Hi, what seems to have happened to these? Everyone seems to only use Fox or Rockshox these days! I remember having the original Z1 bombers and they were the tits 'back in the day' What went wrong? Is it just the shellsuit finish on latest bombers? They seem good value, if slightly lardy!

The manitous are very under rated, a friend had some new 08 minutes and they were lovely,very plush, easy to service etc. Proper seals too!
Marzocchi were the best back in the day, they seem to have lost their way over recent years.

Definitely they seem to have lost their way recently (zocchis) – all the ones I've tried in teh last few years have had stacks of stiction and not felt overly pleasant, even after loads of use. I personally happily traded weight for buttery smooth action, but it doesnt seem an option these days, these days you seem to have to buy super-light and expensive or a bit lighter and rubbish. I'm willing to have the extra pound of weight up front in order to have a reliable, almost zero maintenance, buttery smooth fork. It seems the market is not?

I still use my '99 Z1 Drop-offs and see no reason or wish to replace them, and they've only had 2 sets of seals and 5 oil changes in that time!

I had some minutes come on an ebay bargain Tomac last year. I fitted them to my explosif for a while and they seemed ok, but suffered the usual rebound adjuster knob breakage due to siezing. It seems to be a common problem. Surely company's the size of these can't get everything wrong? There motorcycle kit is top notch!

Marzocchi got bought out by a bigger company in 08 i think it was and since then the forks have been whack.

Before then they were class (well the coil sprung ones), nice and plus, strong and dead reliable.

New Fox's and Rock Shox are **** cos you have to strip em down every couple of rides and change the oil. There a bit lighter than old marzocchis but I could care about an extra pound in weight if i can leave my forks for years and not service them.

I still use some 05 marzocchis and if i ever buy any new forks in the future they would be some old marzocchis. Ive had Z1 Bams, Dirt Jumpers, 66's and MX's and never had any problems with any of them

Manitou have always been shite I think

Bombers have had loads of reliability issues since they shipped production out east.
Seems like they have tried to over complicate things and have had loads of problems as a result. Whats wrong with fixed coil travel, eta and rebound? Not sure I use anything else?
not sure what the current crop are like but iirc they are now offering a 3 year warranty to try and instill confidence once more.
btw, I've got some 04 Marathons and they are the best fork I have ridden. 1 set of seals and 2 oil changes – perfect.

Not quite true 59..

Marzocchii basically went from being simple and reliable to complicated and unreliable.

To make it worse they shifted production to the suntour factory and quality control went out the window.

Marzocchi was thenbought by a big US suspension manufacturer, returned production to Italy.

THeir 2010 lineup however has gone back to basics, they have dropped many of the bells and whistles, with channeled bushings for oil flow, open bath damping, titianium springs for shedding weight etc..

Really looking forward to trying them out!, hopefully the return of the Bomber.

also remeber Rock Shox went through the same thing as Marzocchi before being bought by SRAM and look at rock shox now…

New Fox's and Rock Shox are **** cos you have to strip em down every couple of rides and change the oil.

What an epic amount of bollox. I ride more than most and I've got two pairs of fox forks that only see a wipe down and a bit of wet lube on the stanchions for maintenance and they're problem free. One pair finally got opened up and serviced by a shop after 18 months (I didn't bother with mojo as I assumed they'd be screwed after believing all the hysteria) and they were in perfect nick.

I can't figure out what people are doing for their stanchions to die.

(I bet my Vanillas will be screwed when I get them serviced now I've said that lol)

I can't figure out what people are doing for their stanchions to die.

I did about what you did maintenance-wise on my Vans, they started leaking oil past the seal and on inspection has lost the hard ano on the back of the stanchion. Took about 3 months. You were lucky.

I've 2 pairs of '04 Z1 Freerides, they're flawless though the black ano is starting to fade a bit on the 20mm pair, so they are showing a bit of wear. My 04 Shermans are absolutely fine, if unsubtle. I never had any problem with Manitou forks and I've owned 4 pairs – maybe I've been lucky with them.

Marzocchi was then bought by a big US suspension manufacturer, returned production to Italy.

2007 was the last time Marzocchi manufactured forks in Italy. OEM stuff went out to Taiwan (Suntour) in 2005 or 2006, then the aftermarket fork production followed for the 2008 line-up. Tenneco bought Marzocchi in 2008, but all fork production is still done in Taiwan.