The 888 contains a lot of oil (380cc total), oil is the heart of the system (lubricates, dampens, cools the system). To keep the system fresh under race conditions, an oil change twice a year is needed. If you ride in conditions that can contaminate the oil/seals you may want to change the oil more frequently. We routinely encounter riders on Mr T’s that have never changed the oil.
One of few product manufacturers to use women in ads – the Bomber girls. Can you give us a who/what/when/where?
The Bomber Girl concept came from the USA. The date was Interbike Sept 1996. MTB people like girls and the bike show was full of guys so we decided to bring in girls (friends) to make espresso. We got some cool outfits and the rest was history. It really took us by storm, Marzocchi management was surprised by the excitement and how legendary the whole Bomber Girls became.
There have been many versions of the Bomber over the years. JNR T, MRT, Super T, Monster T, 888, Shiver. No other company had such a variety of gravity forks. Will we see the current design stay around for sometime now or will we be seeing change?Bryson Martin: There are a lot of exciting projects we are working on. 2013 will be off the hook!
FS: In the last two years we have worked in order to reduce the weight of our forks by optimizing the design of structural parts (without jeopardising safety, which is the first concern for our engineers whenever they start to design a product) and improving our inner systems making them lighter and more reliable (reliability remains the other key point in our design philosophy). Anyway, we are continuing to work to design totally new products and the next few years you will see amazing stuff.
Ti nitride and so on. Where is this coming from design wise? And is Ti nitride the way ahead over Kashima coatings?BM: We have been using Ti Ni on our moto forks for years and years now. Ti Ni coating works best for steel tubes but over the years we pioneered a process to coat our nickel coated alloy tubes with the ever–precious Ti Ni gold.
FS: Ti Nitride comes form the higher requirements in terms of durability and reduction of friction that we have set for our forks. The advantages of this surface treatment are many: high surface hardness and reduction of friction are only some of them. But Ti Nitride is only one of the surface treatments we are researching and testing, and we can say that it is only one of the effective options we will offer to our customers in order to dramatically improve the performance of our forks.
What happened to upside down (USD) forks on mountainbikes?BM: Marzocchi’s experience in USD is incomparable. We can actually say that it is an interesting project for MTB, but it has to be developed considering weight, rigidity and other critical issues. We believe in this project but what our competitors are offering at the moment is not the right answer for the current market requests.
FS: The USD fork is still a project which we want to continue to invest in the hear future. We have already developed innovative solutions for the heir of the Shiver. Then for sure a new concept of USD fork will soon come out from our workshop.
Back to Fabio Sturaro:
Motocross, enduro, supermoto, road, all feature USD. Any sign of that in future?The Shiver is still alive. The Shiver is definitely alive and ready to come back!
Chambery (France) will become a European service centre this year?Yes, it’s a great location and a great service point for consumers and OE’s needing to test our products.
Will we see continued Italian connection in the years ahead?Yes for sure. The R&D headquarter is based in Bologna, but since our main OE customers are in the US we decided to invest on a support branch there as well that reports to chief engineers in Bologna.
Bomber, like the BoXXer, has been a constant since 1995. But now the name is being discontinued?The name Bomber really referred to ‘open bath’ system but our corporate department felt the need to showcase the name Marzocchi on all the products. We feel that its a good move, a new comer to the market may feel the name Bomber may be a bit immature, who knows? The forks will always be ‘open bath’ which will always mean ‘Bomber’ for those who really know.
Tenneco pretty big on OE, world leader on suspension for automotive, give us a few examples of long travel bikes that now come with Marzocchi?
For 2011, Giant has moved heavily into the 888 for OE spec. We’ve done a lot of testing with the product managers and they feel it’s the best feeling fork on the market. Commencal, Mondraker, GT, and a bunch of others all have seen the light!
What currently happens in Bologna? What takes place in US? Where is the base?The right answer is the union of some of the previous. Marzocchi’s success comes from working as a team and the information exchange makes it possible to achieve our goals. There is no specific activity for Bologna and the US: the development and project phase happens in Bologna with the support of the Americans. California is the best place to test, as it is the actual MTB seat. This allows the final development phase to take place and testing to be run during winter, when in Italy it would be too cold to ride.
What is the testing set–up? Riders?We employ the expertise and skill of many of our riders to include Chausson, Lopes, Wade Simmons, Richie Schley, Bryson Martin Jr, Logan Binggelli, Kevin Aiello, Quinton Spaulding…
