ETA (External Travel Adjustment)

Inherent to every "long travel" fork is addressing its ability to answer all aspects involved with mountain biking, like the pedaling and the climbing. Two challenges arise:

1.)    Geometry -- the climbing poistion that the "longer travel" forks is not suited or advantageous for long or steep climbs, sometimes permitting a "wheelie" effect where the rider senses much of his/her weight leaning backward and therefore experiences trouble with steering and maintaining control.

2.)    Pedal-induced "bob" -- "longer travel" forks have a greater propensity to compress during pedaling, so that much of the rider's pedaling energy is absorbed by pedal feedback and is therefore proportionally wasted on pedal-induced bob instead of getting you up the hill.

Traditional Approaches to Addressing These Issues

            Travel adjustable systems are popular, whereby the repeated turning of a dial reduces the travel to suit climbing conditions. The problem here though is that these systems require the rider to stop, get out of the saddle and turn a dial roughly 15 times to prepare for the climb. Once up at the top, the rider must stop again, get off and turn the dial back those same 15 clicks again in the other direction to elongate travel. In the mean time you're breaking your rhythm. Not only that, your riding partners are getting impatient while they wait for you to quit playing with your gadgets, or you just get left in the dust.

            Another main problem with relying on this system is that it does not account for constant ups and downs in a relative rapid succession where you get stuck in an uncomfortable travel setting, either fully extended during a climb or fully reduced on the downhill. That is of course unless you set your fork in the middle travel setting as a compromised setting, but you fail to take full advantage of the fork’s full travel which is why you bought that specific fork in the first place. Marzocchi does incorporate TAS (Travel Adjustable System) controlled by a dial, but not at all for this purpose.

            Manitou offers the IT (Infinite Travel) system with a handlebar mounted switch, which works incredibly well to reduce the fork’s travel as far down as the rider desires. However, getting the fork back to full travel on the fly becomes as difficult as reducing the travel is easy; it’s very difficult. One must sustain a controlled wheelie for some 5-7 seconds while pressing in the lever, which sounds easy enough (yeah right!). For the rest of us talented riders who aren’t yet circus performers, we must get off the bike and press the lever in, whereby the fork returns to full travel, but then you have to get back on the bike to ride again.

            For addressing the pedal-induced bob, there are complete lockout systems on both front and rear shocks. These appeal to race enthusiasts as well as those overtly paranoid of the pedal feedback. The limitation though here is that this now cancels out the fact that you purchased suspension for its benefits and therefore can feel quite unnatural, especially now that you have become accustomed to your suspension. My question to Fox is why there is still a lockout feature on their RLC models if the ProPedal works so well? I guess Marzocchi with the new TST (Terrain Selection Technology), a 5 click dial system, also includes a complete lockout as one of those 5 settings.

            So there are modern technological advances such as Manitou’s SPV (Stable Platform Valve, supposedly licensed by Progressive Suspension aka 5^th Element), Fox’s ProPedal, as well as their TerraLogic (inertia valve) system. These are each appropriate and effective means for addressing pedal-induced bob that can occur, but they do nothing to correct the bike’s geometry or the rider’s position. For this reason, these forks often add on travel adjustability as a completely separate feature.

Marzocchi’s ETA Solution - Ingenious!

First and foremost to mention, the ETA addresses both issues simultaneously, making it one feature that ingeniously resolves both issues and does so easily on the fly, at will. Want to climb? Flip the switch and compress the fork down to the desired position and it will remain there. Now you have a more advantageous climbing position, so that more of your weight is forward over the handlebars. This keeps your front wheel more firmly set against the ground and therefore makes steering easier as you navigate up around obstacles or follow your line, all while constantly retaining 30mm travel no matter what level the fork is at. Need full travel? Flip the switch back and the fork shoots right back up so you’re ready for the crazy downhill at speeds your mother wouldn’t approve of.

            Now that the ETA has you and you bike in a better position for climbing, what about the pedal feedback? There is none, or at most a minimal amount. The ETA has no set travel position once it is activated, but regardless of how far you compress the fork down, you always retain about 30mm of travel as mentioned before. Most riders focus on suspension travel as a means of absorbing the “big hits” they throw at their bikes, which it does do, but it is also designed as a means of maintaining the wheels on the ground for increased traction, and therefore is implemented ultimately to improve the rider’s ability to control the bike. This approximate 30mm of travel is VERY, VERY stiff, equivalent to the bottom or final 30mm of travel. This stiffness heavily resists the fork’s propensity to compress under the down force generated by your climbing legs on the crank arms.

            In short, the ETA resolves the issues of climbing geometry, the rider’s climbing position and the pedal-induced bob BETTER than ANY system out there, and thankfully is also the EASIEST to use. Ladies and gentlemen, it truly is INGENIOUS! The only valid concern that arises in reference to the ETA system is that it is only available on a coil leg, so none of the Doppio Air (dual air) systems can accommodate it. But what else do you expect from Marzocchi as the longest running suspension company in the industry but the BEST?