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80HD Custom Crown and Stem

May 8, 2012 at 0:09
by Ian Cook  
80HD Crown and Stem for Marzocchi 888.

80HD, a new company owned and founded by DH Pro Aaron Hodgkin, is making some pretty awesome aftermarket crowns for the Marzocchi 888 and Fox 40’s. Along with their new flat crowns they also have a 3pc DM stem to go along with them.

80HD Crown and Stem for Marzocchi 888.
[PI=7996664/ size=l align=c][/PI]

I picked one up for our Marzocchi Evo 888ti to compare a few things. One being how it would affect the head angle and other areas of the bike like BB height, bar height, top tube height and stiffness. Being quite a bit lower than the stock Zoke lower crown, I was rather sure there was going to be a noticeable change.

80HD Crown and Stem for Marzocchi 888.
80HD Crown and Stem for Marzocchi 888.

But lets start off telling you what its made from. The 80HD crown is CNC’d out of 6061 and features a true 3pc design. Meaning you have the upper and lower bridges and a separate, replaceable steer tube. The 80HD crown for the 888 forks also has stem mounting options that let you utilize your Marzocchi factory stem or the industry standard 4 bolt DM stems, opening up tons of cockpit options (this will also be a future article coming soon). Although the full unit looks super beefy, it was not much heavier than the stock Marzocchi piece, upping the weight only about 80 grams more.

80HD Crown and Stem for Marzocchi 888.
80HD Crown and Stem for Marzocchi 888.

One of the most notable differences is the reduction in height over the stock unit. A full 5/8’s of an inch. This change steepened up the head angle a bit and lowered the BB slightly. It also reduced the handlebar and top tube height, effectively increasing standover height just a smudge.

In your hands the 80HD setup is a solid stiff contraption. The tall profile of each crown helped aid in that stiffness. 80HD’s crown and Marzocchi’s fork legs all fit well together, with minimal fuss during installation. We do not have a Marzocchi standard stem to try, however we are certain it will work just fine. I mentioned several things that can/will change with this new crown. The head angle was slight and barely noticable at about .3 degrees difference. However what was very noticeable was the reduced bar height. The 1/2” reduction definitely lowered things and can make the bike feel a bit longer. Yeah I said longer. Take your typical riders cockpit area, now lower your bars and your shoulders move forward in turn causing your body weight to be slightly more forward. How noticeable is this? Well substantial enough to make note of it as you can feel it out on the hill. But this is not a good or bad thing. There are hundreds of ways to set up you cockpit on a DH bike (again we said we have an article coming soon on that as well). Different height and placement of spacers and stems, or different rise bars all equate tons of change. I didn’t even mention angle set headsets yet!
If your looking to customize your DH bike, would like the option of running a 4 bolt stem on your older Zokes, or want to lower the front of your bike – then the 80HD may be just the hot ticket. Made from a small shop in the USA in small production runs. Soon the Fox 40 will be in the line up as well. For more information on the 80HD crown and stem, find them here www.80hd.com.

You can read more at www.mybikestand.com

Author Info:
WingNutt avatar

Member since Mar 14, 2008
1 articles

2 Comments
  • 1 0
 Contact Aaron at www.80hd.com/#!__contact (cut and paste that whole link into your browser, for some reason it is not letting me make it so you can just click on it) But he can get you pricing and availability. There are also several colors as well. You can also see more pics in our article at www.mybikestand.com.
  • 1 0
 where can i get one of these for my marzocchi 888?







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