Marzocchi 2012 – Switch travel Adjust

Marzocchi has made some great progress in the last couple of seasons, with the 44 and 55 forks (especially the RC3 Ti versions) showing they are real contenders in the trail bike market. Marzocchi worked hard to confirm their status as a company that built forks that are reliable and simple to use, but are still keen to push new developments while keeping those 2 factors a priority. So for 2012 Marzocchi has made a few key changes to their range without messing with the things that made the 2011 forks so great.

Fairly idiotproof dials from Marzocchi

The biggest change is the introduction of a new Switch travel adjust system which quickly and easily drops the fork for climbing, allowing the front wheel to stay planted on the steepest climbs while keeping a full 150 or 160mm of travel for the descents! Marzocchi were the first to use a similar system with their ECC and ETA forks from 10 years ago but this is a whole new design for the 44 and 55 Micro forks. It will be a sealed hydraulic unit combined with an air spring to keep weight down, the 44 will have 30mm of adjustment and 40mm for the 55.  This type of system is far more useful than a regular travel adjust because it is much quicker to use and by lowering the front end and shifting your weight forward, it is far more effective than just locking the fork out (which tends to shift it backwards..not so good for those uphill switchbacks!)

The 55 Micro Switch TA fork

There are a few more cool additions to the 2012 line, the 888 gets a new low speed compression mid-valve to prevent brake dive, the 55 RC3 gets the same EVO valve as the 888 and there will be a new price point damper replacing TST2 across the range! More photos and info on all of those things will be coming along later though….

Matching crowns and lowers will be used across all Marzocchi's top-end forks this year

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