# 2013 Marzocchi 888 CR Initial Review



## rswitz (Mar 8, 2011)

I finally got my new 2013 888 CR mounted on my tr450 and ready to ride.

Since there is basically nothing on the 2013 888's out there, I thought I would put together this basic, initial review.

While I have not had nearly enough ride time to accurately review it, I have spent a few hours today on my local trails dialing in the settings and getting a basic feel for the fork.










*Appearance:*

I know this is subjective, but the new gold coating is very nice looking and it is generally a sweet looking fork.

*Adjustments:*

It has compression on the top right, preload on the top left, and rebound on the bottom right.

I might add that the rebound adjuster does not really have much of an impact on the actual rebound speed. With the knob all the way left to all the way right, the actual difference is less significant than you would expect. Maybe this is because the fork is still breaking in, but I can tell you my previous 888 had a much greater range of rebound speed right out of the box.

I'm a pretty light guy so I had the compression all the way off, but I did experiment with it all the way up and it makes the ride far stiffer and generally does what it is supposed to.

Same for preload, but I did not use any.

*Initial Performance:*

Rode on some high speed chatter, some pretty gnarly root and rock gardens and some small-medium drops. The fork felt very smooth and responsive on everything I rode on. There is a bit of stiction out of the box, but this is a given as it is a brand new fork and needs to break in. My previous 888 was the same way before it broke in, but now it is buttery smooth.

The 38mm stanchions made for a very laterally stiff ride, coming from my previous 888's which were only 35mm.

I have the soft-medium spring in right now and I am able to push the fork about 3/4 of the way down just standing over the bike and I weigh around 125lbs.

During my test ride, I never bottomed it out. I always seemed to have a couple inches of unused travel on my bigger hits.

This is about all I can cover with only three hours of ride time, but I intend on doing a follow-up review later on when the season starts.

Let me know if I missed anything, or if you have any questions.


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## monts (May 24, 2011)

Thanks, I mounted up a new 2012 CR 888 on my glory, and have not ridden it yet (winter weather is killing me). Strange about the rebound, my 2012 seems super responsive.


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## rswitz (Mar 8, 2011)

monts said:


> Thanks, I mounted up a new 2012 CR 888 on my glory, and have not ridden it yet (winter weather is killing me). Strange about the rebound, my 2012 seems super responsive.


It's not that the rebound does not work. Rebound adjustments produce clear changes, however the two extremes (fully on and fully off) are not substantially different.

This may improve as it gets ridden more, but like you, the weather is preventing that.

I'll keep this thread updated as I move forward with the fork.


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## JasonUK1987 (Feb 26, 2013)

Where are you from? I've had these on backorder in the uk for the last 3 months! Thanks for the review btw, not anything on these on the web yet!


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## monts (May 24, 2011)

JasonUK1987 said:


> Where are you from? I've had these on backorder in the uk for the last 3 months! Thanks for the review btw, not anything on these on the web yet!


If you can't get the 2013 model, if your interested in the 2012 model, you can find em' brand new on-line for $499.99, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference from the 2012 to 2013 except the gold color. I checked it out before I bought em' and didn't notice much difference in specs and adjustments.


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## car0401 (Jul 4, 2012)

cool to see the thick gold stanchions again from marzocchi. hopefully they can they can make another legendary fork like the shiver again


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## Gemini2k05 (Apr 19, 2005)

monts said:


> If you can't get the 2013 model, if your interested in the 2012 model, you can find em' brand new on-line for $499.99, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference from the 2012 to 2013 except the gold color. I checked it out before I bought em' and didn't notice much difference in specs and adjustments.


They are the same functionally, yes. Identical chasis and damper designs. Only difference might be if the tolerances or quality from hodaka are different than what they were at Suntour.


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## sandwich (Sep 24, 2005)

I just got my first test ride on my 12 CR and it's glorious. Super supple and responsive, the adjusters do quite a bit. I think I need a firmer spring, but this fork is really quite impressive so far.


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## blcman (Feb 1, 2007)

sandwich said:


> I think I need a firmer spring, but this fork is really quite impressive so far.


How much do you weigh! I have the same fork but haven't ridden it yet.


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## sandwich (Sep 24, 2005)

About 200. Bumping around, the fork seemed to be pretty controlled, but it sags a lot and hard braking efforts on pavement had me diving 6inches into travel. I didn't want to spring (heh) for one until I had gotten out on it.

I came off an 08 66RC3 and boxxers before that...this thing is sweet in action...time will tell on damping.


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## rep_1969 (Mar 25, 2004)

So hey guys, any more reviews/comments on this fork now that you've all had a chance to spend some time on them? What weight springs do they come with/what weight rider do they come set up for?


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## sandwich (Sep 24, 2005)

Med spring, 150-175lbs or so. Hsc is pretty firm but lsc is tunable.


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## Sk8er07999 (May 12, 2008)

I've got a 2013 888 rc3 non ti and I absolutely love it. So much better then the 2012 Boxxer RC it replaced. Couldn't be happier.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk


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## rep_1969 (Mar 25, 2004)

Thanks for the info guys. I just got mine in the mail yesterday and DANG is it pretty!! Excited to get it on the Mtn next season!! I've been on a 2005 888RC forever, thought it was time to upgrade.


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## guim (May 2, 2006)

I have two 2012 66 CRs and I love the damper! One did act a bit weird and started to oil from the foot nut so I'm sending it back to Marzocchi for a rebuild.

I'm wondering if the upgrade to the RC3 EVO damper would be worth it, but I really like the CR. I'm pretty temped to try it so I'll have both damping systems and could compare. But if it's not paying to get the EVO damper, I'd keep the CR and be happy anyway.

Anyone tried both ?


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