Marzocchi 55 Micro Ti Fork

Component: Marzocchi 55 Micro Ti Fork

Features:

• 160mm travel
• 4.97 lbs.
• 1 1/8” steer tested
• Compression, Rebound, and Air Preload Adjust
• Titanium negative spring
• Nickle Coated Stanctions

Intended Uses: All Mountain, Freeride

Tested with: 2011 Giant Reign X frame

Tested on: Utah and Colorado trails that ranged from rocky, sandy, loose, hard, dry and wet.

Duration of Test: ~40 days of riding

Marzocchi is typically recognized for its wonderfully plush and sensitive open-bath, coil-sprung, downhill-oriented forks (e.g., 888 RC3 evo, 66/55 RC3) and is a bit under the radar with its closed-bath XC and trail-bike-oriented forks. But I was pleasantly surprised by the 55 Micro Ti, which utilizes Marzocchi’s TST Micro cartridge, the same one found on the shorter-travel 44 (140mm travel) and Corsa Superleggera (80-120mm).

The TST Micro cartridge offers a multi-click compression/lockout switch, which ranges from full open to full closed, and a tunable blow-off valve, which controls how hard it is to release the compression/lockout feature. It took me a good bit of fiddling to really get this fork feeling super dialed in with this arrangement, as it’s a bit of a different setup than I’m used to.

I wound up setting the blow-off value to two clicks from max, and the lockout knob one click from open. As you add more clicks of compression/lockout, you add a more stable platform under hard braking and cornering, but lose suspension sensitivity. The blow-off should be used to tune the compression feel and add sensitivity to the fork.

My suggestion to riders is to start with the blow-off valve at max, and then cycle though the compression settings on a few rides. Then, once you settle in on where you like the compression to be set, micro-adjust this setting via the blow-off valve to add sensitivity to the fork.

I never did find the need to use the lockout side of the fork. I was happy running it open, even on longer fire road-style climbs. The compression valving works well enough to this end. Really, no massive bob.

The 55 Micro Ti is also an air-sprung fork, to save weight and add adjustability. (The 55 RC3 fork is the coil-sprung equivalent, and is about 0.4 pounds heavier.) I found the air spring to work well, and had no issues, but I should say that compared to the competition air forks on the market (RockShox Lyrik Solo-Air and X-Fusion Vengeance), the Marzocchi does have a little more stiction and gives up a bit of plush, smooth travel to the top dogs. I would say that it is comparable to a Fox Float in this regard.