Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
The magnesium lowers of my 2003 Manitou Skareb Comp had begun to crack last

This is a farily well-known problem with the 2003 reverse arch forks.
Supposedly things were fixed for 2004. I have heard of failures of the
2003 forks, but not the 2004. FWIW.

justen