48mm Marzocchi PFP fork oil

[Anders]

Experts,

On my new (to me) 2015 EC200 I feel that the fork works quite well, but could have been somewhat plusher (for my ability and speed). I am quite certain they have not been serviced yet, so I presume OEM oil and viscosity and level. Although I do not know the number of running hours from the previous owner, I presume the bike has run between 20 and 40 hours now. Ergo it is soon time for an oil change in the forks. The forks should (per the documentation) have 7.5W oil.

My simple question is: how much would a lighter oil (I usually use ?hlins 5W) affect the damping? Would it be like 5 clicks or 10 clicks? Or more?
The reason for asking is that I am now at max clicks out on the compression and also more than 15 clicks out on rebound. Hence if using 5W oil could give me the equivalent of say 10 clicks, I could happily set my forks at say 10 clicks compression and 5 clicks rebound and proceed without any revalve

I understand that lighter oil will also affect the HS compression, but I am quite sure I can live with that.

Of course the real answer can only be found by trying it out, but if someone here has a rule of thumb I could use, I would be glad to learn about it.

[Leo]

If it was me, I will change the spring preload to 0mm (first coil position) and the oil to 2,5W or 5W. (PFP at 0)

If after that, it's a bit too soft, I will add more oil to the outer chamber and play with PFP.

Like I've done on my EC and worked pretty well.

Take a look on other massive Marzocchi 48 thread

[celler]

Have you backed the PFP out to 0 and lowered the oil level? The PFP has quite an effect on harshness. I rung Mobile 1 ATF which is actually thicker than stock to get more rebound and low speed compression and with the PFP at 0 takes out harshness of HS hits.

[celler]

Have you backed the PFP out to 0 and lowered the oil level? The PFP has quite an effect on harshness. I rung Mobile 1 ATF which is actually thicker than stock to get more rebound and low speed compression and with the PFP at 0 takes out harshness of HS hits.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by celler

Have you backed the PFP out to 0 and lowered the oil level? The PFP has quite an effect on harshness. I rung Mobile 1 ATF which is actually thicker than stock to get more rebound and low speed compression and with the PFP at 0 takes out harshness of HS hits.

I have backet out the PFP but not yet lowred the oil level.
I plan to start changing the old tonight and replace it by 5W and use a little lower level.

[barossi73]

As above with pfp at zero(all the way out),you could try taking some rebound off(especially if you find the front kickin up).as in wind the clickers(bottom) in to about 7,8 clicks out,slowing the rebound action.i found i needed to soften comp(more clicks out),slow rebound(more clicks in),even so its still has a slightly harsh feel.check your tripleclamp bolts,if too tight can distort tubes and aggravate "stickiness".Also my 13 has 80hrs on it now and has just started to feel a little better,if your bike is brand spanking it will take a little time to free up

[95jersey]

This may sound crazy, but my forks felt somewhat harsh and I kept making them softer and it never got better. I read an article that harshness can be from the forks being too soft, so I went the other way and turned up the pre-load, compression and rebound and what a difference. Stiffer turned out to be plusher if that makes sense. Now I can hit all kinds of obstacles at speed and it feels so much better. Matter of fact, I ended up on the exact settings in the manual for sport and that felt the best. So sometimes stiffer is actually plusher.

[barossi73]

Not an expert,but
FWIW,heres what ive found-
Not sure youll get "plush" easily with this fork,but that doesnt mean it doesnt work quite well.my issue was the front was kickin up over whoops and the bike wasnt balanced.the front was "hard bouncy",and wasnt in sync with the rear.
marzocchi48,ohlins88 2013
stock fork setting was too stiff in comp(top clicker),and too aggressive in rebound(bottom clicker).ie.front kicked/deflected and arms ached from feedback!
got it fairly neutral by going 3,4 clicks out on comp from stock(softer,faster rate),and 6,7 clicks in on rebound to 13out(slowing return rate)from stock(20out).pfp all the way out(zero)
it feels a lot smoother,but then its no longer pogoing and fighting me!
still wouldnt call it plush however!perhaps firm and planted?
rear is close to stock settings,around 98mm sag,1or2 clicks out(faster)rebound,comp 1click in(slower) from stock
so basically allow front too move deeper into stroke and return slower,and rear to move a little less into stroke and return a little faster
bike is way more settled,ride is a lot smoother,arms are happier.
changes in oil volume and oil weight may well help but i also think these forks are a little sticky in the seals,especially first 50hrs from new,which will feel like too much preload/poor low speed damping/harshness
mine have never been serviced (80hrs) or revalved as yet...but with some hrs on,and the damping in check,they feel a lot better
the pfp is the triangular center nut on top of tubes.a 22mm socket with bars off,or a ground thin 22mm ring spanner will fit.it feels stiff(spring press)to turn,wind out(anti clock)until it"softly"runs out of travel.thats zero.stock should have been around 2 full turns in from there but as far as i can discern,everyone backs them off to zero or 1/2 turn in.1 turn is 0.5mm extra preload i think,on top of the base internal preload