Out of nowhere, Marzocchi is set to release its lightest weight fork in a while with the surprise introduction of the new Corsa Superleggera XC fork.
UPDATED 5/19/10 @ 1:25pm EST with better damping info.
Coming in two colors, “Ferrari Red” and pearl white, the Corsa Superleggera tips the scales at a very light 1490g (3.28 lbs) without sparing any of Marzocchi’s tuning features. It’s equipped with their TST Micro and Volume Adjust (VA) knobs, allowing you to tune the amount of platform and tweak the feel of the fork by increasing or decreasing the volume of the air chamber. A more technical description of these features is in our recent post about their other new lightweight 2011 fork, the 44 Micro Carbon Ti.
The weight savings come from a new air system, which essentially uses a low oil volume open bath system containing the air in the right stanchion. This isn’t exactly a new idea, and friends of ours have run older Marzocchi forks with nothing more than air in them by removing the internals and fitting a schrader valve to the lowers (completely un-approved BTW, but it worked). However, Marzocchi has completely re-engineered the design to have coil-like plushness via a piston in the stanchion that separates the air from the oil in the lower portion of the leg. In other words, there is no air “cartridge”, the stanchion tube acts as the cartridge. A bottom-out bumper is also placed in the lower leg.
More specs and pics after the break…
Air cap on the right leg. By essentially using the entire fork leg as the air cartridge, Marzocchi’s system can run lower pressures, which avoids putting a large load against the seals. The result? Smoother action on the bumps and less stiction.
The gold Volume Adjust knob adjusts the size of the air chamber, changing the effective spring rate (more or less progressive) and firmness of the ride. The outer black bezel handles the lockout.
UPDATE: Above is the TST Micro knob without the lockout, below is with lockout. Both are the same, and to correct the misinformation above, the Corsa Superleggera will NOT have Volume Adjust.
UPDATED/CORRECTED: On the Superleggera model (which is what’s shown in this post), you get the TST-Micro platform adjustment, letting you adjust the firmness of the low-speed compression damping. The gold knob controls the amount of damping, from fully open to fully locked, and the outer black dial controls the lockout by turning the TST on and off. In essence, you can turn the damping off by moving the black lever (either with the remote or via fork mounted lever, as shown in the two pics above) and the fork will be fully active with fast, wide open compression damping. Or, you can turn it on via the black lever, at which point your low-speed compression damping is set based on the gold knob. So, if you have the gold knob turned all the way on, the black lever will act as a lockout. On the trail, this should let you set one damping characteristic for fast flat sections and climbs, then open it up for the descents.
High speed compression damping is set internally and is not user adjustable.
The Corsa fork will be offered in two versions, both with 32mm aluminum stanchions, aluminum steerer tube and magnesium lowers. The top model Superleggera has the air spring with titanium coil negative spring for 100mm of travel (reduceable to 80mm with spacers). MSRP $679.
The Corsa SL LR is the down-spec’d model, but it gets 80, 100 and 120mm travel options via spacers. It weighs in at 1630g (3.59 lbs). In lieu of the TST Micro, it gets Marzocchi’s newly revised 2011 LR cartridge featuring a lockout with a blow-off valve, which lets the fork move through it’s travel if you hit something really hard. The SL LR gets Zoke’s normal black stanchions versus the nickel-coated ones, but the MSRP drops to $399.
The “Ferrari Red” is a limited edition color, with only 400 produced globally (100 for U.S. market), so if that’s your preference, get your order in early.
Both the Superleggera Micro TST model and the Corsa SL RL model will have remote lever options, and both will be available with a 1.5″ tapered steerer tube. The remote lockout or TST lever comes with the forks and adds 37g if you use it.
Rebound controls will be on the bottom of the left leg on both.
