Having been without a bike for a while, I am in the process of finally building a new one up. I have just bought an SX Trail and now need some forks. Originally I wanted some 36's, but all of the ones in my price range appear to have marked stanchions. I thought I finally had a par lined up, but I think the chap now wants to hang on to them.
Next fork on my list is the 55 - I have found a pair of 2011 55 TST2 Air's for a reasonable price. They look mint and haven't seen too much riding. I am just debating whether to go for it or not on the basis that the TST cartridge doesn't seem too popular.
The early 55's seem poor when it comes to reliability. My All Mountain’s TST died once, and then I sold them.
Would like to know what other people's experiences of the fork are.
Cheers
The 2011 forks seem to get enthusiastic reviews on here. If I were looking for a new 160mm fork, this would be at the top of my list.
if its the 2011, you shouldn't have any problems.
total overhaul of the range in 2010 to get away from all the issues they had 2007-2009. 3yr warranty (with no service interval stipulation), all the range get rave reviews but as they're not popular (haven't shaken off the stigma, which is a shame as for years prior marz were synonymous with reliable indestructible forks) are often on sale as old stock (Wiggle had several 2010 models for roughly half price earlier this year, a PSA thread led to them selling out of 55RC3Tis).
Theyre not the best looking forks (graphics, colour choices etc) and lack the sexy gold stanchion look that is this season's must have.
Had a set of 2008 , biggest pile of crap I put on my bike, got rid and fitted some domains 160 mm travel so far very
Happy with them
Thanks chaps.
It's amazing how fashion comes full circle; when I first started riding in '96, everything was anodised and fork stanchions were gold. All of a sudden colour was evil and everything had to be black (admittedly I did follow this fad; my Demo 9 was totally black, even removed the decals from my 888's!).
I don't think that the 55's are bad looking - personally I think they look nicer than Rock Shox, although I had an irrational hatred of Rock Shox forks.
Think I will try an get a few quid off and give them a go.
2008 a totally different beast.
I have 2010 55Rc3 bought this spring but still not fitted them. Adjuster knobs look like quality street wrappers (TM another STWer) but much improved recently.
TST2 on my 'Zocchis was utter, utter shite of the highest order. Unless the damper design has changed significantly since 2009, I'd avoid them.
They are just port orifice, with no shim stack on the comp or rebound, so you get a very harsh fork at speed which also can't return quickly enough from a big hit or slowly enough from a small hit.
You can mod the damper to work better, but why bother when RS and Fox already work well.
BTW, it's just the TST2 versions I'm talking about, no experience of the RC3 or whatever. They're the ones which get good reviews. 🙂