Help me tune my Z150SL

According to Marzo, I should have 35-45psi positive air, and somewhere between 0-150psi in the negative air.

In particular, I'm a bit baffled about the negative air. The ECC5 controls rebound, and the positive air controls compression damping, right?

So wouldn't it be good to have something in the 75psi range for neg air, so I get a greater range of adjustment with the ECC5 knob?

I'm guessing it would also be a good idea to be on the high side for positive air, as this fork isn't really designed for bigish hits or anything too extreme.

The guy I bought it from had 150psi in the neg chamber, and only 25psi in the pos chambers. He was a faily heavy guy (180lbs) and should have been running 45psi according to marzo. But he was riding mostly XC, so maybe that explains it.

Any suggestions on how other people ride this or similar forks (Z1 SL for instance) would be helpful.

Suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks in advance.

My wife has one of these forks and I find it very difficult to know exactly how much air is in each chamber. As soon as you try to remove the shock pump it always allows a little air out - and little amounts of air makes a huge difference.

The best way we have been able to 'tune' this fork is by pumping the forks up with a tonne of air, and then taking it out on the trail and just letting out a little at a time until it rides how you like it. Not a technical solution, I know - but practical.

I don't suppose a normal tire guage would work?

Bit of a silly design.

Bit of a silly design.

It's pretty typical of the new air forks. I hope you got the little air adapter with the fork, otherwise you'll need to buy one before you can do anything.

I use 2 different shock pumps for mine. One with 0-50 psi range for the positive pressure and one with 0-200 psi for the negative. The 0-200 and up psi pumps are not very accurate in the lower range, in fact I found about 15 psi difference between the two, and that makes a huge difference.

Setting this fork up can be very tricky, and you'll need lots of trial and error. Don't go too much by Marz's specs, you need to figure out what feels good to you.

Do a search over on MTB Review's forums. There's a couple of guys that have done lots of fiddling with this fork and have posted alot of setup tips. It's not easy, but they feel exceptional when you get it right.

i weigh 110 and i find that 30 psi in positive and 150 psi in the beagtive is perfect. I never bottom it out and its super plush… try something along those lines.