Marzocchi Bomber Z1 Coil Fork: Rider Review

Our "Rider Review" article series features honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

Coil sprung suspension has been making a bit of a comeback over the past couple of years and Marzocchi decided to go all in. The Bomber proved to be a fierce competitor in the air-sprung market and with the release of a coil-sprung version, we have seen an uproar in coil fork sales. Call it laziness if you will but nothing beats the feeling of working on your bike less and worrying about your settings less. Jinyoung recently went full coil with Marzocchi's Bomber Z1 Coil and CR Rear Shock. Let's see what he thought of the upgrade:

Jinyoung's Review

The COIL IS BACK!!! I’ve been waiting for this fork for a long long time and placed an order on the first day Marzocchi launched this awesome product. I’ve been a coil guy always and was desperate to find a good coil fork ever since Fox stopped producing legendary Vanilla fork I think it was 2014 or 2015….sometime around there.

So the first impressions about this fork? Buttery smooth!!! I had a fox 40 factory grip2 with coil spring installed instead of air spring and used it for 1 year or so, and pretty much satisfied with how it performed. And a direct comparison with Z1 would be….Z1 is absolutely better on every sing respect for my riding style. Especially initial bump compliance is way better, I can feel this is mainly because of the simplicity of grip damper’s structure comparing to the structure of grip2 damper. Less adjustable features mean fewer frictions on internal parts and results in smoother feelings, I guess and according to my own experience, fine-tuning grip2 damper is somewhat tricky for average riders due to its complexity. However, with this grip damper for average weight riders, I guess somewhere between 70kg ~ 90kg, they don’t even have to be bothered by finding the perfect tune, just get the right spring for their weight range and…turning rebound knob a few clicks…That’s all it takes and then just drop in.

I weigh about 82kg now and found stock blue spring is very plush and need a little more extra support at the end of travel, so swap out it with green vanilla spring while I am waiting for Z1 green spring. And it is the right one for my weight and riding style. I know Marzocchi designed the coil spring unit to have built-in bottom-out resistance thanks to the air and oil that's trapped in the lower leg. And this design should help give the fork a slightly less linear curve as it nears the end of its travel. That’s how they explain. But I hardly feel it really works. May be an actual air valve with a bit more pressure in that canister would help, but again that’s just my humble opinion.

Conclusion

"So my overall score for this fork is 9 out of 10. I wish I have just a little more bottom-out resistance with stock blue spring…but it is just my personal opinion. And with a customer can have an option to choose their preferred spring color when they place an order. That way customers do not have to waste their money on the spring they are not gonna use anyway. Other than this small complaint, performance-wise this Z1 coil is a killer" - Jinyoung