equates to about a degree difference in the head angle. The reason for this is the Monolite casting is an older design, essentially to keep the price down, so our advice is make sure your bike’s geometry isn’t upset by the 20mm before buying this fork.

The MX is coil sprung with an air assist, and it’s worth getting an accurate shock pump because for our bodyweight it took only 10 strokes to achieve the correct setting. To make the fork more affordable Marzocchi also runs a SunTour lockout cartridge. This lacks a blow-off feature but there is around 15mm of free travel when it’s locked, which is just enough to save your bacon if you forget to flick it back. Out of the box there was a lot of initial stiction in the fork, which meant it took bigger impacts to get it to break away and resulted in quite a lot of trail buzz being felt in our arms. It’s getting better the more we ride, but it’s not as supple as the Corsa, nor offers the same sort of grip when cornering. However, it’s got better damping than the Tora and isn’t as fazed in bigger, rougher terrain.

Two reasons make the MX Pro a winner — it comes with bolt-in cantilever mounts, handy for older bikes and, like the Float R, you can buy the 120mm version and step it down (with a £6 top out spring) to future proof your purchase.

Mbr rating:9