From the archive: 1998 Marzocchi Mr T

MR T

No, not that one!

The Mr T was Marzocchi's first full production dual crown fork for a mountain bike. The Mr T was in effect a stop gap model that basically used a Z1 fork with stanchion extensions on the top to create the dual crown look, while the works riders got the hand made Super T.

The Mr T also used a new forging for the lower leg that utilised a 20mm through axle design and an I.S. disc brake mount that were both excepted standards for years. The lower legs were also used in the Z1 Duel model.

The lower crown was the same as a Z2 with the lips machined of and was placed over the stanchion join, with the crown fitted with the join at the top. The upper crown was an all-new CNC design that lived on for years on both the Super T and Jnr T models. The upper extensions had cut marks on the outer stanchion and also the inner rods so that the fork could be trimmed down to suit frames with smaller head tubes.

To service the fork was easy, the upper stanchion piece would just unscrew leaving in effect a Z1, with the only difference being 8mm allen key foot nuts opposed to the 15mm foot nuts of the Z1.

Catalogue spec:
Travel: 105mm + 5mm negative travel design.
Spring Type: Cr-Si coil spring in each leg. 3 different rates available.
Damping: Dual hydraulic Bomber cartridges with adjustable rebound.
Crowns: Forged alloy lower, CNC alloy upper.
Adjustments: 15mm preload, infinite rebound.
Stanchions: 30mm Easton alloy with butter smooth finish. Two piece design.
Steerer tube: Easton alloy.
Sliders: Aluminium gravity die cast. Special drop outs for through axle.
Disc brake mount: New 98 standard mount.
Brake Arch: Alloy, forged, CNC machined with optional cable hanger

Mr T

Lower legs

MR T!

pre-load and rebound adjuster

on the work bench, with a stanchion separated

On the cover of DIRT with Tim Ponting

Tim Ponting

exploded diagram MR T 1998

brochure page

My bikes: Cannondale Delta V 2000 1993

back in 1993 I bought a Cannondale Delta V (92 model) from Peter Darke Cycles in Sunderland, this was a fantastic looking bike but this was the early days of full suspension and the rear end bobbed somewhat ...

I kept the bike for a while but decided to move it on to go back to a rigid M600.

Moving forward to 2014 I spotted a top-of-the-range Delta V2000 1993 model frameset for sale on All things Bikes and I decided it would make a great addition to sit alongside my M800 Beast Of The East

Spec as follows:

Bar: Ritchey Force Lite NOS
Shifters/ levers: XT
Grips: Onza
Seat Post: Ritchey Logic
Saddle: Flite Titanium
Brakes: XTR
F Mech: XTR
R Mech: XTR
Chain & cassette: BBB
Chainset: XT
Pedals: BBB
Wheels: Ritchey with DX hubs
Tyres: Ritchey > Updated to Panaracer Smoke and Dart

Updated with Panaracer Smoke and Dart

Mountain Cycle San Andreas and me

Original advert, note the fork and disc brakes!

There have been many things written about the Mountain Cycle San Andreas, pioneer, classic, icon, while all of these are true they have been extensively written about before, so here is only a brief history lesson.

Mountain Cycle was formed by Robert Reisinger and unleashed the San Andreas in 1991. He brought for the first time a monocoque full suspension frame with adjustable sub frame, suspension fork and disc brakes. Just one of these would of been remarkable but all of them together... 

The San Andreas first came on my radar when a UK journalist called Paul Smith had one, it featured as a full page poster in MBUK and was/is the only picture of a bicycle I ever had on the garage wall. I loved the fact it looked like a 500cc GP motorcycle with the engine removed, ultra tech and ultra cool in a world full of steel rigid bikes.

In 2003 the company for which I work became the UK distributer for Mountain Cycle, so I had to have one. We sold the frame set in two guises, DH with a 190mm eye to eye shock (Van R or Van RC) or XC with a 165mm (Float RL or X-Fusion). So a San Andreas XC in red with an x-fusion coil shock (cheapest option) came my way.

My first San Andreas, note 'official' VPS shock position

When we took over distribution of Mountain Cycle the production had just moved to Kinesis USA, but most importantly all of their frames were all still hand made in Mountain Cycle’s traditional Portland home. The frame featured an up-rated cartridge pivot bearing, a new VPS new shock shuttle and was compatible with a new bolt on fork stop to prevent damage to the frame caused by triple clamps.

How Mountain Cycle described the San Andreas at the time (1993). “The most versatile all-mountain high-performance frame in the mountain Cycle line. The legendry San Andrea is the bike that started it all. Twelve years after its introduction, the classic design is optimized, refined, and in high demand. The San Andreas can be built up as a lightweight yet extremely durable 4.5 inch travel XC bike, or as an all-mountain machine with six inches of travel.”

At the time there was a very negative magazine test, mostly targeting the high b/b height. Being a US made bike it was actually designed that way for rock clearance, however this felt a little weird for the UK tester... This led me to experiment with the VPS shock mount to see if I can ‘iron’ out some of the frames weaknesses and to get it to handle more like the UK norm. The official MC line at the time was that the bottom two holes were exclusively for the shorter XC shock, while the upper two holes were for the longer DH shock. In the owner’s manual it did actually say not to use the upper holes with the XC shock, but I thought that if you could it would lower the b/b height to a reasonable level...?

I proposed my idea directly to the factory and they replied that they could not see any reason why you could not use the XC shock in the upper shock mounts, so they told me to have a play to see what happens!

VPS mount top hole, 165mm shock

I ended up at the highest shock hole with the smaller 165mm shock; this dropped the b/b to 13” and slacked the head tube to a more stable angle with a 100mm fork. For me this gave the best compromise and is a set up I would whole heartedly recommend to try, the bike will only have 4 ½” of travel but the improved handling will by far compensate for this. Another set up option that works well when using a 140mm travel fork is the second hole from top with the 165mm shock.

I sold my San Andreas and moved on to other things, but the bike always had a special place in my personal cycling history... Until one night on the internet I spotted a dealer selling a new-old-stock 2003 model on clearance, the price was so cheap it was insane, I had to have it. I rebuilt the bike using the same ultra-rare Marzocchi RAC carbon fork for a modern take on the original ‘Reisinger’ look. I will never sell this bike; it is now part of me.

One new upgrade I have made that makes a massive difference is to swap out the old FOX Float to a ROCO Air LO, more modern damping keeps the back end in check and because the ROCO is a low pressure unit it has enabled me to lose about 50psi of pressure.

In summery the San Andreas is now old tech, it has a high pivot, it bobs a bit and doesn’t have much travel ... Of course none of these matters, cycling is about much more than that. In a world of big corporate cycle companies with instantly forgettable models the Mountain Cycle San Andreas still stands out today as something very special.

note: 140mm fork set up, VPS mount second from the top, 165mm shock

singletrack hunting

What's better than one San Andreas? Two!