I figured there's a special tool for it, this looks quite nice yet simple. I actually got the caps to move earlier tonight, they are now lower in the stanchions and it appears once I wire-wheel the areas they vacated and lubricate everything nicely they should pop off without much fuss. Making a tool is definitely on the table now that I know what it looks like though, thanks for that!
Marzocchi Forks Deconstructed
- Thread starter Buzzsaw
- Start date
Buzzsaw
Retro Guru
Pictures of...? Let me know and I'll take some easy enough, but can they be uploaded here? Or do I have to go through am external host of some sort?
Buzzsaw, the crown on the red Bomber to the left of your pic is exactly what enabled me to give this frame a nice fork. Ended up chopping its factory rigid fork actually then turning the steerer on the lathe till it matched dimensions with the Marzocchi steerer. Then on the top side sits an adapter to bring it up to the 28.6mm that most moder stems take. All that cause I couldn't find a 800mm wide handlebars in 25.4mm size...
Buzzsaw, the crown on the red Bomber to the left of your pic is exactly what enabled me to give this frame a nice fork. Ended up chopping its factory rigid fork actually then turning the steerer on the lathe till it matched dimensions with the Marzocchi steerer. Then on the top side sits an adapter to bring it up to the 28.6mm that most moder stems take. All that cause I couldn't find a 800mm wide handlebars in 25.4mm size...
Last edited:
Please be very carfull!! It is absolut danger life & eye killing procedure!
⛑⛑You can attach files in your post, see the bottom of your post in edit mode.
Oh yes I'm well aware of the dangers involved, I work with pressurized vessels and they ain't nothing to joke about regardless of what's creating the pressure!Please be very carfull!! It is absolut danger life & eye killing procedure!
You can attach files in your post, see the bottom of your post in edit mode.
I tried uploading but file may be too large. Will sort it out tomorrow as it's now way past too late and I need to sleep cause work at 6am
- Feedback
- View
20MB is the max individual file size, and five-ish at a go it think.Oh yes I'm well aware of the dangers involved, I work with pressurized vessels and they ain't nothing to joke about regardless of what's creating the pressure!
I tried uploading but file may be too large. Will sort it out tomorrow as it's now way past too late and I need to sleep cause work at 6am
So I still haven't gotten around to messing with the Flylight properly, been busy with lighting up my house like a beacon for the alien mothers mothership in hopes of deterring potential opportunitistic thieves (neighbor got almost broken into recently, basterds ran away tho). The Z5 can wait further as I don't use that bike right now, what can't wait is swapping my super nice and somewhat rare Sherman off the singlespeed for a more common and easily and cheaply obtainable Marzocchi 44. The 44 was a 50-quid ebay special, supposedly all its adjustments work but for me none did. Took it apart tonight, turns out water has gotten into the right leg due to missing stanchion cap o-ting. Stripped the thing almost all the way, washed the goo off the watered down leg, reassembled with lots more oil in there to at least lubricate the bushings. Completely ignoring factory recommended oil level in right leg now as the cartridge is shot and has lost its nitrogen charge, I don't think there will be any damping action going on so might as well keep the bushings happy at least. Learned that I very much prefer old-school open bath to more modern sealed cartridge setups.
Attachments
Last edited:
So a week later, bit of tech talk regarding the 44 (and possibly others of similar design). First let's discuss the negative spring - with the sealed cartridge damper shot this fork will extend so fast that any attempts to lift the front wheel off the ground causes it to top out violently hard. Take a look at the 2nd picture I've uploaded here, the one with the dummy "pumping rod" as Marzocchi calles it - that black sleeve under the negative spring is what causes the slam upon extension. I took mine out, and trimmed it down to only 30mm length - this allows the negative spring to compress more without the fork topping out hard by the rubber sleeve hammering against the bottom of the stanchion every time. Why non less than 30mm? Well it's a 9-coil spring from wire 3mm thick, totally compressed with coils touching that's 27mm overall height. The end cap has 2mm inside the spring, plus 30 from the rubber sleeve, that gives a 5mm safety cushion for the spring to not slam coils.
As for the shot cartridge damper, simply replacing the oil in the left leg with 15w seems to have slowed the fork down enough for my needs. It's actually quite good right now - soft on small bumps, quite progressive cause of the high oil levels in both legs, and still fast enough to react to bumps but not too fast on the rebound. I call it good enough at this point
As for the shot cartridge damper, simply replacing the oil in the left leg with 15w seems to have slowed the fork down enough for my needs. It's actually quite good right now - soft on small bumps, quite progressive cause of the high oil levels in both legs, and still fast enough to react to bumps but not too fast on the rebound. I call it good enough at this point
Similar threads
