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2010 Marzocchi 888 Evo tuning thread

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
If you're riding somewhere flat it will be fine. There's two guys locally who are riding the stock springs cranked down with some success, but would probably still rather have the stiffer ones.
hmm maybe ill call them tomorrow and ask to get the stiffer spring.
where i ride is definitely not flat
 
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Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,768
501
Depends on what you're riding. I'd say 190-200ish though for anything steep or with really serious hits on it.
 

Raingauge

Monkey
Apr 3, 2008
692
0
Canadia
Does anyone have the air pressure settings for the EVO Ti yet? (I'm ~165lbs) My Boxxer isn't in and a friend gave me the go ahead to bag his for the weekend.

We put in on a scale with the steerer tube cut to 7" and the stem bolted up and it weighed 6lbs 11oz.

Any other settings would be helpful too.

Thanks.
 

Raingauge

Monkey
Apr 3, 2008
692
0
Canadia
By adjusting the volume? Thus air VOLUME adjust not, air PRESSURE adjust. I don't see a schrader valve on there, do you? You set the pressure sort of when you assemble the damper/top cap.
I didn't even look at it. We cut the steerer tube put on the headset race and threw it in my bike bag. I should have looked at it more, but time was wasting and I have a flight this afternoon.

Set the pressure "sort of"... By compressing the legs when you assemble it or should I assemble it at a certain altitude? I would have assumed that Marz would want a controlled air pressure chamber to have a baseline for fine tuning. Maybe I'm wrong...
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
air volume adjust how much air is above piston, controlling its progressiveness...it has nothing to do air air pressure.

compressing the legs when assembling it??? what??
 

Raingauge

Monkey
Apr 3, 2008
692
0
Canadia
compressing the legs when assembling it??? what??
With the 1st gen 888's I was told you could install the top caps or one of the caps with the fork compressed about an inch and change the feel of the fork. I can't really remember all the details.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
With the 1st gen 888's I was told you could install the top caps or one of the caps with the fork compressed about an inch and change the feel of the fork. I can't really remember all the details.
maybe 6 years ago you could, but the air VOLUME adjustment changes the progressiveness like i said. if you look at a picture of the internals and see the piston, you will understand how it works.
 

Raingauge

Monkey
Apr 3, 2008
692
0
Canadia
air volume adjust how much air is above piston, controlling its progressiveness...it has nothing to do air air pressure.
If the chamber is sealed and you change the volume you change pressure.

Boyle's Law - "For a fixed amount of an ideal gas kept at a fixed temperature, P [pressure] and V [volume] are inversely proportional (while one increases, the other decreases)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyle's_law
 

dilzy

Monkey
Sep 7, 2008
567
1
He's talking about changing the internal pressure of the fork to a value below atmospheric at full extension, thus giving you less force when you bottomout.
 

gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
he doesnt know what hes talking about apparently
Fail

No, actually he's right. You can set the piston depth when you're assembling the fork, which will control the air pressure inside the fork once it's assembled and all sealed up. It will dramatically change the feel of the fork actually. Give it a shot sometime.

The external adjustments are really just another way of doing this, I'm pretty sure. I haven't ripped my damper side apart in a while, I might be off slightly.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
Fail

No, actually he's right. You can set the piston depth when you're assembling the fork, which will control the air pressure inside the fork once it's assembled and all sealed up. It will dramatically change the feel of the fork actually. Give it a shot sometime.

The external adjustments are really just another way of doing this, I'm pretty sure. I haven't ripped my damper side apart in a while, I might be off slightly.
setting the piston depth by taking it apart does the same thing as the volume adjustment does. how are you going to put more air in there when assembling it?

fail
 
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davep

Turbo Monkey
Jan 7, 2005
3,276
0
seattle
It is easier to just be pissy and opinionated...rather than (not)understand the topic being discussed.......
 

gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
how are you going to put more air in there when assembling it?

fail
I never said anything about "putting more air in there". If you set the piston at some depth, then the little rubber thing around the volume adjust piston (aka "o-ring") seals the piston and the stanction, creating an ideally air tight seal. Thus the amount of air in the catridge area (whatever you wanna call it) is fixed. Then you screw the top cap/damper into the stanchion.

Then the fork extends, you have increased the volume, while keeping the amount of air the same, thus the pressure decreases and the fork feels different. Understand? If you REALLY want, I can give you a full statistical mechanical derivation of the ideal gas law, but that seems a bit overboard here. If you could post where I'm wrong, I'd be happy to correct what I've said, but I'm pretty sure (but not certain as said before) that I'm right.
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,768
501
God damn...

There's a static dividing piston on top of the air pocket in the fork. It can be moved up and down a few mm with the adjuster so the air pocket is slightly more progressive in nature. That is all.

If you can't figure it out, open the top cap and slide the stanchion down until it bottoms out. You'll see the piston. If you can't figure out how to do that, then just step away from the fork.
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,768
501
You can also assemble the damper side (seal it) at slightly different heights. At top-out, there will be a tiny bit of NEGATIVE air pressure if it was assembled lower than topped-out. Depends on the feel you want. If you want to see where yours is at, take both fork legs out of the crowns and see how far down the damper leg settles compared to the spring leg.

The adjust still works the same this way.
 

Uncle Cliffy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 28, 2008
4,490
42
Southern Oregon
Giving this thread a little nudge.

I got my Evo Ti yesterday, and was curious how everyone's getting on with their performance. I don't have the rest of the bike to bolt it to. So smooth out of the box though! Wow...
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
ooooweee. the fork is so much better than my old 888 ATA.
got some shuttle runs in today and was thoroughly impressed by the fork. cant wait for it to break in s'more
 

Ithnu

Monkey
Jul 16, 2007
961
0
Denver
I'm coming from a Fox 40 and getting a 888 Ti in a few weeks (I've had a Boxxer Team and Kowa in the past). Marzocchi said they'd put a bit of a custom tune on it for me to get me started.

I read a lot of this thread so I can understand the fork more. I asked them to make it more linear and to have a good amount of HS compression with less low speed (I know that's weird for some folks but that's how I have my 40 and I like it).

Assuming they set it up for me that way, how would I fine tune those setting once I get it? I understand the air volume adjust and its affect on progression,that seems pretty straight forward. What I'd like to know more about is the damper tuning other than just the knob adjust. When taking it apart how can it be fine tuned? What oil levels (not weights) do you change and how will they affect the ride? Same thing with the spacers/shims, what do they do? Does this tuning affect the significance of adjustment on the compression dial on the outside of the fork?
 

dilzy

Monkey
Sep 7, 2008
567
1
Just pulled the trigger on an evo, not the Ti even though they were going for 25% off at the moment. My experience has been that the nickel coated stanchions have more stiction than the black ones.

Should get here before the weekend and I'll whip up a good review.
 

jlhweasel

Chimp
Feb 3, 2010
3
0
Can someone describe how to remove the lower legs?

The right leg just has the lower nut.

The left leg, I removed the gold compression knob and unscrewed the black leg nut. However, the black nut doesn't seem to actually come off. Is it just hard to remove? Do I need to hold brass hex shaft and then unscrew the black nut from that?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff
 

Huck Banzai

Turbo Monkey
May 8, 2005
2,523
23
Transitory
So - this fork seems to be MZ 'back on track'

So now I have a dilemma:

broken X cartridge in 07 888 RC2x - no replacement parts/carts available.

Do I:

A> Hold on to fork and drop the Avalanche kit in it when it becomes available ~mid June (per Craig @ Avy)

B> Send this fork in and pay crash replacement price for EVO or EVO Ti (~650 and ~1050 respectively)?? [Waah comment: WTF are they still pridcuing white only forks for?!?!?!?!?!?!)


CAVEAT: I weigh about 255 (265ish with gear) and need to get the spring rate right


What would YOU do?


Please help a forkless mook! (the 66 is nice, but Im wanting me 8" DC back!)
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
B> Send this fork in and pay crash replacement price for EVO or EVO Ti (~650 and ~1050 respectively)?? [Waah comment: WTF are they still pridcuing white only forks for?!?!?!?!?!?!)
get the Evo or Evo Ti. if you dont like white then get the Ti, but with that price difference, the non Ti fork is a better bet.
im 220lbs and the stock spring is perfect for my size. i thought it would be too soft, but its not
 

Huck Banzai

Turbo Monkey
May 8, 2005
2,523
23
Transitory
get the Evo or Evo Ti. if you dont like white then get the Ti, but with that price difference, the non Ti fork is a better bet.
im 220lbs and the stock spring is perfect for my size. i thought it would be too soft, but its not
I note that they have an extending lower crown (vs flat) which has been an issue int he past, is the A/C off the meter? (yes I will go look now)

My other concern is will it fit my headtube? I have an XL VPF and had to chase down the top crown from an older 888 because the stock crowns wouldnt allow fit. Do you know if they offer a 'drop' crown for us with long headtubes?
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
is the A/C off the meter? (yes I will go look now)

My other concern is will it fit my headtube? I have an XL VPF and had to chase down the top crown from an older 888 because the stock crowns wouldnt allow fit. Do you know if they offer a 'drop' crown for us with long headtubes?
yeah, it does have one of the longer a/c's out on the market now IIRC..

im sure they do have drop crowns available, but do you know how long your HT is on your frame?
 

Huck Banzai

Turbo Monkey
May 8, 2005
2,523
23
Transitory
yeah, it does have one of the longer a/c's out on the market now IIRC..

im sure they do have drop crowns available, but do you know how long your HT is on your frame?
Looking like Im going for the '10 EVO!

Now - do they have a heavy Ti Spring? I may just go for the Ti based on a convo with MZ earlier. They DO have a drop crown, but its "expensive" per the MZ Sales rep.(he couldn't find the exact price so didn't even give me any more of a hint)

I am trying to work something out and pull the trigger, but I forgot to ask about ti spring options.
 

dilzy

Monkey
Sep 7, 2008
567
1
good choice :thumb:
yes, they do have heavier Ti springs. just make sure you tell them when you order and they can swap the spring out for you.
The stock spring is bloody stiff. I'm 105kg (230lb) and it is perfect for me with very little preload.

I just got mine (888 evo) home today and I've got to say, at first go, I'm impressed. I'll follow with an in in depth review within the next week, but so far here's my thoughts (having not ridden it):

+Good:
~Incredibly low stiction of the top, my 07' wc had a lot more
~Dials feel very quality and all the adjustments work well
~Feels like the lsc adjustment is actually doing it's job
~They use an 8" post mount, yay for no adapters
~The axle to crown if you don't follow Marzocchi's increadibly conservative "min" markings (so you adjust the stancion height after taking the top caps off and bottoming the fork) is around 570mm
~They come with the right amount of oil
~The cartridge is all hard anodised
~The cable guide is fantastic, two screws holding a cable block Rockshox/captain cable tie your future together are you listening??
~They are priced in almost Boxxer Race territory

-Bad:
~They still use their proprietary direct mount standard
~They use different sizes for the axle caps to the pinch bolts
~The dust seals are now recest ala Rockshox, but there isn't any notch to get a screw driver in there to lever them up. Might not really be a problem given that service intervals are every 50hrs
~The cartridge appears to still use a perminantly sealed seal head at the top, though the rebound piston can still be accessed by going out the bottom of the cartridge
~The cartrige rod is still quite small, which doesn't bode well considering I just broke the x side one in my 07' wc (noticed when I serviced them yesterday to sell them), so I'd advise minimising pre-load

To the other guy, I'm pretty sure they can accomodate up to about a 190mm stack.