The legend stays ahead of the game, yet again.

With the birthe of endurance challenges, 24HR and 12HR races came an undesirable discovery: after such repeated punishment, hour after hour, nothing could stay the hand of fork fade. Fork fade occurs as heat and pressure conspire against the fork, causing the fork to malperform as heated oil and seals pressurize severely degrade the fork's ability to perform as designed. When heated up, oil increases in viscosity and therefore resists the fluid properties that help the fork operate with plush reactivity. When the seals pressurize, the result is stiction, restricting the stanchions from freely passing in and out of the fork.

In response to this need (not for any other reason) Marzocchi went back to the drawing board with some significant challenges. To start off, Marzocchi reinforced the lateral stiffness of the fork frame, knowing that when fork legs act in concert the compressions remain smooth. Friction originates as fork legs operate independently, not remaining true to their original relationship, causing the compressions to occur at varied angles. In other words, when a fork's legs are straight and stiff, the stanchions compress straight down and smoother compressions reduce friction - that aweful enemy to a fork.

Now with years of invaluable experience in preventing fork fade, Marzocchi made yet another discovery beyond their previous efforts in 2005 when they released the TST (Terrain Selection Technology) damping system. The TST sytem incoporates a rubber reservoir into their open bath system that acts as a virtual "opening" in a closed system. WHereas other manufacturers work to increase the oil volume, Marzocchi is more concerned with controlling the specific flow and placement of oil. This reservoir to some extent expands and contracts with each compression adding a subtle amount of extra plushness, but also allows the heat to expand the bag so that the heat will not pressurize the oil.

Along with added suppleness also comes another wonderful benefit of the TST damping system: 4 compression settings and a complete lockout setting. Instead of directly increasing the amount of compressional resistance, Marzocchi achieves an indirect effect by allowing the rider to control the speed at which the valve opens up to allow the fork to compress. The fork will feel more resistant by noticeable degrees, but only because there needs to be a consistent amount of force over length of time. In a higher setting, close to that of the complete lockout, a hard rapid hit won't permit the fork to compress very much. In a lower setting however, the valve will open just as fast as the actual hit comes. This makes the Marathon fork series extremely tunable, without ever having to adjust the air pressure in the main air chamber - on the fly too!

Impressive pedal efficiency without the harshness that comes with a Fox RLT, RLC and X (TerraLogic Valve) lockout blow-off threshold adjustability.

The Marathons are also rated for all mountain riding with up to 120mm of travel (excluding the Marathon Race). These 30mm stanchions are extremely close in terms of stiffness to thatof Fox's 32mm stanchions, while being stronger. Yes, strength and stiffness are separate (go to Reynolds website to see a chart on the individual and sometimes unrelated characteristics of stiffness and strength). Marzocchi stanchions have thicker walls, though the diameter of other forks' stanchions are greater. For example, Fox makes larger stanchions, but the walls of the cylinderical material is not as thick.

Marathon Race
Nice fork, but for the same money, I whole heartedly recommend a Fox 80mm fork over the Marathon Race any day. Just not enough lateral continuity in this fork. Of course, that's just my own humble opinion.

Marathon SL
Fusing a light weight air sprung Doppio TST damping cartridge, this fork offers unparalleled external tunability. Dual air forks have contradicting reputations: 1.) for having a spring rate that is too linear (soft throughout the entirety of the travel), and 2.) for having too quick of a ramp up rate so that riders don't get the full length of travel that their fork advertises. In this particular case, the Marathon SL falls closer to the linear spring rate, but with added air pressure and a higher TST setting, that can be resolved.

Marathon XC
In my opinion, this forks represents everything that I look for in a fork.