[kbahus]

Can anyone give me some advice on setting up an 06 Z1 Light? I have been messing with it for a while and just can't get it dialed in. The Marzocchi manual is quite vague when it comes to tuning as well. Mainly doing all mountain and dh/freeride resort riding. The bike is an 03 Ellsworth Joker with 6" of travel. I weigh about 180. Any tips would be great!

 

[coolatt]

Can anyone give me some advice on setting up an 06 Z1 Light? I have been messing with it for a while and just can't get it dialed in. The Marzocchi manual is quite vague when it comes to tuning as well. Mainly doing all mountain and dh/freeride resort riding. The bike is an 03 Ellsworth Joker with 6" of travel. I weigh about 180. Any tips would be great!

I have the same fork in an OEM version. The printed manual is ridiculous, I just played around with it.

I'm 180 with gear and I find no air pressure gives me barely the right amount of sag, around 30mm, only 20%. This feels good for general trail riding but I was at whistler this weekend and the fork bottomed on my first run so I added some air pressure, 5psi. The online manual says adding about 0-15psi of preload to get the desire amount of sag. The printed manual I have doesn't even mention the Z1 series.

My fork has no ETA so the left side has an air valve for preload and the right side has an air valve under the rebound knob. I assume they do the same thing, feels like it.

Basically I'm 180 with gear, 17 clicks of rebound, 0-5psi of air preload and I'm still playing with the compression, somewhere from 0-5 clicks

 

[loco-gringo]

I have the same fork in an OEM version. The printed manual is ridiculous, I just played around with it.

I'm 180 with gear and I find no air pressure gives me barely the right amount of sag, around 30mm, only 20%. This feels good for general trail riding but I was at whistler this weekend and the fork bottomed on my first run so I added some air pressure, 5psi. The online manual says adding about 0-15psi of preload to get the desire amount of sag. The printed manual I have doesn't even mention the Z1 series.

My fork has no ETA so the left side has an air valve for preload and the right side has an air valve under the rebound knob. I assume they do the same thing, feels like it.

Basically I'm 180 with gear, 17 clicks of rebound, 0-5psi of air preload and I'm still playing with the compression, somewhere from 0-5 clicks

I can't speak for the OEM version, but with the ETA version I have, the air spring will adjust your sag. The side you are calling air sounds like a preload like a DJ or a Drop Off has. Those don't seem to do much for me. That is the coil side. The air side should run 20 - 50 lbs I believe. I am pretty sure I have about 38 lbs or so on mine. I just crank the compression down if I know there will be many drops, or lower it for rooty trails. I have no idea how many clicks of rebound I have, but it's the right number, not that that will help you. Any way - this leads me to believe there is a fairly large difference between the retail and the OEM version of this fork.

 

[loco-gringo]

I just checked and the OEM does have a preload on the side that has ETA on the retail version. It is the 0 - 15 lb chamber. The Positive air is on the rebound side and it the higher pressure spring. Weighing 180, I would suggest you start around 32 lbs positive air and go from there.

 

[coolatt]

I just checked and the OEM does have a preload on the side that has ETA on the retail version. It is the 0 - 15 lb chamber. The Positive air is on the rebound side and it the higher pressure spring. Weighing 180, I would suggest you start around 32 lbs positive air and go from there.

I'm no marzocchi expert but I do know that the right side has the RC2 damping on the retail and OEM version. You're saying on your retail version you run 38psi on the RC2 side? On my fork 5psi does the same thing no matter what side I put the air in. I think that because my left side has no ETA, marzocchi just put a cap with an air valve on it when they could have just put regular solid cap on. If both our forks are coil sprung the air adjustment on the damping side should do the same thing. Does your ETA side have an air adjustment somewhere?

I just checked and the OEM does have a preload on the side that has ETA on the retail version. It is the 0 - 15 lb chamber. The Positive air is on the rebound side and it the higher pressure spring. Weighing 180, I would suggest you start around 32 lbs positive air and go from there.

To me "positive air" means total air spring and "air preload" means just a little bit to adjust sag of a coil spring.

 

[loco-gringo]

I'm no marzocchi expert but I do know that the right side has the RC2 damping on the retail and OEM version. You're saying on your retail version you run 38psi on the RC2 side? On my fork 5psi does the same thing no matter what side I put the air in. I think that because my left side has no ETA, marzocchi just put a cap with an air valve on it when they could have just put regular solid cap on. If both our forks are coil sprung the air adjustment on the damping side should do the same thing. Does your ETA side have an air adjustment somewhere?

To me "positive air" means total air spring and "air preload" means just a little bit to adjust sag of a coil spring.

No air on the ETA side. Yeah - the Marz manuals say up to like 55 lbs on the RC2 side. I got mine back today, so when I set it back up, I'll post up for sure.

 

[kbahus]

Mine is the retail version, no air on the eta side. It is starting to break in and feel much better. I am currently running 1 click of compression and not sure on the rebound but it I am finally starting to get the feel I want. Dropped some air pressure as well.

 

[coolatt]

Mine is the retail version, no air on the eta side. It is starting to break in and feel much better. I am currently running 1 click of compression and not sure on the rebound but it I am finally starting to get the feel I want. Dropped some air pressure as well.

So I played with my fork a bit and with 5psi in either the left or right side I get 23-25mm sag. With no air and 4 clicks of compression I get 33mm of sag which is only 22% but it bottoms out. So I've gone with 1 click of compression with 5psi and the ride is pretty good but I don't use all the travel. I wish I had a pump that could measure small increments instead of a 300psi shock pump. The manual says to play with oil height as well but I have no idea where the information on oil height for this fork is on their web site.

5.2 Spring Preload
The best spring preload is the one allowing you
to obtain the desired SAG point due to the
rider's weight (SAG) (see par. 5.4 SAG).
The preload spring may be adjusted, depending
on the model, through mechanical adjusters or
with pressurized air inside the fork's leg.
On the models provided with mechanical
adjustment, each adjuster turn corresponds to a
1mm spring compression.

5.3 Positive Air
The positive air is the elastic factor for air forks.
The best positive air pressure allows you to
obtain the desired SAG (see par. 5.4 SAG).

Rider weight 120-155 155-180 180-210 210-220
Positive air pres 30-40 35-45 42-52 52-65
Preload air pres 0-15 0-15 0-15 0-15

 

[EvilBkr]

I weigh in close to you (185ish) and ride the same fork. My settings are as follows: 30 PSI in preload chamber, 16-18 clicks rebound, 3-4 clicks compression.