[Closed] Marzocchi 55 CR - Any experience/thoughts?

They are ace. Im running the 2013's at 150mm on my BFe. Really easy to adjust the travel. Really stiff. Nice and plush. Can't fault them really!

had them for a year and they are superb. currently got them at 170mm. they are surprisingly light for a big travel fork with 35mm stanchions. out on the trail they are stiff and track brilliantly. the suspension action is typically smooth and plush like the marzocchi forks of old and they've handled everything i've thrown at them with ease.
they come with the 3 year no service warranty so should be a fit and forget component.
they also look very pimp with the black lowers and gold stanchions!

Sounds good and no complex TST/ATA fail stuff

I specced a set of these for a mate's build. Nearest thing we could find to the original bomber in terms or just quietly getting on with its job.

I think avalanche also do a cartridge to fit them if you want them tuned.

I bought a set of these a couple of weeks back for my Wolf Ridge and am very impressed indeed - they're nice and plush, very linear compared to the Wotans I replaced and they're nice and tuneable too. There's a little braking dive, but it's easily dialled out with some compression damping without upsetting the small bump smoothness. They're light too, surprisingly so for an enduro fork.

The only real bugbear for me is that the supplied spacer will only drop to 150mm, not 160mm but a few minutes with a hacksaw, sandpaper and superglue gave me the 10mm spacer I needed.

Bought/received. Wow they are frankly gorgeous arent they 🙂

Yes. Yes they are. 🙂

Winstanleys come set at 150mm with the spacer in the box.

Fitting the spacer is an absolute doddle, the fact that it only comes in 20mm is an inconvenience, but not an insurmountable one. According to Windwave, they are looking at supplying a 10mm spacer.

Winstanleys come set at 150mm with the spacer in the box.

Doh- I'll double check tonight. What psi do you guys run? Are the official figures bang on?

Very interesting, was just looking at these last night. I've currently got a set of Fox 2013 34s CTD and not massively impressed. I'm debating on whether to spend c£200 getting this plush tuned by TF or selling and getting some of Marzochi's.

Not sure at the moment? Anyone had the opportunity to compare the Marzochis with Fox 34s?

i got them on my transition bandit at 150mm. love em

What psi do you guys run? Are the official figures bang on?

i weigh 10.5st(ish) (66kg/145lb) and i think i'm running mine with about 80psi. marzocchi recommend 87psi for rider weights between 65-85kg/143-187lb...so it seem to be reasonably accurate but i'll double check what my forks are running tonight to be sure and let you know.

i was contemplating bodging the spacer but, i think i'll wait for the 10mm spacer to become available so i can drop them to 160mm....

Anyone had the opportunity to compare the Marzochis with Fox 34s?

i've never owned a pair of fox but a friend has a pair of fox 36s and he's ridden my bike and seemed tolike the smooth and plush feel of the marzocchis over his foxes.
on paper your 34s are lighter and are more adjustable especially with the CTD cartridge but they come with a 15mm axle. compared to the 20mm axle and 35mm stanchions on the marzocchis is would be easy to assume that the marzocchis would feel stiffer. also with the 3 year no service warranty marzocchi seem to be taking a step in the right direction again regarding reliability which is more than can be said about fox. personally i'd rather not waste time servicing a fork everytime i looked at it....once its set up correctly it should be a fit and forget item and be worked on once every every blue moon or when it actually needs the work doing

Thanks. Well the plan would be to ditch the CTD mechanism and have it replaced with the Push tuning conversion kit to a high speed and low speed compression adjustment;

http://www.pushindustries.com/2009/index.php?menu_id=38&type=products&title=FOX%20FLOAT%2034%20CTD&product_id=108

But like I said previously this isn't cheap at £200 and giving I can pick up a pair of 55s for about £450, providing I can get £250 for my Fox 34s it then becomes a cost neutral decision.

Decisions decisions...

Mine have just gone back to LBS then Windwave, leaking oil and air after fitting new seals to stop an air leak 😥
I find them really divey aswell, putting 50ml of oil in the air chamber helped.

Scruff are yours the R or the CR?

Scruff's are the CRs

Yep at 170mm. Need to drop down to 150mm however I cant open the pdf's on my phone and only found this guide which seems 'drastic' :O

m.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=15445&pagenum=132

Any easier way?

Love my CRs
Moved from a fox 36rc2, these are so much plusher
Ignore the psi settings I'm a big boy 100kg and run 85 psi for a sag of 20%

checked my forks last night....running at 70 psi

Mine arrived this morning and they're a thing of beauty to look at.

Just need to find time to fit ready for saturdays ride 😆

checked my forks last night....running at 70 psi

Weird I did the street spin last night and I'm 'sure' I need 100psi minimum!. I'm 15stone 4 without any kit

according to the marzocchi website for your weight (97kg/213lb) you should be running 101.5 psi so i reckon you're bang on there.
http://www.marzocchi.com/template/detailProdotti.asp?LN=UK&idC=1561&IDFolder=113&IdOggetto=62487#

EDIT: this air pressure can be used for rider weights between 85-105kg/187-231lb so unless your kit weighs a ton then you should be fine at 100 psi

Mine seem ok at 85psi with my weight of 85kg.

They look better on the bike than they did in the box!!

[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3795/12831709025_09c5ea496b_z.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3795/12831709025_09c5ea496b_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/windydave13/12831709025/ ]Marzocchi 55 CR[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/windydave13/ ]windydave13[/url], on Flickr

Out of interest, how many clicks of compression are you guys running??

Dave

i think my compression is set to halfway....i didnt count the number of clicks!
TBH i cant even remember how many clicks of rebound i've set either but i'll be having a fettle of the bike tonight to fit the new 10sp drivetrain so i'll be checking so i know how i've set it up.

I've just fitted some 55R to my Zesty and they are lovely to look at and ride well happy with the Bombers

I'll give that a whirl at half way. think from memory there are 7 clicks of compression adjustment.

Perhaps i've missed it, but did anyone get instructions on fitting the spacer??

Dave

Perhaps i've missed it, but did anyone get instructions on fitting the spacer??

Cheers for that. I'm thinking the same as the little bit of rubber didn't look overly symetrical and don;t fancy cutting it and destriying it or causing more problems at a later date

I'll take another look in the manual tonight.

i justed asked windwave about the 10mm spacer and this is their response:

Hi,
At this current time there is no 10mm spacer available to set the forks at this travel.
We shall be enquiring further about this in April at a Marzocchi meeting. Hopefully we have further news on this later in the year.

Regards

Shaun Kendall

www.windwave.co.uk

we may be waiting a while then.... 😕

Can't be too difficult to make a spacer can it?

I haven't (unfortunately) got these forks but if you're only talking about 170mm versus 160mm (0.5 degree angle change) couldn't you just run them a bit deeper into their travel to achieve the same thing and with the benefit of more negative travel?

Or just run them at 170mm....

2 clicks of compression here otherwise the ride gets harsh and full travel is harder to achieve

Can you not use M10 washers (or whatever) as a spacer as per Rockshox forks?

2 clicks of compression here otherwise the ride gets harsh and full travel is harder to achieve

wow!! only 2 clicks? i cant remember how many clicks but mine are set with about 2 thirds of however many clicks in total. with 75 psi and that many clicks i'm still getting full travel but the forks dont dive as much....so they're spot on now.

I went with about 3-4 clicks of compression with 85psi. The travel and brake dive was fine, but it did feel like i had a bit of "top out" when lifting the front wheel. Saying that though, it could just be play in the headset as i fitted them in a rush.

I found climbing a bit more of a challenge with the extra travel but i reckon just a bit more angle on the seat and it'll feel fine.

This was the top of Nan Bield - A nice test for their first outing 😆

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7445/12902093164_dcf4e425d2_z.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7445/12902093164_dcf4e425d2_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/windydave13/12902093164/ ]Nan Bield - Marzocchi 55 CR[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/windydave13/ ]windydave13[/url], on Flickr

On the compression - I found on a carpark test my forks feel harsh/horrible but spot on on rocky descents. If I turned the compression/rebound to feel smooth on the road it packs down etc on the rocky stuff!

hora - what air pressure are you running? also how much compression and rebound? its a bit odd that they feel like that for you. mine sometimes did feel a bit sticky but i put that down to them still bedding in but they felt spot on at llandegla on saturday.
at the moment i'm running 75 psi, compression is wound in 2/3rds and rebound set to about halfway.
maybe you have too much air in them...frogleek seems to be getting away with 85 psi and he's a similar weight to you...so maybe use 85 psi as a starting point and see how you go on from there

100PSI for me

hora - having thought about it marzocchi's recommended pressure of 100 psi is for riders weights between 85-105kg/187-231lb. as you are around the middle of this weight group maybe 100 psi is the pressure for the upper weight limit...try it at 85 - 90 psi and increase if needed to 95 psi.
were you fully kitted out when you tried it on the carpark/road?

Didn't want to start another thread so posting here. I'm looking seriously at these forks as an upgrade from my old 2006 Fox 26 Talas (150, travel ones) which are on my Covert which is my Alps/"big bike". I'm convinced they would do the job very well (will have them at 170). My question is they seem to come tapered or straight steerer, I have a hope "converter" which means the straight fox forks can fit the tapered covert frame, should I switch headset/insert and get taperered forks for future proofness (not sure my riding warrants the improved performance 🙁 ) as I'm likely to keep these forks a long time or save some money and get straight steerer.

I think you'd be mad not to get tapered versions personally!

Anyone ridden these 55CR's back2back with the latest Pikes??

@maxtoruque - could you expand a little - better (why?) more future proof so can re use them / sell them more easily ? My gut feel says you are right btw

maxtorgue - I think you'd be mad not to get tapered versions personally!

i agree with windydave...if your headtube is 1 1/8th then its your only option but if the headtube is tapered then you can choose either. it would make sense to get the tapered fork as most frames have tapered headtubes as standard but if Jambalaya has a hope convertor fitted to the frame then it would be cost efective to get the 1 1/8th version and save a few quid as it can still be used like this and can even be transferred to another frame

@Windydave - am I right in that you've got the Marz 55CRs on a Specialized Pitch? If so at what travel have you got them ste and how did it fair on the climb up to Nan Bield (oh and which way did you climb up - Gatesgarth or another route)? I am interested to know how you find the climbing with longer forks on the Pitch.

I've got Lyrik duap positions on my Pitch and enjoy dropping the travel for steep climbs.

Ta

[quote=jonnyblease]Well the plan would be to ditch the CTD mechanism and have it replaced with the Push tuning conversion kit to a high speed and low speed compression adjustment;

Or get the air cart upgraded to the 2014 unit - just had this done by Mojo (as part of a service - think it was about £40) on my 29er 34 CTDs and it makes the world of difference, especially to Descend mode.

@tomaso, it's an Enduro set at 170. Felt a little light on the front in comparisom to the old 160's but also i've been riding the 456 set at 120 for most of winter so it was always going to feel a little interesting on the front.

We climbed/hiked/carried/pushed up to Nan Bield from the Haweswater side, then dropped down to Kentmere and then across and up Gatesgarth. As above, it felt a bit light but not too bad. I'll make a call on dropping them after riding something a bit more familiar that i can properly compare the old forks to

I can't see any new frames coming out with a straight steerer these days, so if you have a frame that can take them, get a tapered steerer for as much "future proofing" as possible i guess

Cheers @windydave thats interesting to know.

Are tapered frames the 100% standard going forward though? Or will some bright spark invent the need to upgrade all your kit?

They do seem to be what the industry is adopting and it has been the case for a while.

I found that my lower bearings on my Hope headset didn't last too well with their step down system. A few others with longer travel forks have ground the same too.

ive got a pair, and they are rad. remind me very much of my MX comps. Simple, reliable (so far) and a good feel. I prefer them to my Fox 36s, which blew through the travel on steep descents. 55s seem to support much better, while still actually working.

ive even got used to the gopping decals and orange stantions

worth noting, Axel to crown in 170mm mode is the same as 160mm lyriks and only a shade longer than 160mm 36s.

[img] [/img]

I am going to buy a 55 next month. I have a couple of questions for owners. I have had marzocchi forks in the past, and the thing I really like about them is how active they are on the small chatter. I also have a Totem which is great on big stuff, but hardly moves on small rough bumps.

I was planning to get the 55R, but I am put off by the straight steerer, weight and the light spring. My DJ fork has the air assisted preload which I always run empty because it affects the small bump feel.

I also noticed that the 55R is open bath, and the 55CR is not. What I want to know is, how does the 55CR feel compared to a Marzocchi open bath fork, specifically wrt stiction. The Totem, like the 55CR, has 20cc of lube oil in each leg and it requires a service every 5-10 hours of use to keep it smooth. How does the 55CR stack up?

Other things of note in response to earlier posts, the 55CR at 170mm has an a2c of 555mm. Rockshox Lyriks and Totems have the same a2c. 160mm travel - 545mm a2c, 170mm - 555mm, 180mm - 565mm.

Also, you can use a tapered steerer in a 1.125" zero stack (44mm) headtube using the external cup, like the Cane Creek EC44.

jaame -
all my forks have been marzocchi's and the last 2 pairs were z1 sport rv which were coil with air assist and only had rebound adjustment and a pair of 66rc which also had air assist. the z1 sport rv were ran with very little air in the air assist and felt fine for small bump sensitivity so long as the rebound was set correctly. the 66rc had a bit more air in to cope with harsh landings but again i also ran a bit more compression so they didnt dive under braking as much. again with these i had to get the right balance between rebound and compression so they could cope with the big stuff whilst still being sensitive to the small stuff.
my 55cr has 75 psi and the rebound is set to half way with 2/3rds compression wound in to stop excessive brake dive. they still manage the big hits and the small stuff without any issues.

the 55r is actually coil sprung with air assist so it will be the same as your dj fork. not sure if its open bath but if it is then to change the damping characteristics you can always switch to a heavier of lighter oil...depending on which oil you go for, how much air you add to the air assist cartridge, your body weight, stiffness of the coil and how much rebound you set it with will depend on how it respond to the big and small stuff but i reckon you'll still be able to get the fork to work on both types of terrain

the 55r also come with 160mm and this cannot be altered at the moment so the a2c length should actually be less than 555mm. marzocchi's website says it is 546mm.

with regards to weight the 55r weighs in at 2.47kg. the 55cr with the straight steerer weighs in at 2.23kg and the tapered version at 2.2kg.
if you can afford it then get the 55cr as its lighter and more adjustable. travle may be 170mm or 150mm but there may be plans for a 100 spacer to be introduced at some point this year so the travel can get reduced to 160mm.
in terms of reliability all new marzocchi forks come with a 3 year no service warranty.
of all the 8 or 9 marzocchi forks i've owned...none have been serviced and none had any problems so i expect these to be the same. i bought the 66rc in 2005 and had them until last summer and without a service they still felt like new.

I'm a sucker for Marzocchi. Always have been. I just find them sturdier, better. The 55 TST2's that I shim-stacked were probably the best (until they broke).

jaame its £70 difference.

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/60527/Marzocchi_55_R_2013_Forks

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/60526/Marzocchi_55_CR_2014_Forks

£70.

Thats all I will say.

Hora what sag are you running at 100psi?

Just had the travel changed to 150. I'll tell you tomorrow.

It's not about the money. The difference in price here is less than fifty quid. Due to past experience I dubious of whether air forks can perform as well as coil, but I keep hearing that they can. The other problem with the R is that there is only one weight of coil to my knowledge, and heavier riders are supposed to use the air preload feature that I am not a fan of to stiffen things up, so essentially it becomes a hybrid air fork rather than coil.

I am leaning towards the CR because of the weight and ease of tuning. I am interested in service intervals though. To be honest I had a Domain coil that had the lube and damping oil separate and it never needed servicing. If you guys who already have the CR can assure me that it performs very well by Marzocchi standards, and that it doesn't need pulling apart more than once a year, I'll take the plunge.

jaame - i've had mine for nearly a year now and no problems so far. you're correct in saying that there is only one weight of coil available for the 55r....whether there will be more available in the future is hard to say. i've asked windwave about a 10mm spacer for the 55cr and theyll be discussing this with marzocchi at some point in the near future.
all my previous marzocchi forks have been coil units and these 55cr's are my first air fork and i have to admit i've so far been very impressed with their performance.

hora, if your forks are packing down on repeated hits you should be reducing the rebound damping rather than increasing the compression damping.
you need to make the fork recover from the hit more quickly, not stop it using it's travel.

Only had one ride so far. Now they are down to my desired 150mm travel I'll start adjusting/playing with.

@hora, did you change the travel yourself, or get someone else to do it?? Just wondering if you had to doa full oil change or could get away without??

Dave

Thanks for the input. I'm going to pull the trigger on a CR I think.

Dave I got a local freelancer to do it. I've spacer changed 36 Floats and converted 170DH Lyriks to travel adjust coil but I just didnt fancy mucking up new forks.

What's the process for changing the travel? Is it a spacer on the air assy? That sounds like you'd need to change the lowers oil, but if you're not touching the damper - then you shouldn't need to change the oil.

Looking at a set of these for my Pitch - I see Winstanleys are out of stock of the straight steerer model CRs. You lot been buying them all!?

merlin have the straight steerer version in stock for £429...

i think Hora's bought all of Winstanleys stock....he'll be flogging them on here soon when everyone wants them and no-one stocks them...

First proper ride on them today at 150mm. Yep - run almost full rebound, only two clicks of compression and 95psi. They feel harsh on the bounce test but **** brilliant on Peaks trails.

Gonzy do you need one or two of those gromits? I can only find one.

The mucky nutz thing is brilliant!

Good to hear Hora. I had a blast round LLandegla in the dark last night. According to Strava i seem to be able to ride faster in the dark than the light. I'm putting it down to the new forks!!

Anyway i ran 3 clicks of compression and one click towards the + from centre on the rebound. Felt awesome although i couldn't see a thing as to how they were working 😆

hora - i only need one of those nuts. send me a text to let me know when you want to pick up the seat post

hmmmmm. on a bFE, I might go for it.

I took delivery of my 55CRs last night. Mounted them up but only did a test on the street. First impressions are they feel a bit sticky still which I expect will wear off after a few hours. Also, the spring rate feels spot on, I have to say quite linear, which is good in my book. Adjustments, particularly the compression, are wide ranging. I'm glad I went for the CR because that adjustable compression is something I'll definitely use.
The "gold race coating" is in breach of the trade descriptions act 1982. It should be referred to as "orange race coating". It looks the absolute tits.

Good stuff, just waiting for mine to arrive!

I have mine for nearly a week, still sitting on my desk. Look fab though.

I have mine for nearly a week, still sitting on my desk

My god man. Who are you looking to own? The tea lady?

I've used mine for a couple of hours now, including a shuttle day. The rebound was originally great on the slower side of the middle on the adjuster. Now I have it full slow and it's still too fast. Also, the stroke is feeling a bit sticky and there is a little too abrupt a stop on top out. It feels like there isn't enough lube oil in there or something.
I'm going to change the oil at the weekend and change from the stock 7.5 to 10w.

Anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you rectify it?