Marzocchi Fork Ends (did I blow $200.00?)

[Craig]

I just bought a set of Marzocchi's off of eBay.  The intent was to send those to Todd for rework and not take my bike out of service.   The forks were from a 2001 Sport Rosso.  I have a 2004 Ballabio.  It looks like there was a significant change to the forks somewhere in between.  The fork legs are the correct diameter so they will fit the triples, but the bottom ends are completely different and will not accept my axle.

 

I saw one set screw that looked like it was holding the fork ends to the slider, that doesn't seem like enough.  Are those things pressed on?  Can I swap them after the forks are returned or did I just blow $200?

 

 

Edit:

Never mind.  I just measured the slider, the 2001 are 40mm, I have 43mm sliders.  Crap.

 

Anyone need 40mm Marzocchis?

 

New (to me) forks:

 

Ballabio forks:

[H-E-Ross]

Put them back up on eBay with a BIN price to cover costs. Somebody needs them and you probably didn't spend too much. 

[Scud]

Oh bummer... just saw your edit. I was out looking at the axle, spacer, and front wheel internals from my 2002 parts bike. I think those parts might have been compatible with the 2001 fork bottoms. My 2003 is the same as your Ballabio, with the larger diameter hollow axle.

 

To your question - even though it's hypothetical at this point: I don't think you'd have wanted to swap the bottoms after the rebuild anyway. GuzziTech only takes about a week, right?

[Craig]

Oh bummer... just saw your edit. I was out looking at the axle, spacer, and front wheel internals from my 2002 parts bike. I think those parts might have been compatible with the 2001 fork bottoms. My 2003 is the same as your Ballabio, with the larger diameter hollow axle.

 

To your question - even though it's hypothetical at this point: I don't think you'd have wanted to swap the bottoms after the rebuild anyway. GuzziTech only takes about a week, right?

 

I am not sure how long they take, so it was probably just my typical overdoing things.

 

Put them back up on eBay with a BIN price to cover costs. Somebody needs them and you probably didn't spend too much. 

 

Yep, that is what I did.

[PDoz]

Craig, if you don't get a buyer it might be worth seeing if the internals can be made to fit your later model forks? The early marzochis had compression dampening asjustment in one leg, and rebound in the other ( our later midels forks only offer rebound adjustment)

 

My suspension guy did wonders with my forks, but there are days I wish I could back the compression off a little ( when I want to ride slow)

[gstallons]

There were 2 design Marzocchi forks . They are easily identified by looking at the fork caps .

[Craig]

Just sold for $15.00 less than I paid for them.  Pretty inexpensive lesson overall...Now I can go back to planning my frint suspension.  Still trying to decide between a GSXR front end and sending my Marzocchi's off to Todd.  A significant factor is the the gold forks from a GSXR would look GREAT with my blue/gold theme...I took a swing at a set of Ohlins on eBay last week but missed out. 

[Scud]

I bid on those Ohlins too. But my max bid didn't do it for me. I think I'm going to try rebuilding the Marzocchi forks myself at some point. GuzziMoto plugged a hole inside one of the tubes to get better compression or rebound damping - I forget the details, but there's thread somewhere on it. Might it be possible to have the upper fork tubes anodized before the rebuild - whether you do it or send it to Todd?

[Craig]

I bid on those Ohlins too. But my max bid didn't do it for me. I think I'm going to try rebuilding the Marzocchi forks myself at some point. GuzziMoto plugged a hole inside one of the tubes to get better compression or rebound damping - I forget the details, but there's thread somewhere on it. Might it be possible to have the upper fork tubes anodized before the rebuild - whether you do it or send it to Todd?

 

I read about that modification by GuzziMoto but it wasn't clear how he blocked it off.  I suppose I could take a look, but I don't really trust myself to not make things worse.  I don't have the depth of knowledge that he and Todd have.