What's better, air or coil sprung fork?

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[digvt]

in conclusion, Jeff needs a stiffer coil spring

[aGDonut]

Marzocchi’s spring chart is conservative. I weight less than you and rode a 170 coil with the medium spring and it was incredible. I used no preload. The fact you needed to max out preload shows you need the firm spring. Sag would be close to the same with no preload on the firm spring and that poppy support would return. That said, both forks are excellent and you can’t really go wrong with either.

[joeflores]

Great comparison! I think you should try swapping to a firmer spring on the coil. I have a z1 coil with a extra-firm spring and weigh about 180lbs. The firmer spring provides really good support without having to add as much damping but also keeps a sensitive begginig stroke because of the coil spring. I like to ride a little bit of everything from trails to jumps and find this setup to work really well on everything.

[DaBinChe]

I love my Z1 170mm coil. Replaced a Fox38. The coil moving more is cause coil has less stiction/hysteresis. You also need to run the next firmer coil spring to make the comparison more fair. But you are right on riding style. I'm a wheels on the ground type, love plushness with lots of traction and much prefer coil over air. I prefer tech rock gardens and such. I'm about 140lbs. riding weight, soft coil, no preload, compression fully open. Closest I gotten to bottom out is 15mm. I can feel it more active but not the pogoishness that you feel.

[zwingler]

Ive got a grip2 swapped Z1 Coil and it feels absolutely insane. I never run tokens on my air forks anyway so i was excited to test it out and never went back after that.

[chrisgride]

I absolutely love the Z1 coil! I swapped out my Fox factory 38 for them, they feel so much better. I'm 178lbs running a medium coil, bike is a '22 Patrol. I've done 21 Whistler park days this season and the forks haven't skipped a beat!

[tommydale]

Z1 coil with extra-firm spring for 57lb, 120NM ebike and fox38 for 49lb, 85NM ebike . My weight 215 and 65 years old. I have found my Nirvana !

[RocketPropelledWombat]

I've had the Z1 air for a few days now & it's probably the best fork i've ever owned that isn't a triple-clamp effort. Absolute full send everywhere but it's also good at the slow stuff, heavy compression while loading up the front crawling down the side of a mountain, I feel the rebound of a spring fork could prove a bit weird in those situations. Also, i've never said or even thought the same about a fork until yesterday: "confidence".

[joebikes]

Don’t forget, the red lowers make you 5% faster 😂

Great video and perfect timing! I just bought the air model through Jenson today, incredible deal 👍

[nickjones]

Vorsprung Smashpot with hydraulic bottom out is Butter in my Fox 38!

[BrandonWatkins]

Love my marzocchi z1 coil, eats up chunk and drops but it definitely isn't the best for jump lines and climbing, like mentioned in the video the first portion of the stroke is significantly softer which doesn't lend to the most confidence on jumps and loses a little bit of efficiency when pedaling. Ive gotten used to it now so the down sides have dulled as I've adapted.

[badcompany]

I just got my new Ripmo AF with the coil fork set up and out on the trail today. I love that bike! I don’t have much experience with FS bikes, but even with the coil the bike felt much more playful than my Giant Talon. It would be interesting to compare the bike with an air fork, but from today I felt very confident with the coil, as an average rider looking for confidence I think the coil suits me well. And like you said we’ll get used to either one!

[dimimtb]

I have the low end Pike on my Norco Optic and switched it over to the Push ACS-3 coil with air bottom out protection and it’s been the best thing since sliced bread. I was between coil weights and went with the heavier spring and glad I did.

Probably because of how bad my Pike was but my hands were getting slaughtered on low frequency stuff but it just eats it up now for 3/4lb weight loss.

[gaperkook]

Good review. Lines up with my thoughts on air fork vs coil fork. I added a Vorsprung Smashpot coil to my Fox Rhythm 36. I definitely feel like I lost a little “pop”. But i don’t feel like I compromised on midstroke support. Maybe Marzochi’s problem is they only offer spring in 3 different settings. Vorsprung springs come in 5 lbs increments

[leon_brave_racing]

They should sell a z1 coil model with a grip 2 or the new grip x and x2

[Pearlmxb]

2 uploads in two days, tis a good week.

[insanebmxthomas]

beautiful 4k shots, was awesome to watch and im only halfway lmao! going to send this to my friends just so they can understand more of both coil and air's place within mtb

[cow]

I have both Z1 air & coil 170mm forks, with many more hours on the coil. The coil has been excellent! I’m luckily in the firm spring’s happy spot. The only harsh bottom out I experienced was on Original Sin running 160mm and too little compression damping. There’s a bit of a weight penalty with coil, but you do get free 160-180mm travel adjustment, via spacers. And it’s coil, so very consistent and requires far less servicing.

Edit: Also worth mentioning is the OE axle is HEAVY. I lost 70g by switching to a Kabolt thru axle. That’s a massive unsprung mass loss for $40.

I’ll be giving the Mezzer a whirl soon, as I’ve heard great things from Shockcraft Suspension (Dougal on mtbr forums). Very adjustable air spring(s), wide damping range, and easy travel adjust via spacers. Oh, and 37mm stanchions. What’s not to love?

[STLMTB]

Jeff, you are such a unique rider that I completely agree with all your criticism, but for a regular trail rider, who deals with chunky rooty, gnar, I want something to smooth that out. Do I jump? yes, but there is no way I will ever ride with your vigor. That being said, I would still go air fork with a coil shock to get the best of both worlds. Great video Jeff.

[jeremylownes]

I am a Moto guy as well as mtb. An interesting thing to try would be to add oil to the coil side reducing the air gap. This will speed up rebound and give a bit more support. That’s what it does in the Moto world. If you get bored, give that a try.