RockShox ZEB Ultimate [Rider Review]

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

Upgrading the fork on a bike is arguably as important as upgrading the wheels. The suspension of a front fork is what helps keep your front wheel in traction. Our friend, Nico, has been running the Zeb. See what they think! 

Overview

After racing the 2022 Big Mountain Enduro Series on my all-mountain bike, I knew I wanted to upgrade to something I could take down anything and everything. Around the time I started seriously looking at bikes and build options, I started seeing a lot of builds offering the Zeb, as well as the reviews of the new Zeb Ultimate with Butter Cups. I had heard the Zeb provided great small bump sensitivity, and that the new Butter Cups made it even better! When Black Friday rolled around, and everyone was offering deals, I scooped up the 2023 Zeb Ultimate, and had Fezzari throw it on the La Sal Peak I was ordering. To test the bike, I got myself down to Southern Utah, away from the snow up north and rode the popular Zen Trail in St. George.

For context, the last time I got to ride this trail was on a rental bike, with RockShox suspension that felt terrible no matter what I did, so the bar was pretty low. I was also coming off a race season on my Fox suspension (base model DPX2, and 36 Rhythm) that was in dire need of service (bar set potentially even lower).

Initial Setup and Impressions

Liked:

• LSC and HSC knobs have a strong detent (HSC more so than LSC) and a good bit of adjustability, but not so much that you get lost counting clicks in your head. Speaking of counting, you don’t need to, because there are reference lines on the knobs

• The rebound knob is stout, knurled, and easier to turn than the old rebound adjusters I’d encountered from RockShox

• They included a fender!

Disliked:

• If you’re really anal-retentive, the LSC/HSC reference lines don’t always align, not an actual issue, but when you pay a lot of money for a fork, you notice it

• They removed the sag percentage lines from the stanchion. As a former Fox user, I always admired and appreciated that RockShox did this on their products. I hope it wasn’t just aesthetics that drove the removal of these

Once I got to the top of the trail the fun started, as there are plenty of fun little drops, rocks, and turns you can play with on your way down. The trail also has fun gaps and lines you can link together if you’re creative. This is my ideal type of ride, because like so many memes have said, I really like technical riding (rocks and roots) I still need to get a lot better at doing big jumps and drops, but I can still jump and link lines together if I’m feeling froggy.

Immediately, I was quite impressed that with minimal setup the fork felt so good. For those familiar with not knowing where you're going on the Zen trail, I had to stop a lot to check trailforks but that allowed me to back off the LSC dampening a few clicks to see if it would help give even more small bump compliance, and I believe it did.

What I appreciated about the fork, was that it would eat up any foolishness I got myself into, and was forgiving of my rustiness having been off the bike for nearly 2 months since winter rolled in. I didn’t do any big drops, but I definitely jumped the bike right into some chunky sections and put it through some good compressions. As I stated above, I was impressed that with minimal setup time or fidgeting, I could have just as much fun and comfort on the bike as if I’d been riding it for 6 months. I remember sending the bike off a ledge into a good compression and hooting and hollering as I felt like I landed on a cloud and gleefully played my way down the trail.

I did get some more riding in on that trip to St. George, but it wasn’t anything worth writing about, but I plan to do some more riding in the coming months and can update my review as I gain more time on the fork and dial it in even more.

Final Thoughts

The fork performed excellently on its maiden voyage. I think Rockshox did an awesome job making it quick and easy to set up the fork. It played well out of the box, and with time I believe I will be able to dial it in even better. I love that they included a fender, the damper has strong detents, and the compression settings have indicator lines.