[Closed] Rockshox Zeb

In aesthetic terms it doesn't. Functionally I am sure it's an improvement, isn't it always 🙂

Zod in marketing now?

I quite like the angular aesthetic, but I like how the Geometron looks too, so maybe I'm not one to judge.

As a biking hack, the biggest fork turn on for me has always been stanchion thickness. Forget compression damping, ramp up, rebound setting, adjustability etc

It's why I always lusted after Fox 40s and RS totems

On that basis, take my money!

that lower adjuster looks vulnerable

that lower adjuster looks vulnerable

It's in exactly the same place as the rebound adjuster for every single Rockshox fork that I can recall and having owned five different types of Pike and one Revelation since 2006, I haven't dropped or damaged an adjuster yet.

Bolt on mudguard for $20 in the US is good news.

Just been reading about it on the front page. I'd like to try one as the changes to the damping seem to address the issues I have with my Lyrik RC2, which the Ultimate version didn't quite iron out, so from that point of view it appeals.

It’s in exactly the same place as the rebound adjuster for every single Rockshox fork that I can recall and having owned five different types of Pike and one Revelation since 2006, I haven’t dropped or damaged an adjuster yet.

annoying if you want to sit your bike on concrete without the wheel in. no damage, but takes a bit o fthe anodising off. And if you put it back in a different position after a service, you get a fresh bit to scratch.

ayjaydoubleyou

annoying if you want to sit your bike on concrete without the wheel in. no damage, but takes a bit o fthe anodising off. And if you put it back in a different position after a service, you get a fresh bit to scratch.

Yes, they should remove it so you can scratch the lowers instead when you dump your forks on concrete for some reason

How large, fat and ungainly do forks have to get to before they're stiff enough?

I can't believe we haven't seen the switch to dual crowns yet for gnarly riding outside of world cup DH racing.

Surely you could build a 170mm Boxxer that would be slimmer, lighter and stiffer than this bag of roids.

What's with the complete lack of offset choices? Not just the Zeb, but in general.

I've been looking at forks recently and it seems that to replace my current Yaris I need to accept a different offset for a big-ticket purchase.

In other words, I won't know how my bike will handle until the forks are both paid for and fitted.

I'd hazard a guess that if rockshox still suffer from the dreaded csu creak then they'll have no choice but to introduce a new standard for steerer diameter to fix it.
Suntour already have a 1.8 steerer diameter that they were asked to make for some ebike manufacturers (bulls).
Imagine a 2" lower race diameter and how much stiffer that would allow the interface between the the crown and steerer to be. Whilst on topic... Why don't they make them all in one so as to remove this issue in the first place?

Do they come in red?

I'd take a 190mm one for my full-enduro bike if so.

Well, I won't really, but I have fond memories of Totems and 66s - so it'd be nice if somebody else bought me one.

Just that dull horrible grey and gloss black

I can't help but question the 38mm offset like it or lump it option in 27.5, and only 2% stiffer fore aft. The bolt on fender was long overdue, so that's a nice touch, but fancy introducing an exciting new fork with the dullest colour known to man (or woman, equality and all that) come on rockshox where's the colourful wow factor compared to Fox's 38, at least they've kept the price under a grand though and I do like that the hose mount seems a bit more friendlier to the right hand front brakers.

the red lyriks used to be for sponsored riders / pros, didn't they ?

I bet there's a red in the book somewhere

fingerbang
Member
As a biking hack, the biggest fork turn on for me has always been stanchion thickness.

You mean diameter, thickness would refer to how thick the wall is, which I've never seen publicised.

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P-Jay
Subscriber

Bolt on mudguard for $20 in the US is good news

Looks a bit naff though, at least it opens up the option for decent aftermarket ones

“I can’t help but question the 38mm offset like it or lump it option in 27.5, and only 2% stiffer fore aft.”

I gather the Lyrik was already much stiffer fore-aft than the 36 and maybe they were close to the stiffness limit of the 1.5” steerer to crown join?

I don’t see why they’d do longer offsets - on slack bikes shorter works better. Who is going to put this fork on a bike that isn’t suitably slack?

The slackest bikes out there with triple clamps are around the 46 mark for offset, just seems odd to choose an offset from the extreme end rather than say 42, how many people given a choice would opt for 38, they should have gone the Fox route with a few options, surely we deserve a choice when handing over £900+.

Maybe it's a subtle way of saying bikes are starting to get a tad too long n slack 🙂.
Some pro's have started to suggest so by saying if you're between sizes, maybe size down rather than up.

Will keep my Mezzer thanks lighter & just as stiff & is a phenomenal performing fork

@transition1 May I ask how you know it is just as stiff? Playing devil's advocate of course

Bolt on mudguard for $20 in the US is good news.

My mezzer comes with one as standard; doesn't sound like a french familiar word for penis; doesn't require 3mm of washers to run shimano rotors; is 250g lighter.

only 2% stiffer fore aft

until manufacturers increase the crown size you won't see much improvement in fore/aft stiffness.

As an RS fanboy I have to say it looks horrible, almost 3D printed.

Handy really as I won't be able to afford it I'm sure.😁

MEZZER:
“Torsionally, the Mezzer is 30% stiffer than a Fox 36, 16% stiffer than a Ohlins RFX36, 1% stiffer than a Lyrik

Fore-aft, the Mezzer is 7% stiffer than a 36, 20% stiffer than a RFX, and 4% stiffer than a Lyrik“

ZEB:
“So exactly how much stiffer is the Zeb than a Lyrik? According to RockShox, it's 21.5% stiffer torsionally, 7% stiffer when it comes to side bending, and 2% stiffer fore / aft.”

38:
“According to Fox, the 38 is 31 per cent stiffer laterally, 17 per cent stiffer fore/aft and 38 per cent torsionally stiffer than the 2021 Fox 36.”

So if those quotes are correct, in ascending orders:

Torsionally:
Fox 36 + 29% = Lyrik
Lyrik + 1% = Mezzer
Mezzer + 8% = Fox 38
Fox 38 + 12% = Zeb

Fore-Aft:
Fox 36 + 3% = Lyrik
Lyrik + 2% = Zeb
Zeb + 2% = Mezzer
Mezzer + 10% = Fox 38

Fore-Aft:
Fox 36 + 3% = Lyrik
Lyrik + 2% = Zeb
Zeb + 2% = Mezzer
Mezzer + 10% = Fox 38

This is why I got bored of MTB components, just totally arbitrary numbers to get you to buy moar. Now if it looks better that is fair game, but it doesn't.

I can’t help but question the 38mm offset like it or lump it option in 27.5

Its not the only 27.5 offset, although they might be just doing it aftermarket, but even then the number of OE forks that leak onto the market you could probably find some 44s.

Either way its what the market demands I guess.

I gave up on single crowns, the Fox 38 was the shark jumping moment. Boxxer ultimate is stiffer and lighter, no CSU to creak and can be set at 180, 190 or 200mm. All at a lower AC height than a single crown fork. Boxxer at 180 is same ac as Lyrik at 170.

Offset for 29 wheel is 46mm. If your hubs can be swapped to 20mm end caps then I can definitely recommend a Boxxer.

The Zeb is available in 44 offset in 27.5" aftermarket though?

Why are manufacturers sticking with the stupid 15mm axle that Fox introduced ? a 20mm axle makes much more sense

Because we all have 15mm hubs now.

And not all can be changed just with new endcaps.

I was livid about 15mm for years btw, but it is what it is.

are 15mm axles really holding you back?

poah
Member
are 15mm axles really holding you back?

Are 35mm stanchions and 170mm travel holding anyone back? It's all just incramental.

Surprised no one has revisited 24, 25 or 30mm axles again either.

Wow. Amazing. Awezumz. Or whatever. It looks like a suspension fork.

Hard to take much away from a few pics.

Best wait for a review or two, hey....?

Meh, another slightly chunkier, slightly longer fork, big ****ing whoop!

One thing I did note on the cut'n'paste spec list down the front page piece:

eMTB endorsement decal

So I think we can deduce that one of the main markets for these is bolted to the front of bulkier E-gnarr machines...

Conflicting info about the offsets, I guess the singletrack article is wrong, theres two offset options on both forks according to the rockshox site and some other articles.

Just double-checking the info that SRAM sent us in the PR and what we have posted is correct based on that PR. The specs listed in the story are direct from the PR and state:

Zeb Ulitmate: offset: 38mm (27.5"), 44mm (27.5", 29")

Zeb Select + :offset: 38mm (27.5"), 44mm (27.5", 29")

Zeb Select : offset: 38mm (27.5"), 44mm (27.5", 29")

Zeb R (both models): offset: 44mm (27.5", 29")

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/meet-the-all-new-rockshox-zeb-family/

We will be in touch with SRAM to get to the bottom of this.

@greeny30 - thanks for reading the articles, and RockShox do list a 51mm offset on their site for the 29er Zeb, but that is only available OEM. For aftermarket buyers RockShox only offer the 29er Zeb in 44mm. They offer a LOT of different variants for all their products but they're not all necessarily available to everyone. With the Zeb, they've gone with the offset they think will best suit the intended bikes and the most amount of riders. Hope this clears things up a bit. Cheers

Is it just me that's happy to see less choice in offsets?

Just pick something that works and stick with it please bike industry.

I mean to be fair, any of them that start with a 4 or a 5 work (when talking 29ers).

Can't believe such a song & dance is made about a few mm offset & the difference it supposedly makes. It's guff.

But you don't understand the FOMO I have with my 51mm forks!

Clear as mud singletrackross thanks, you stated in the article "the new zeb is only available in one offset per wheel size with rockshox settling on 44 for 29 and 38 for the 27.5", your words Ross, but it appears 27.5 is available it 44 too, which makes me a happy bunny 🙂. Cheers singletrackandi, your article seems right so give Ross a slap.😁

But you don’t understand the FOMO I have with my 51mm forks!

Think of those that crave 37mm offsets

I just wish they would make them in the old Psylo Race gold colour....

Slowly but surely the offset creeps back to what we were riding 4 years ago....

Slowly but surely the offset creeps back to what we were riding 4 years ago….

What's new? Not the first time and won't be the last. Surprised we didn't see a 20mm pinch bolted axle make an appearance, but that would make sense...

Vast majority of the industry is clueless, substandard engineering, poorly validated, poor manufacturing (and QC) and over priced (for the quality you get).

Amazing when you read the articles on fork offset and no one can really explain it (apart from CP), the manufacturers won't mention why they've changed (I suppose they could say, well Chris Porter said it was betterer).

“Slowly but surely the offset creeps back to what we were riding 4 years ago….”

Good point!

46, 51, 42, 44.

Progress! 🙈

Slowly but surely the offset creeps back to what we were riding 4 years ago….

Well that's just not true for 29in, we've been on 51mm offset for time.

I don't really notice any issues on two of my bikes, but the longer one does feel like it might perhaps benefit from a shorter offset, but I'm ****ed if I'm spending £900 to experiment with it.