Marzocchi leaked info about their new carbon-crowned, ultralight 29er Corsa SL (SuperLeggera) fork a bit ago, and now it’s official…and it has some friends. There’s also a completely new 4X slopestyle fork and several models get an all-new Micro Switch TA travel adjust.
The Corsa SL 29 models will be available with a tapered steerer tube only, with a carbon crown and steerer option. It comes only with a remote lockout on the Carbon version, but the alloy crown model will be available with or without it. Travel comes stock at 100mm, but remove a spacer and it goes to 120mm or add one and it goes to 80mm. All models are 15mm thru axle only.
Compared to the old 44 Micro Ti 29 (shown far right, which doesn’t change for 2012), the SL’s have a new AER system, new chassis with a very large, smooth crown and lower assembly.
With the 44, it was an open bath air system where oil height could affect air volume and spring rate. The new AER system has a fixed air chamber that’s separated from the damping circuit. This allows for a lower oil volume (lighter weight) with no impact on air volume or spring rate. It also gets a new closed damping cartridge.
The Corsa SL 29 Carbon comes in at 3lbs 10oz (1,690g) with uncut steerer but no remote attached.
The regular SL (alloy steerer) comes in at 4lbs 1oz, and the Corsa SL 29 RL is 3lbs 15oz (with alloy, non-tapered steerer). So, what’s the RL version?
The Corsa SL 29 RL uses their standard stanchions, standard forged crown and the lower level LR (Lockout/Rebound) controls with no compression controls. It does have a blowoff for the lockout. It’ll have only the straight steerer tube for aftermarket, tapered for OEM customers. In the pic on the left above, it’s the fork on the right…notice the different crowns between it and the SL on the left. The SL models get the nickel coated alloy stanchions, which adds strength to tube, letting them make it thinner than the standard black ano’d alloy stanchions on the LR.
On the right photo, you can see the new, smoother brake arch on the new forks versus the old 44 on the right.
The SL’s also get their top of the line TST Micro rebound and compression damping. The TST Micro is a lockout cartridge with a blowoff valve. To save weight, they don’t get the Air Adjust (adjustable air chamber size) of the 44 Micro Ti. We’ve been riding a Micro 44 Ti for a while now and it’s sweet. The Air Adjust is an amazing and amazingly simple feature, but for the XC crowd the SL’s are aimed at, it’s not really necessary.
MSRP should be around $929 for the carbon crown version, $669 and $489 for the SL and SL RL respectively.
MICRO SWITCH TA
Marzocchi’s Micro Switch TA is their new travel adjust mech that changes travel by 30 to 40mm (depending on fork) in one quick turn of the dial. Total dial rotation is only about 1/6 of a turn.
The mechanism is housed inside the air cartridge and pops up a small chamber to increase the air volume and add travel. Suspension movement is a little firmer in the short travel mode because the chamber volume is changed without decreasing the amount of air in it. This makes the fork a little more plush in long travel mode, which makes sense. Marzocchi recommends setting the fork up for your weight in the long travel mode. It’s shown in full on the right in the pic below.
The new CR (Compression / Rebound, the silver tube on the left) damping cartridge uses a quasi-open bath design. Oil inside the fork leg can go into the damping cartridge from the bottom and comes out the top to circulate the oil. This saves weight over a full open bath system and has a more consistent perfomance because the air and oil won’t really mix.
The new CR will be available in the 888, 55 and 66. Switch TA comes on the 44 and 55 series.
2012 MARZOCCHI 4X
For ’12, they reduced the weight with new stanchion tubes and a modified version of the Micro cartridge specially tuned for four cross racing to have a firmer overall compression tune. The Micro dial sets the threshold when the fork is locked out. The right leg uses their AER system. On our scale, this fork came in at 4lbs 3oz / 1,860g.
AND THEN THERE’S THIS…
