Anyone riding the Manitou Mezzer Pro?

[SummerMadness]

Considering buying the Mezzer Pro - I like what I read about them. Currently have Fox 36 Grip 2's which are ok, just find that they sit too deep in the midstroke a lot of the time. I like the idea of being able to change travel if i am heading to a bike park etc.

Any opinions welcome

 

[Zed.]

Anyone riding the Manitou Mezzer Pro?​

erm, Yep

also have Mezzer Expert forks and a Manitou Mara (inline) rear damper

is that a good enough opinion?

or should I say that I tried fox factory 38's and after a morning in Bpw the Mezzer's were back on my rail

Rich.

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

I also liked what I read about them, and have a pair ready to go onto my bike to convert to mullet.

Can't comment on what they are like yet.

I've changed travel on them which was fairly straight forward, though it's not a car park job, and you may need some semi bath oil handy to top up if any spills.

The stock mud guard is a bit of a let down, other than that they look nice quality.

I can't wait to give them a try!

 

[Zed.]

I mostly ride Bpw (photo of that drop on 'Coal Not Dole' after I'd done an OTB on the top / slab ) plenty of drops & chunk to battle through and the Mezzer handles all, I'm running 180mm travel front on the rail (up from the standard 160mm?) - drops to flat are no problem and on extreme travel they have a 'hydraulic bottom-out' circuit so no jarring impacts

the 'Expert' has a simpler damper but good none the less

I've changed travel on them which was fairly straight forward

+1

though it's not a car park job

erm....

I've done this when my mrs needed forks in a carpark, sorta muddy carpark @ Bpw

if you keep the lowers horizontal then you'll probably not spill any oil either, oil used in lowers is a car engine oil (Motorex 5w40)

The stock mud guard is a bit of a let down

feels flimsy but after a year I've not broken mine (YET!) so I'm happy with it.


one interesting aspect of Manitou suspension is that they run @ lower pressures in their airsprings - I'm ~17 stone and use 69psi main / negative air in the Mezzer for ~20%sag and a comfortable / supportive ride whereas the Rs forks origonally on my rail needed far more

same applies to the Mara rear damper, 160psi and rides like a well-stuffed setee whereas an Ohlins ttxair needed more for a harder ride - both on similar sag (the origonal Rs for the rail needed higher than its maximum recomended pressure to haul my fat arse around and it still bottomed-out...)



Rich.

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

erm....

I've done this when my mrs needed forks in a carpark, sorta muddy carpark @ Bpw




Rich.

Brave man . It's a simple job, I was scared to brake anything in my clean garage with everything to hand, though I'm sure the more you do it the quicker it gets

 

[Zed.]

Brave man

ha. I'm soon to be an ex-steelworker so clenlieness is something I'm mostly unaware of

on a serious note, they're actually easy to work on even down to damper modification!

theres a wealth of information out there in the internot - even Manitou have rebuild pdf's and youtube vids explaining just about everything

https://hayesbicycle.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/360002329094-Manitou-Technical-Reference

Hayes (Manitou) website.

https://hayesbicycle.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038198353-Mezzer

Mezzer stuff

https://hayesbicycle.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/23510047940247

Manitou forks rebuild pdf.

https://hayesbicycle.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/360056778633

https://www.mtbr.com/threads/manitou-mezzer-owners-thread-setup-tech.1177011 has just about everything BUT you'll need a few days to read - then re-read

cuttaway / internals of the Mezzer 'pro' fork.

Rich.

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

Cheers @Zed. Loads of useful info there

 

[SummerMadness]

Wow, thanks for the detailed feedback @Zed. Awesome stuff. Will be buying a set after your BPW comments - its a pretty chunky place and neither my Lyriks or Fox forks cope well with packing down on repeated bumps.
Hayes no longer have a UK based vendor so it looks like it will be bikediscount.de and take my chances with customs

 

[Zed.]

Mezzer do come up secondhand, I bought my pro’s on eBay (£275 iirc) whereas the ‘experts’ I originally bought were from Wiggle about a year ago when they started their discount sales (£600 ish iirc.)

Manitou have their European distribution through Germany but there are a few UK retailers listing Hayes products (athertons offer Hayes Dominion brakes on their bikes) so try a bit of google-fu?

I’ve bought some spares like a pro damper and irt kit to retrofit into the ‘expert’ forks from Germany (bikehit shop on eBay) and it’s been a painless experience

Also, the difference between 27.5 & 29” forks is the lowers. All parts are interchangeable….


As to my mezzers, I’ve recently tripped over a cheap pair of Ohlins rfx38 forks so will be trying them this weekend (@Bpw as I ride there basically every weekend) so should have a basic comparison between them - I’m half expecting the Ohlins damper to be slightly better than the manitou BUT would be surprised if Ohlins airspring pips manitou’s

^^but that comparison will be standard off the shelf forks not modified damper as I’m stripping my spare Mezzer pro damper to play with the shim stacks and maybe opening up the piston-ports


Obviously I’m unable to not fiddle with things

Rich.

 

[Zed.]

*Also*

If anyone gets a Mezzer with the ‘IRT’ (3rd air chamber, @ top of stantion) remember to pressurise this first THEN the main / negative skit chambers (bottom of lowers)

AND

Make sure the shock pump is screwed on fully to the lower (main / negative) air fitting as this balances the main & negative air pressures,
ALSO, when the main / negative chambers are pressurised you can depress the forks through their travel, but if you remove the shock pump or unscrew it’s fitting slightly it will ’set’ the negative volume causing the forks to sit at that ‘length’ - cycle the travel down and back to full length and hold at full extension before removing the pump - worth hanging the front of your bike on a fence or something as it’s easier

Rich.

 

[SummerMadness]

Mezzer do come up secondhand, I bought my pro’s on eBay (£275 iirc) whereas the ‘experts’ I originally bought were from Wiggle about a year ago when they started their discount sales (£600 ish iirc.)

Manitou have their European distribution through Germany but there are a few UK retailers listing Hayes products (athertons offer Hayes Dominion brakes on their bikes) so try a bit of google-fu?

I’ve bought some spares like a pro damper and irt kit to retrofit into the ‘expert’ forks from Germany (bikehit shop on eBay) and it’s been a painless experience

Also, the difference between 27.5 & 29” forks is the lowers. All parts are interchangeable….


As to my mezzers, I’ve recently tripped over a cheap pair of Ohlins rfx38 forks so will be trying them this weekend (@Bpw as I ride there basically every weekend) so should have a basic comparison between them - I’m half expecting the Ohlins damper to be slightly better than the manitou BUT would be surprised if Ohlins airspring pips manitou’s

^^but that comparison will be standard off the shelf forks not modified damper as I’m stripping my spare Mezzer pro damper to play with the shim stacks and maybe opening up the piston-ports


Obviously I’m unable to not fiddle with things

Rich.

Thanks Rich, have been watching Ebay, PinkBike and the buy/sell here for a second hand Mezzer - not struck gold yet and I get impatient when the shiny purchase demons get in the head

Great deal at £275 . They are not bad at bikediscount at the mo - around £580 so if I get hit by customs, should be 650ish. Did you buy their service kit for travel change or just dremel a cassette tool?

Very interested to hear how you get on with the Ohlins.... can you travel adjust those?

Reading the MTBR Forums does make you want to fettle!

 

[Chrysaor]

the nice thing with the main/negative chamber design is that you can change the travel on the flight just by connecting the pump and manually setup the fork height. It's not as accurate as using the plastic spacers but super convenient if you want to very quickly lower your fork. I have mine setup at 180 for gravity riding and I bring it down to 170ish for trail riding with that quick travel change tip.

 

[Zed.]

. Did you buy their service kit for travel change or just dremel a cassette tool?

Very interested to hear how you get on with the Ohlins.... can you travel adjust those?

I eventually bought the ‘kit’ as it was convenient but also have a second uncut cassette tool that’s used to remove the damper and irt from the stantions as the slotted cassette tool can collapse slightly and slip in the splines if they are tight (not a problem I’ve had removing the airspring from the bottom of the stantion with the slotted tool!)

As to the Ohlins, I don’t think the rfx38’s are travel-adjustable without swapping out the whole airspring assembly…

my mrs has rfx38’s on her S-works kenevo sl and swears by them (compared to swearing AT the fox38’s) she tired Mezzer’s on he Orbea rise - went by factory settings and didn’t experiment so has no firm opinion of them.

I’ve tried Ohlins rear dampers (coil & air) but am happier with Manitou’s Mara as it’s that bit more comfortable (I hate the word ‘plush’ but can see why people use it for Manitou ) but will pair the front rfx38’s with a ttxair2 rear damper for the experiment

Rich

 

[Zed.]

so, for no other reason than because

Rfx38 (170mm travel) Mezzer (180mm travel)

both will be serviced soon, I'll do the Mezzer and send the Ohlins to Jtech (I know theres a tf sticker on them but have no idea when they worked on them or what was done we've used Jtech before and are happy with their service)

I'll post photo's of the Mezzers when stripped

Rich.

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

the nice thing with the main/negative chamber design is that you can change the travel on the flight just by connecting the pump and manually setup the fork height. It's not as accurate as using the plastic spacers but super convenient if you want to very quickly lower your fork. I have mine setup at 180 for gravity riding and I bring it down to 170ish for trail riding with that quick travel change tip.

Does this cause any damage/negative effect to the fork?

I've set mine currently to 170mm, but thinking now to open them fully to 180mm and use this trick to adjust on the fly.

If there is no negative to doing it this way, why use the spacers at all?

Did you buy their service kit for travel change or just dremel a cassette tool?

I bought a cheap cassette tool and modified it. You'll need an angle grinder to cut the cassette tool as they are hardened.
Turns out I needn't have bothered as you can connect a shock pump to the dampener rod and push it into the upper leg, giving access with a normal cassette tool.

 

[Zed.]

why use the spacers at all?

gives easily defined differences as opposed to the push&pray method?

as to push&pray, there was discussion about this & the effects of a larger negative chamber on Mtbr forums - I cant remember what was said though (but maybe the spacers help lower the negative volume as well as providing a 'known' distance?)

you can connect a shock pump to the dampener rod and push it into the upper leg, giving access with a normal cassette tool

if the casette tool is drilled large enough to fit over the shaft.

Rich.

 

[Chrysaor]

Does this cause any damage/negative effect to the fork?

I've set mine currently to 170mm, but thinking now to open them fully to 180mm and use this trick to adjust on the fly.

If there is no negative to doing it this way, why use the spacers at all?



I bought a cheap cassette tool and modified it. You'll need an angle grinder to cut the cassette tool as they are hardened.
Turns out I needn't have bothered as you can connect a shock pump to the dampener rod and push it into the upper leg, giving access with a normal cassette tool.

Yeah so as Rich just said the negative volume increase a little bit without the travel spacers. It’s really not a big deal from 180mm to 170mm but maybe more pronounced to 140mm (didn’t try). And the air spring is so adjustable with the IRT that it doesn’t really mater I would say.
It’s also more difficult to target a round travel number by pressing the lower manually but it works. I have asked Manitou France when I sent the fork for service and they answered me it’s totally fine to do so

 

[Zed.]

also, you can dump the forks down almost to the lower limit of travel when a shockpump is fitted then removed.

if you really wanted to anyway

Rich.

 

[shakazulu12]

I've got two at the moment, oddly enough, no longer have any stock ones. One is an RRT upgraded version, and the other has a hybrid coil setup in it from Craig at Avalanche.

That said, I'm a huge fan of the fork, even in stock form. Setup is a tiny bit more intricate than your RS/Fox stuff. But the clickers actually do what they are supposed too and once you understand how the IRT works, it's divine. Really have no complaints about any of them, including the stock ones I've run.

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

Cheers for the info chaps

 

[mmcengineer]

I have loads of them unfortu ately uk support was utterly shite and is now non existant i just love them so learned to service my own , only becomes a problem if you need to warranty but spares are easy enough to get from anywhere in europe

 

[mmcengineer]

Does this cause any damage/negative effect to the fork?

I've set mine currently to 170mm, but thinking now to open them fully to 180mm and use this trick to adjust on the fly.

If there is no negative to doing it this way, why use the spacers at all?



I bought a cheap cassette tool and modified it. You'll need an

I bought a cheap cassette tool and modified it. You'll need an angle grinder to cut the cassette tool as they are hardened.
Turns out I needn't have bothered as you can connect a shock pump to the dampener rod and push it into the upper leg, giving access with a normal cassette tool.

mmc engineer i had all the dimensions on my flikr for people to make tools , used to make them for people click link ----- > mmc engineer

 

[wanderingjim]

The Mezzer Expert seems to still be on sale for $509, I bought one in February for my analog bike and it's been working great.

The air spring can be upgraded later to the IRT from the Mezzer Pro, and the damper can be updated to the Pro's MC2 as well. I've found the Expert's 6-position VTT damper and single-chamber air spring to work very well for me though since I'm not riding big stuff.

My camera got bumped on one of my rides so I had a better look at the fork in action.

 

[Zed.]

Two days riding this weekend @ Bpw and the jury’s out, admittedly I’ve spent a year riding Mezzers so know what pressures and damper settings work for me - as to the Ohlins rfx38’s I’m still experimenting

The mezzers were possibly bettered by the Ohlins over small rocks (on fire road pedal up) when the Ohlins air pressures were low on the first day - unfortunately low pressures also had the forks living in their mid stroke so I increased the main air pressure for Sunday but obviously too high, more experiments this weekend…..

I’m expecting there to be nothing if not a minor difference between the forks and possibly manitou having the better air spring

Definitely lower pressure in the manitou for same sag - 65-70psi main / negative / 110 irt compared with 130psi main and 220psi rampup……

As to the damper, more fiddling needed.

Rich.

 

[SummerMadness]

So, these little beauties turned up Saturday morning (after I paid the customs charges ). Set them up using the using the CCS86 guide on the google sheet doc and went out yesterday for a bracketing session .

All I did was open high speed fully and had a blast - absolutely love them. Oh I forgot, I reduced to 160 before I went out

Thanks for all the advise @Zed. @Hattori-Hanzo

 

[Zed.]

All I did was open high speed fully and had a blast - absolutely love them. Oh I forgot, I reduced to 160 before I went out

Don’t be afraid to play with the air spring pressures, 1 or 2 psi can make a noticeable difference as can the irt pressure - especially on heavier landings


On my (180mm travel) Mezzers if I remember, I’m running rebound 1 from open, hsc open and lsc one from open (open being anticlockwise when looking at the adjuster)



As to my Ohlins experiment, 5 days riding @ Bpw (red jump & tech) I’m starting to get the forks close - not convinced they’re staying on the bike though so when I’ve found time to rebuild the Mezzers damper (& remove a shim from the compression stack!)
They’ll be going back on the rail for more abuse

Rich.

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

Nice one what was the total cost in the end?
I'm toying with picking up another set at some point?

I initially set up to the manitou guide, which was okay, then changed to the ccs86 suggestions which feels great over charter but I'm bottoming out on heavy compressions.

Think I need to up the main and irt a little, but I like how it's feeling over the rough at the moment, so maybe just increase the irt and HSC?

Need a bit more time with them but coming from fox 38 they feel pretty damn good

 

[SummerMadness]

I am so bad at bracketing, get too excited and when it feels good enough I forget what I am supposed to be doing! will open up as you state. What do you weigh. Am about 93kg fully kitted. Sag was above suggested at circa 27% so probably need to do some work. Felt great straight off the bat though!

 

[SummerMadness]

Nice one what was the total cost in the end?
I'm toying with picking up another set at some point?

I initially set up to the manitou guide, which was okay, then changed to the ccs86 suggestions which feels great over charter but I'm bottoming out on heavy compressions.

Think I need to up the main and irt a little, but I like how it's feeling over the rough at the moment, so maybe just increase the irt and HSC?

Need a bit more time with them but coming from fox 38 they feel pretty damn good

It was around £576ish from BikeDiscount.de, then circa £150 in customs charges so around £726 total.

The CCs86 have me at above recommended sag. Did'nt bottom out though

 

[Hattori-Hanzo]

Still a good price when compared to fox, rockshox

I'm around 70kg, at 170mm travel in currently running around 45 main and 75irt

Rebound 6 clicks from open
HSC 2 clicks from open
LCS 2 clicks from open

That's what I finished the day on and they where feeling pretty good, though I still need to play around with them some more.

They easily feel as stiff as the fox 38 and a lot smoother over small bumps/chatter. Just need to sort the top end compression.