Noticed at Rheola yesterday that I was only getting 130mm of trvel out of my 888s, so have had them in bits today to see whats what. They felt the same as they always have, nothing had changed, but realised I’d not been getting all the goodness.

When I got them I was told they were 2005 888r forks of the 170mm variety (also available in 200mm form) with a light spring. They felt pretty decent, so have never bothered to take them in bits before. I did realise they’d been tinkered with as they have compression damping adjustment. On inspection they’re 2004 internals and the spring is the firm one. They’re in very good shape, no problems, so suspect the correct shock and new oil will sort them out.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, I recently emailed Marzocchi to find out if I could turn them into the 200mm forks and was told that the travel is limited by the travel in the pushrods, so I would need new compression and rebound cartridges. No one sells has any in stock and they’re 90 notes each, so that’s a no-go, cheaper to replace the forks. But, the pushrods have 190mm of available travel.

Are they the 170 or 200mm variety? I can’t see why they wouldn’t have 190mm of travel, given that both varieties use the same springs. Wondering if the Italians said they were 190mm, then someone converted that to 8″, then someone else converted that to 200mm or something equally random.

Anyone any ideas?

Cheers

They’re 170mm by the sounds of it. I had some 04 888’s of the 170mm variety, asked the same question about converting to 200mm when I had them (back in 04).

That said, measure the axle to crown height with the forks fully extended but the stanchions dropped as far down through the lower crown as they can go (min height marker). This way you’ll be able to work it out by looking on the marzicchi website and finding the correct a/c height. 04 888’s were tall anyway, but there is still an obvious 30mm of difference between the 2 forks.

Put them back together minus the spring, fully extend and measure the travel. Cycle them up and down to check full travel is achieved. Ie push them to the seals.

With the crowns setup at their minimum distance they had 175mm of available movement. With them at their max there is 190mm of available movement. I can’t move the crowns from the 175 position as I’ve rounded a bolt. But putting them back together they will compress until the lowers hit the crowns. So that’s 175mm, and I can’t see why they wouldn’t have 190mm if I could move the crowns.

Interestingly, there doesn’t appear to be any sort of bump-stop in the forks. Which implies that it’s the springs being fully compressed that provides the bottom-out control and therefore restricts travel, but it can’t be if they’re 170mm forks as they’re the same springs on both versions of the fork.

Looking more likely that they’re 190mm, but will find out for sure I guess when my new springs arrive. If I can then get travel all the way to the crowns then I’ll have to saw that bolt to get the crowns off and then maybe fit some flat crowns so I get all the travel without raising the front of the bike.

Exciting times.