Thanks guys. As usual, some straight-up advice and great replies. I appreciate it.
And yes, as for the fork upgrade, I think you guys might be right. Even at $350 to $400, it's probably not worth it. She would get better improvement in handling and control with high quality / high volume tires run tubeless, better brake pads for smoother braking (I hope), a slightly wider bar (preferably carbon), and a more solid stem (Thomson). I will check out the tech sites to see what I can do to tune the fork -- perhaps lighter oil; play around with sag and rebound settings....? I finally splurged and bought a high-quality shock pump (SKS, German made), so now I can fine tune the pressures quite easily.
Interesting comments on Marzocchi. There are two of their forks on our bikes -- our eldest daughter still has an older GT bike with a Z-1 fork (nice smooth feel; bomb-proof build); and our youngest daughter's Norco EXC hardtail has an MX Pro, which is about 4 years old, and is just a great fork too (lots of adjustment possibilities; very silky feel). I am impressed with their quality overall, but as you mentioned, you don't see much of them in the shops here as aftermarket, or as OE on new bikes.
Back to my wife's bike upgrades, her father (the bike nut on Vancouver Island) called me this morning with an offer we may not be able to refuse. He has an '08 Norco Faze One full suspension XC bike that he rarely rides, in mint shape, in her size, and was wondering if any of the ladies in the family would be interested? Heck, yes! Full XTR, including the wheels and brakes; Fox fork and shock; Horst suspension....a very, very nice bike. He will measure it up to make sure the standover and top tube will fit, and if so, we might have another bike in the shed soon. Specs are here:
http://www.norco.com/2008bikes/templates/model/enlarge.php?id=30&view=&deets=2.
Being a Canadian company, you guys may not be familiar with Norco's bikes, but their upper-end stuff is really well made and designed. Great build quality. They are based in North Vancouver, so have the North Shore scene and Whistler as their testing grounds.
If this works out, I may just do the above-mentioned minor upgrades to her hardtail, and she can ride the Norco on the gnarly trails.
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