Marzocchi Super Z Review

Freeride never died, and the Marzocchi Super Z is just the latest chapter in its storied history. It wasn’t long ago when Marz wore the crown of burly forks, with the Super Monster T, Shiver, and Bomber triple 8 each leaving a legacy that has people reminiscing in forums to this day. With 38mm stanchions, big travel, relatively low weight, and an incredibly capable GRIP X damper found in some Fox Factory forks, the Super Z is a very well rounded fork from the historically core freeride brand. Ever since Fox purchased Marzocchi a few years back, there’s been an unmistakable resemblance between the two brands, and the Marzocchi Super Z has earned a spot at the Fox dinner table. The Super Z launch seemingly flew under the radar for a lot of riders, and after riding this fork back to back with the new GRIP X2 equipped Fox 38, the lighter, cheaper, and simpler Super Z makes more sense for so many riders out there.

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

Right by the 15x110 axle is a 200mm brake mount, a welcome sight that the Fox 38 has yet to adopt. You can tuck volume spacers in that air spring to make this fork more progressive and freeridey. A race focused detail is the lower leg Pressure Release Button to let out air that’s escaped into the lower legs, a feature that’s trickled down from the Fox lineup. For anyone looking to get custom with their Super Z, you’re able to replace the GRIP X damper with the more downhill focused GRIP X2 damper. But it’s not that simple, and you can only run the GRIP X2 within the 160-180mm travel constraints of the Fox 38 because the damper is designed around that fork’s travel range. Finally, let’s talk weight, and the freeride friendly Super Z is actually slightly lighter than the race focused Fox 38, coming in at 2180g as opposed to 2194g. Cutting down on the adjustability saves the GRIP X damper about 120 grams over the GRIP X2, and gram conscious senders are going to love the Super Z. Especially considering you won’t need an adapter to run a 200mm brake rotor.

With recommended pressures and rebound settings, getting a decent setup is easy as can be. I stuck both compression circuits right in the middle and was immediately impressed with the level of suppleness off the top, mid stroke support, and ramp up that had me right at home on the first ride. While I tried to keep my biases out of this, I didn’t expect the Super Z to pack this much performance. Marzocchi is right up there with the top dogs, which should be unsurprising given the GRIP X damper controlling the show. Each click of adjustment makes a noticeable difference on trail, giving riders great control over how the fork reacts to everything in its path. I’ve only had about a week of riding on this fork, so this isn’t a comprehensive review, but I’ve gotten a good understanding of this fork’s character.

With a different air spring design to the Fox 38, the Marzocchi Super Z uses a higher volume and lower pressures, with an overall progressive nature. Two volume spacers came housed in the air spring, and I was never coming close to using full travel at the recommended 80 psi. After taking both of them out and leaving pressures the same, full travel was easier to use at the expense of some mid stroke support, and I settled on one volume spacer for my needs. Progression levels felt similar to the ZEB, which I’ve found to work optimally with either one or no volume spacers installed.

While descending, the GRIP X damper is not as quiet as Fox’s marketing would have you expect, and made its presence known at every bump. Whooshing sounds are aplenty, with the fork oil making an audible whoosh as it runs through the rebound circuit. It’s most noticeable when rebounding from deep in the fork’s travel, but oddly it didn’t bug me as much as I expected. Hearing it while I’m going through rock gardens makes me feel like I’m absolutely charging, and was less of a con than I anticipated. But if you’re after silence, it’s impossible to beat the ZEB. If libraries had rock gardens, you could ride that fork right through without causing a ruckus.

More adjustability than any previous Marzocchi product

After spending tons of time on the GRIP X2 equipped Fox 38 for a few months before this, it’s been interesting to ride the more affordable GRIP X damper and learn the differences between them. I was surprised at how similar they are in most situations, but I suppose that’s to be expected when engineers are designing two dampers for alarmingly similar use cases. Overall, the GRIP X2 has more composure when you’re taking repeated hits, and does a better job of erasing an impact before the next one. While they both offer an adequate amount of damping, the GRIP X2 damper manages to stay a bit higher in the travel while smoothing out the trail. This isn’t a direct comparison because the Super Z and Fox 38 have a slightly different chassis and completely different air spring designs, but overall the GRIP X2 is unsurprisingly a marginally better performing and far quieter damper than the GRIP X.

Unmistakably Marzochi.

Marzocchi has made a 38mm stanchioned fork that makes sense for a wide variety of riders. With a travel range from 150 to 190mm, the incredibly adjustable albeit loud GRIP X damper, and color options between subtle black and flashy red, there aren’t any red flags with Marzocchi’s single crown bruiser. Many riders are going to be surprised by the $999 price tag from the typically value oriented Marzocchi brand, and are going to be torn between this and the slightly more expensive GRIP X2 equipped Fox 38. The marginal differences between them could matter for racers, and the Super Z offers the most performance I’ve found for a three figure fork. And most important of all, that angled Marzocchi arch scores you more cool points than the Fox 38.

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