Yeah, from Hibike in Germany. Fortunately the GBP:EUR also picked up a couple of points in the last few days.

ihave fox 38’s on my firebird. awesome fork

Unless your minted or sponsored then it’s obvious… assuming you live in the UK.
If I lived in the US then the price difference is less severe…

Zeb for me, but the decals have to go, terrible name even worse decals.

Just put them on back to front.

Who wouldn’t want a “Bez” fork?

I went for a Zeb Ultimate. I’ve just dropped it to 150mm and fitted it. Feels very smooth on the usual – ride it up and down the road in the dark test.

I might get a ride in before for work to check it out if I’m lucky.

If anyone is looking for a 190mm Zeb airshaft I have one spare 🙂

Dropped to 150mm, what a waste of a 38mm fork 🙂

I had no idea the price difference was so large in the UK.
I had been reading US reviews – RRP seem to be $1199 vs $999 over there. (Float Factory Grip vs Ultimate).

AlexSimon

I had no idea the price difference was so large in the UK.

Hence my comment earlier … In the US most honest type reviews seem to conclude they are about as good as each other and about the same price.

Translate that to Euro/pound and they are “about the same performance but Fox costs significantly more.

I haven’t ridden either but I thought this review of the Zeb was quite interesting:

https://enduro-mtb.com/en/2021-rockshox-zeb-suspension-fork-test/

“The added stiffness [vs the Lyrik] doesn’t just have advantages. The ZEB occasionally required more input from the rider to stay on track, especially when it was wet and slippery. If you’re not careful, you’ll get blown off line more easily. Fatigue is something that is very difficult to test. However, we had the impression that especially on very long days of riding with more than 6,000 meters of descending, the added stiffness also led us to tire out sooner and we had slightly more painful hands. In scenarios where we would have easily been able to complete long runs with the Lyrik, the ZEB demanded more strength.”

It depends how long people keep stuff, I regularly fix older Fox suspension, but am unable to repair a 3 year old RockShox part as they dont sell them. There are some aftermarket parts for some things, but nothing available for others.

Where would you get a 2015-2017 160-180 36 airshaft from? (The one with the orange foot nut)
I looked / phoned “everywhere” and everyone told me discontinued. Did find in in Australia but they wanted a stupid amount for shipping…

“The added stiffness [vs the Lyrik] doesn’t just have advantages.

Same goes for the 38 I suppose.
What is more frustrating is limiting travel in lighter forks assuming everyone is 100kg.

I thought this review of the Zeb was quite interesting:

I’ve heard similar observations, apparently from some who had the fork way before launch.

Wonder if a coil version would be the best of all possible worlds? Would certainly like to test the current Zeb Ultimate on the gnar before spunking up my cash.

I haven’t ridden either but I thought this review of the Zeb was quite interesting:

https://enduro-mtb.com/en/2021-rockshox-zeb-suspension-fork-test/

“The added stiffness [vs the Lyrik] doesn’t just have advantages. The ZEB occasionally required more input from the rider to stay on track, especially when it was wet and slippery. If you’re not careful, you’ll get blown off line more easily. Fatigue is something that is very difficult to test. However, we had the impression that especially on very long days of riding with more than 6,000 meters of descending, the added stiffness also led us to tire out sooner and we had slightly more painful hands. In scenarios where we would have easily been able to complete long runs with the Lyrik, the ZEB demanded more strength.”

fits with some ews riders going back to fox 36 in the last couple of races.

However, we had the impression that especially on very long days of riding with more than 6,000 meters of descending, the added stiffness also led us to tire out sooner and we had slightly more painful hands.

Perhaps this is larger stanchions = more “stiction” / friction rather than an effect of the stiffness. Or simply new forks vs older Lyriks which are fully broken in. I’m finding it hard to believe that (fore-aft/lateral) stiffness can be bad per se.

Interestingly, though, (especially considering RS marketing motivations) Pinkbike have reported that some riders are using Lyriks / 36s on easier EWS tracks rather than the Zeb / 38.

It may all just be noise but I feel like the Zeb launch is a bit underwhelming?

Dropping them to 150mm might seem like a waste to some but thats the max for my hardtail.

To me the Zebs should be equivalent to a Trail fork for others. They are size appropriate to me.

who rode with lyrics or 36 ? what travel?

who rode with lyrics or 36 ? what travel?

160mm Lyriks / 170mm 36’s.

The ZEB occasionally required more input from the rider to stay on track, especially when it was wet and slippery. If you’re not careful, you’ll get blown off line more easily.

I’m guessing they are riding harder than the average joe – I don’t get blown off line more easily with the mezzer compared to my mattoc. The mezzer tracks better.

“Perhaps this is larger stanchions = more “stiction” / friction rather than an effect of the stiffness. Or simply new forks vs older Lyriks which are fully broken in. I’m finding it hard to believe that (fore-aft/lateral) stiffness can be bad per se.”

Larger stanchions will cause more friction under purely axial loads but in the real world there will always be torsional loads too, and the stiffer fork the more true the bushings will run so the lower the friction – so I don’t think that is it.

With two wheeled vehicles the suspension travel is rarely in the right direction because of the lean around corners. That’s when flex in the system helps to remove high frequency buzz. I don’t think fore-aft stiffness is ever a problem as the fork’s ankle path being so rearward. But sideways and rotational, some flex can help.