bighitboy said:
Hey guys, i found a pretty killer deal on a AM1 130-150 mm travel. has any 1 tried one or have some expierence? Should work pretty nice on my heckler but i havnt been able to find any real reviews on the fork. Any 1 have 1 and on what frame? Thanks........rj
Been riding mine for almost a year and really dig the fork. The only other fork that really compares in the 36 - and I'm not going to spend $900 on a fork - and I prefer QR wheels for anything but pure DH.
What I like:
The fork is butter - like all marzocchi's.
It's full open bath. I've been doing lots of rainy, muddy riding due to the weather -and the fork shows no sign of contamination or stiction.
I actually use all the adjustments!
The ETA can really help on extremely steep climbs - sometimes I drop the from 1", sometimes all the way down.
The TAS is good for extended climbing and XC oriented rides - I'll drop it to 5" travel for this type of riding - though 90% of the time, I leave it at a full 6". Of course you can have anything in between as well.
A couple gripes:
The fork is great and adjustements all work well - the only issue I have is with the air assist/coil spring combo - and this may be an unfounded gripe. If I don't use a goodly amount of air assist, the fork tends to dive during decents. Adding 10-20 psi keeps this from happening - but on flats, the fork rides really high in the travel, and looses much of its small bump sensitivity - and even tops out a bit.
The compression setting's don't have the HSCV of the Z1's of old (turning the compression up creates some spiking - not nearly as bad as some forks, but noticable)- so the air assist seems to be the better way to go.
I'm thinking adding a bit of oil to increase the ramp up at the bottom - and decreasing air pressure by about 1/2 might be a good fix, just haven't tried it yet.
My fork is on an 05 Foes FXR and is a really good match for the bike. If you want 6" travel and prefer QR's - I don't think there is any other (real) alternative!