2012 Magura Thor Fork - First Impressions

With progressive geometry and components that can take an incredible amount of abuse, today's 150mm travel trail and all-mountain bikes are capable of feats that were once reserved for heavy downhill sleds. Suspension plays a vital role in allowing that to happen, but in no other category of bike does performance, stiffness and weight all walk such a fine line. With the exception of only a few options, aggressive trail riders who want to use a relatively light fork have long had to put up with flexible or under damped sliders, most being far better suited to pure cross-country use than charging difficult trails. With the evolution of the Thor, Magura set out to create a fork that would keep those gutsy riders happy, but without the unnecessary heft.





2012 Thor updates:

While the Thor is technically not a new fork for 2012, it has received enough internal updates that it should almost be considered so. With the stiff DAD (Dual Arch Design) lowers, the German company's suspension has always been known to be a great choice for aggressive riders, but their latest 140/150mm travel offering features an updated air spring and damping to match its sturdy chassis.

• Air spring - A smaller air spring chamber helps the Thor to ramp up more progressively in its stroke. This will allow the user to run lower air pressure without the fork using too much of its travel when pushed hard. The real benefit to this is that the lower air pressure should add some much needed small bump compliance to the Thor's performance.

• Compression valving - In order to appease aggressive trail and all-mountain riders the Thor's compression valving has been significantly beefed up to help keep the fork calmer and higher in its travel. The added low speed compression damping promises to help keep the fork high in its travel when on the brakes or nosing into a steep section.

• New bushings and grease lube - Magura has also made the switch from a thinner, oil based lube system to a using their new proprietary grease. Slotted bushings are no longer needed (the slots allowed the lubrication oil to cycle easier in the lowers), making for more bushing contact, which should also increase fork stiffness. The new bushings are also said to be slicker than what has been used in the past.

• More travel - Travel has been bumped up to 150mm, although a 140mm option is available as well (travel can also be adjusted internally)




Many of us have been programmed to believe that the more adjustments a fork or shock has, the better it must perform. You'll have to forget that nonsense when giving the Thor a go. You'll find only two external adjustments on the fork: air spring pressure and rebound damping (certain models also include their Lift Select travel adjustment), as well as the DLO lock out climbing aid. Magura purposely avoided loading up the Thor with knobs, believing that having a simple to understand fork is key to it performing well:

How's that for refreshing? The Thor, as well as all of Magura's forks, can also be easily rebuilt at home by a competent mechanic instead of it being sent off to a service center. The job only requires four common tools: a hex key, torx wrench, snap ring pliers and a socket wrench, making oil changes and rebuilds an easy task. And because the damping oil is contained within the stanchion tube (the stanchion acts as a sealed cartridge), the lowers can be removed for cleaning and to add lubrication grease without having to rebuild the entire fork.





Early riding impressions: Initial setup couldn't get any easier: scope out the suggested air pressure for your weight (I ended up about 10psi higher than recommended after some experimenting) and then decide on the appropriate amount of rebound damping. That's it, you're ready to hit the trail. Given its relative lack of external knobs to turn it would be easy to lump the 2012 Thor into the same category of some other less adjustable, and somewhat less performance orientated forks, but that isn't the case. In fact, after some trail time on the Thor I'm of the opinion that it is actually more capable under an aggressive rider than many other trail forks that I've spent time on - and this is without any internal alterations that some of the competition requires before being ready to be pushed hard.


Riding the Thor in Sedona, Arizona:

Riding the 2012 Magura Thor fork and MT-8 brakes in Sedona, Arizona.

by mikelevy

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Sedona's terrain, and especially the Highline and Hangover trails that we spent a lot of time on, feature a mixture of different surfaces that present quite a challenge to a bike's suspension; everything from non-stop rocky ledges and fast, repetitive hits, to steep chutes and hard g-outs that will push any 5" travel bike to its limits when ridden at speed. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, this is the very terrain where the Thor excels. It didn't take long to see that the German fork named after the God of Thunder is perhaps the most torsionally precise trail fork that I've spent time on. Steering was instant, with no delay or lag that you can sometimes expect when pushing a sub 4lb, 15mm thru-axle equipped fork hard on technical terrain. I was so impressed that, had it been a blind test, I would have guessed that I had a much heavier and robust fork on the front of the bike.

Further helping the Thor excel in Sedona was its excellent low speed compression damping that worked wonders in keeping the fork high in its travel while I was making my way down the area's steep pitches. This helped to leave more travel available to tackle the rough surface or hard compression at the bottom of the chute, and possibly even helped to save my ass on more than one occasion. Having spent time on last year's Thor it was also apparent that the reworked air chamber has helped to make the fork's stroke more progressive than in the past, which will also be a benefit to those who turn a blind eye to the fact that their 5" travel trail bike isn't a downhill rig.




The Thor impressed me, but it still could be better in a few places. The fork's DLO lock out system worked as advertised, letting the it sag into its travel while still remaining firm, but the dial is quite stiff and hard to turn when on the go. I would like to see less effort required to rotate the knob, or possibly a more tactile shape to make it easier to grip. I also didn't find the Thor to be overly sensitive to smaller trail chatter, despite the fork's updated bushings and new grease lubrication, although my test model had very little time on it before being put through its paces and wasn't broken in by any stretch of the imagination.

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Magura also had their impressive new MT-8 brakes fitted to our test bikes. You can check out Richard Cunningham's review of these impressive stoppers for the full story, but I was also impressed with how they performed during my time in Sedona. Power in spades, appreciable modulation and a great feel at the lever make these new brakes top performers in my mind.



Pinkbike's take: If it sounds like I'm excited about the Thor, it's because I am. Aggressive trail riders have long had to put up with light, but wimpy and under damped trail forks that seem to all be valved for cruising the local bike path, not pushing your limits on your trail bike. In its stock form, without adding heavier weight oil or reducing the air volume, the Thor has proved to be possibly the most composed trail fork currently available, and it doesn't hurt that the total package comes in at under 4lbs. Their MT-8 brakes not only look stunning, but also have the performance to match.


Check out the Magura website to see their entire lineup.