Manitou splice on my Trek Fuel 80

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I have Manitou Splice comp forks fitted to my new Trek Fuel 80 as standard, is it just mine or does anyone else find them incredibly harsh over small bumps, my hands after a trail ride feel like I have been riding ridgid forks ! They just dont seem to work over high speed small bumpy fire road type terrain. But incredibly after a ride a ride I heck how much travel I got from the 100mm and its usually pretty much all of it ! But I just dont know where as they feel nasty over everything.

Also they actually seem to harden up during the course of a 2 hr ride ?? Can this be right or is it my imagination ?

I used to have some Marzocchi MX comps air on my old Marin and if I remember some years back they did feel much more responsive. So I was thinking of upgrading the Manitous to some MX Pro's (wiggle £130), would I notice the difference ? I dont have much to spend on stuff. It just seems a shame to have to ditch newish forks. But if they are crap then they are crap and will have to go, and at the moment I am not enjoying riding my bike with them on. Or am I just expecting too much and the forks are fine ?


I have the compression damping right off and also the Preload is set to minimum. I am 143 lbs (10st 3)

You're right, the forks are crap, going to be changing mine as soon as I can find a good deal on ebay. Just replaced my rear shock with a Rock Shox MC3.3 which has made a world of difference.