Marzocchi Super Z First Look

Freeride is alive and well with the all new Marzocchi Super Z fork! Marzocchi is living up to its heritage of burly long travel forks, with the Super Z sporting the very trendy and stout 38mm stanchions to keep the fork from flexing when sailing past the landing or charging through relentless rock gardens. The Super Z is packed with the latest GRIP X damper from Fox, the owners of Marzocchi, meaning that there's the same level of refinement in the Super Z you can expect from top of the line Fox products. With simple yet high quality adjustments, the Super Z aims to be a no fuss fork that performs exactly how you want right out of the box. Complete with thick stanchions and that distinct M on the crown, there’s no mistaking the Super Z for anything else on the trail.

Cut your steerer tube extra short for all the weight savings.

On the outside of the Super Z, you’ll find a 200mm brake mount with compatibility with up to a 230mm rotor. We’ve never heard of a 230mm rotor, but hey, if one comes out in the future you’ll be ready for it! You’ll have your choice between a classic Shiny Black and the Marzocchi Gloss Red, just like on the other forks in their lineup. I know people are going to ask about it, but unfortunately there aren’t any white Super Zs at this time, and we don’t know if they’ll ever offer that in the future, but if they do we’ll keep you in the loop! On the lowers are the same air bleeders on Fox forks so that you can purge any air that builds up in the lower legs to keep your fork buttery smooth. Keeping the wheel in place is a classic axle with a toolless clamp on the outside, and you can upgrade to the lighter Kabolt axle if you’re watching those grams. As a quality of life feature, there's an air pressure and rebound guide on the lower leg to help get your setup started.

200mm Post Mounts are a welcome sight on the Super Z

Perched on top of the fork are the low speed and high speed compression dials, a first for a Marzocchi product. Those are a part of Fox’s GRIP X damper, their high end trail damper that’s built to strike a balance between simplicity and performance. With just a low speed rebound knob on the bottom of the fork, the GRIP X damper is more straightforward than the GRIP X2 damper, and will be easier for riders to setup and hit the trails. Not only that, but the GRIP X is a bit lighter than the GRIP X2 damper, with a simpler architecture that makes for a surpristingly light fork, and we’ll talk more about the weight later. You are able to drop in the GRIP X2 damper as long as you're within its travel constraints, between 160 and 180mm of travel.

In the other fork leg, you’ll find an air spring that can be as little as 150mm and as much as 190mm. Unlike Fox forks, this airpsring is not an entirely contained cartridge, but is more similar to the construction of a RockShox air spring, using the walls of the fork lowers to hold the air in. You can tune your positive air spring with volume spacers, which are included in the box, and are the exact same volume spacers as the Fox 38. To change the travel of the Super Z, you can purchase different air springs, just like on other modern forks like the 38 and the ZEB. Your options are 150, 160, 170, 180, or 190mm of travel, and if you buy the Super Z from us here at The Lost Co, we offer free travel changes so that you’ll get exactly the travel you’re looking for. At the moment, there isn't a coil spring option for the Super Z, but we'll let you know if that ever changes in the future. I'm assuming that's because air sprung forks offer more support on big hits, and lots of people buying this fork are going to be launching off every lip they can find.

For help setting up your very own Marzocchi Super Z at home, we've put together the Lost Co's comprehensive start to finish guide on setting up suspension. In this guide, we break everything down, including what each adjustment does to your fork and how to fix problems you're having with your suspension out on the trail!

More adjustability than any previous Marzocchi product

With Marzocchi marketed as a ‘freeride’ brand, and their history of heavier products, I was expecting this fork to be a bit of a porker, but the opposite is actually true. I weighed the Super Z, Fox 38 with the GRIP X2 damper, and RockShox ZEB Ultimate with the Charger 3 damper, and the Marzocchi Super Z was the lightest of the bunch. All three forks had 170mm of travel and uncut steerer tubes, and the Marzocchi Super Z weighed 2330 grams, the Fox 38 weighed 2430 grams, and the ZEB weighed 2360 grams. Not only that, but you could also swap out the stock Super Z axle with a Kabolt axle to save another 40 grams. So this fork isn’t just for the meathead freeriders like me, but it’s also for the weight conscious riders looking for a 38mm stanchion fork that still offers all the same performance upgrades over a smaller stanchioned fork.  

Unmistakably Marzochi.

So to sum it all up, the Marzocchi Super Z is one of the more versatile forks to come out recently, with the Rampage proven performance from Reed Boggs, but the light weight to appease the gram counters of the world. Not only that, but it has an incredibly high performing GRIP X damper that’s got enough adjustments to satisfy the tinkerers yet simple enough to slap on the front of your bike and have a great time in the bike park or on big backcountry pedal laps.

Got questions? Feel free to shoot us an email or give us a call!

(360) 306-8827

sales@thelostco.com