Rise with a 150mm Manitou Mezzer

[WestCoastRider]

After a couple of rides on the Marzokes which is like a rubber noodle at my weight, I took a Mezzer and adjusted travel down to 150mm. I was debating setting at 160mm, but I like the seat angle where it is and so didnt want to kick that back more with the 160mm travel of the fork. Holy stiff, this front end is so amazing now. With the Mezzer and the X2 the suspension really works, I know this is like $1600 in add ons, but I can't imagine riding a bike like this with lesser suspension. Cannot wait to get out there some more on it, unfortunately it is raining again here in SoCal today!

 

[Shjay]

I used to run my Mezzer at 160mm with coil on rear, it’s now on my big bike at 170mm, they are amazing forks had mine years

 

[Chrysaor]

If it’s the pro you can set it up at 160 and then quickly change the travel by pushing the fork at 150mm when you connect the pump.
That’s what I do with mine, depends on the riding I ride it at 140 or 150mm (on another bike)

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

I fitted a Mezzer Pro to mine before I'd even ridden it.

It's fantastic. All the time everywhere.

It makes me sad that I spent so much time and money modifying Rockshox to make them feel right when the Mezzer does it out of the box.

I'd love a Mara Pro to go on the back but they're mega £ and don't seem to be stocked anywhere in the UK.

Only trouble with the Mezzer is that for me, I find the damping a little hard. I'm running high speed and rebound wide open with like 2 clicks of low speed. . I'd like a bit more adjustment so will probably fiddle the shims when I service it to try and open it up a bit.

 

[Shjay]

I fitted a Mezzer Pro to mine before I'd even ridden it.

It's fantastic. All the time everywhere.

It makes me sad that I spent so much time and money modifying Rockshox to make them feel right when the Mezzer does it out of the box.

I'd love a Mara Pro to go on the back but they're mega £ and don't seem to be stocked anywhere in the UK.

Only trouble with the Mezzer is that for me, I find the damping a little hard. I'm running high speed and rebound wide open with like 2 clicks of low speed. . I'd like a bit more adjustment so will probably fiddle the shims when I service it to try and open it up a bit.

If you read up about the forks there’s lots of chat on swapping out couple of shims. 12 & 17mm shims. Also swapping out damper oil from 5wt to 3wt maxima oil.

 

[WestCoastRider]

If you read up about the forks there’s lots of chat on swapping out couple of shims. 12 & 17mm shims. Also swapping out damper oil from 5wt to 3wt maxima oil.

I’ve been running 2.5 wt oil since i bought the Mexzer new for another bike and really like it. Havent found a need to tackle the shim stack.

 

[cookie70]

they are a great fork, run a set @170 on my enduro bike. Had issues with the things creaking and had CSU replaced twice. other then that cant complain

 

[Chrysaor]

If you read up about the forks there’s lots of chat on swapping out couple of shims. 12 & 17mm shims. Also swapping out damper oil from 5wt to 3wt maxima oil.

The latest versions have a lighter damping stack compared to the early ones. Not sure when the change occurred but at one point in 2021 I believe.
The oil viscosity will not change the damping strength but the shimstack will do

 

[Shjay]

The latest versions have a lighter damping stack compared to the early ones. Not sure when the change occurred but at one point in 2021 I believe.
The oil viscosity will not change the damping strength but the shimstack will do

Running lighter damper oil means you don’t have to run the damper low & Hi speed compression fully open.

 

[WestCoastRider]

I finally got back out with the Mezzer on the bike and did the same trails again. Wow, what a mind boggling difference! The bike handled so much better on the downhill chunk sections and still performed well on the tighter sections where a trail bike excels. I would say a high end 150mm fork is a really good investment. BTW- I seem to be in better shape and so only knocked down 2/5 bars on the ~4 mile "Burning Battery" trail, so feeling like as I get my fitness level back this bike is really going to be the perfect fit for me. With 2/5 bars on the main climb, I should be able to do an upper loop where I burn another bar to get back up to the top and conceivably do 3 upper laps here as opposed to just 1.

 

[lockin]

I have checked offer for mezzer pro and I can see that set is for 160-170-180mm of travel so how are getting 150mm?

 

[Shjay]

The Mezzer Pro has spacers so you can run travel from 140-180mm it’s on every new fork they usually come set at 180mm

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

Yep, as above. All Mezzers start out as 180mm and come with enough spacers to drop the travel to 140mm. You can go lower with extra spacers but you start to mess up the positive/ negative volume ratios. It's easy to do provided you're happy to pull the air spring out. The spacers clip onto the air shaft.

Incidentally, I upped mine to 160 while I was servicing it. Noticed no difference in descending and it made climbing more 'wandery'. The front end felt super light so I'm going back down to 150mm.

 

[WestCoastRider]

I finally added the 9point5 angle set to slacken the Rise by 1.5 degrees. I have not taken it on a trail yet, but on road rides around the neighborhood I can tell that by slackening it, I have dropped the BB a bit and now can easily add 10mm (maybe 20mm) to the Mezzer fork which will probably get much of the geometry behind the headtube back close to stock.

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

I finally added the 9point5 angle set to slacken the Rise by 1.5 degrees. I have not taken it on a trail yet, but on road rides around the neighborhood I can tell that by slackening it, I have dropped the BB a bit and now can easily add 10mm (maybe 20mm) to the Mezzer fork which will probably get much of the geometry behind the headtube back close to stock.

Don't forget though that the now external lower cup adds at least 10mm of height under the the headtube which negates a lot of the drop from slacking the fork angle out.

The Mezzer at 150 is already taller than the standard fork and right on the upper limit that Orbea specify in the tech doc.

Adding 20mm to the fork is going to slacken things out considerably. And not necessarily in a good way.

I'd stick it all into a geometry calculator to see what you get.

Though to be fair, it's easy enough to change the travel and see how it rides. If it rides badly, the advantage to the Mezzer is that you can just set the travel back to where you want it with the shock pump connected and it'll stay there once you disconnect the pump!

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

Following on...

I just stuck the numbers for a medium frame into this Calculator and it shows the BB height increases marginally once you add the extra 10mm under the headtube.

I may have got the numbers wrong though but have a play

 

[WestCoastRider]

Ah yes, that bottom cup ;-) you are right, it needs to be in the measurements. It more or less winds up that makes the bar height roughly net out to zero increase between before and after the addition of the 9point5 with the same 150mm fork travel in both cases. I may give it a try putting it 160, I've done a ton of experimenting over the years and probably am not one who rides hard enough to crack a frame over a couple of degrees.

 

[theremotejuggernaut]

I wouldn't be worried about cracking the frame personally. I'd be more concerned about affecting how well the bike climbs. Those steep, loose climbs where you're on the verge of sticking it into boost to get up. Having a front end that wants to lift is the last thing you need.

That's what I found with my Mezzer at 160. It was just to easy to lift the front accidentally. Truth be told, I find the bike feels fairly short and fairly tall which makes steep climbs difficult anyway. Once you've added the slackset, your effective reach is going to be shorter too which will have an effect on how it climbs. You've also relaxed the seat tube angle too (marginally I think).

I'd say longer travel as well would want a longer stem to offset some of the change and help keeping your weight forward but that's probably just my preference.

But... Do let us know how you get on. I've been seriously considering an angleset. Ideally, I'd go mullet to stop the rear wheel hitting me in the arse on the steep stuff but it's a fairly involved job. I'm thinking a slightly slacker front end might stop me feeling like I need to be so far off the back.

 

[WestCoastRider]

I bought an XL for this very reason. Orbea XL is really a taller size L in any other manufacturer. I am pretty happy with the reach of the frame for me. And so far, no really adverse issues for climbing after moving to 150mm. Going out today on a couple of trails that have sections that are totally unrideable on non ebikes due to steepness, so will give it a try at 150mm and then maybe adjust to 160 for the next ride. I've now figured out how to change travel in just a few minutes with the bike in a stand and not even removing the fork from the bike.

 

[WestCoastRider]

I took it out yesterday and now it rides more like my Enduro, which is what I was going for. It would take raising the front a lot more to get the front wheel to come off the ground on steep climbs. In current state, like an Enduro bike, it tends to want to wander a bit on steep climbs but it's generally fine. With boost level assist it is totally fine. This was a decent $100 spent, descending steps in chunky rock is now totally manageable. Probably would be less fun on XC but I don't ride much of that.