CRC selling old Z3/4/5 forks

Chain Reaction have old (2000s?) Marzocchi Bomber Z3, Z4 and Z5 forks for sale, £300-£350, 1 1/8, Q/R 80-100mm.

Did they find a load of new old stock?

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/marzocchi-bomber-z4-fork/rp-prod207947

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/marzocchi-bomber-z3-fork/rp-prod207932

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/marzocchi-bomber-z5-fork/rp-prod207937

People rescuing bikes from the shed, forks often in poor condition, lots of demand, that container suddenly leaps in value

I was riding a pair of those Z3s on my XC bike up until about 3 years ago and they are a surprisingly great fork.

Wow, retro goldmine!

I imagine they’ll have been discovered as they wind down CRC’s Northern Ireland operations in order to move everything to Wiggle HQ, bet there’s been all sorts of treasures coming to light.

Dibs on any 55 Ti RC3s they find!

Dibs on any 55 Ti RC3s they find!

How I’d love to try one of those in 29er form on my current bike.

Hardly the vintage price!

But sorely tempted as finding anything decent for a straight steerer 26″ is pretty much impossible.

How much were they BITD?

I thought they seemed quite reasonably priced in the current climate and considering the exclusivity.

I see a lot of confused faces in the near future for folk that get the QR20 Z5’s

If they are all old stock I also see a lot of unhappy faces when the 15 year old seals fail immediately

I was gonna say – QR20 is going to really confuse some people who might not be familiar with all the ‘standards’ back in the day.

Ditto I.S. disc mounts!

My mistake – I’d been looking at the Z3 and Z5 which are £349.99, which is pretty spendy. Probably about £50 more than they were BITD. But then a decent bike ‘only’ cost £800 then I suppose.

But I’d not noticed the Z4 is only £179.99 – and has disc brake mounts in green, so have just bought one!

If they are all old stock I also see a lot of unhappy faces when the 15 year old seals fail immediately

Could be some interesting warranty questions. Imagine if somebody takes one to SilverFish as Marzocchi UK.

I presume CRC will just replace or refund if warranty issues?

That said, there are 20 year old bombers still working on original oil, so these ones might be fine for another 20 years.

But I’d not noticed the Z4 is only £179.99

That was a fast price drop! Was £299.99 earlier. Let us know what its like when it arrives.

If they are all old stock I also see a lot of unhappy faces when the 15 year old seals fail immediately

Open oil bath on the Z3s (not sure about the others) – seals will last forever *if* they haven’t dried out and cracked at the top already….

Ah yes QR20. Anything but “quick” and the dangly bits sometimes wound off in transit.

seals will last forever *if* they haven’t dried out and cracked at the top already….

Thats the problem, the oil has been sitting on one place for years rather that being cycled around and keep the seals wet

Wow, retro goldmine!

Apart from the asking prices…

I reckon the seals will be OK TBH but they’ll need fresh oil immediately which makes the prices a bit comical really…

I parked my old DH bike with 888s on it for a year due to injury. Blew both sides first ride out afterwards (told myself to put the bike upside down for a while first to try and help – forgot), would love to say it was due to my extreme riding but they truth would say otherwise 🙁

Just what I need to replace my X-Vert R’s! If I had the cash.

Surely they’re reproductions? Or has someone found a pile in a warehouse in Italy?

Or could be that there were parts lying around somewhere that have been cobbled together. They will probably be more expensive to manufacture than modern designs (lowers being several different parts for example) and I’d be surprised if they tooling for the forging/castings had survived that long without going in the skip. Would be interesting to know the story

Would be interesting to know the story

re. another thread on here at the moment – this is the kind of investigative MTB journalism I could get behind.

Quick update,

Just had the Z4’s I ordered delivered.

I’d say OEM packaging 😉 i.e. brown box and placed in a clear polythene bag. The stamps on them suggest parts manufactured in Summer 1999! Backed up by the stickers which are ‘2000’.

The seals feel fairly ‘firm’ but are not noticeably brittle. There’s oil inside, just not sure how much yet. Will do a bit of a disassembly later. What’s there is running up the stanchions clean.

Came with a 2 year Marzocchi warranty card, which you have to post off and register, so I’m sorely tempted :0

Couple more pics:

Warranty card!

It’d be a laugh if the disk brake mounts where the old 48mm spacing ones that Bombers used to have! 🙂

They still look great, don’t they.

It’d be a laugh if the disk brake mounts where the old 48mm spacing ones that Bombers used to have! 🙂

Not THAT old…

It’d be a laugh if the disk brake mounts where the old 48mm spacing ones that Bombers used to have!

Was my first thought too. We just need CRC to turn up some other old stock with weird ass proprietary mounts that look almost like normal. Didn’t Hayes have a different sized post mount back in the early days? I have a feeling that I have some old HFXs in my junk box that don’t fit the normal post mount. Worked fine with the correct ISO adapter IIRC.

It is intriguing as to where they came from, and why! Sitting in a box for 22 years.

The warranty and instructions are entirely analogue, with not a mention of any website or email address.

A completely different era.

Ha! Probably turned up at the back of a warehouse when Fox bought Marzocchi and punted onto CRC

On aliexpress theres a load of new oem elastomer rock shox indys with threaded steerers for £60

Might have to get a set for my sts.

Still got a pair of 55 rc3 ti in the garage, i wish they would do a 27.5″ version of them or the r2c2

Still got a pair of 55 rc3 ti in the garage, i wish they would do a 27.5″ version of them

Have you offered a 27.5 wheel in?

I seem to recall some people were doing it.

I had Z3 Air 100s on my XC bike. Dull, lifeless, no rose-tinted glasses here.

But if the pandemic has really limited frame options.. . ..

Who owns them?

Lovely forks… I replaced a very light SID SL with a Z2 about 20 years back… realised quite how flexy the SIDs had been shortly after!

I had a set of MX Pro ETAs BITD.

Great little fork. They almost had a conversation with you as you road across rough terrain

Sorry, if you found a PRST1, keep it hidden or burn it!

Shame they’ve not a Z1 or Z2, just the lower end fork and I dont ever remember them costing £350 😕 I think the Z2 was £250 initially, it was on par with a pace price wise and I paid £199 for my Z2 in 1999.
They must be trying to price them for the retro crowd and hoping to make a bit.

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kayla1
Full Member

Dibs on any 55 Ti RC3s they find!

I’ve got one lying around doing nothing….

A pack of frozen sausages and a hammer is still a much cheaper way to settle your neighbourly disputes.

My late 90 Z2s are still going strong, managed to pick up some seals (just in case) about 2-3 years back.
“O” rings have started to rot though, Silverfish had a couple in stock, but by the time the “o” ring picks came back in stock, which would have somewhat justified the p+p some one had had them. Luckily I went to my local hardware shop and accessed their box of metric “O” rings and found one to fit, was one on the bottom nuts. Might be difficult if one of the “O” rings at the top of the forks goes.
Kind of wished I had sought a replacement fork after about 5 or so years, after that finding anything with only 3 inches of travel with a straight steerer was impossible.