Marzocchi Bomber Air review

Nice to see that — although Marzocchi now belongs to the Fox Shox group — the Bomber Air shock is not simply an existing product with new stickers from another brand.
You can tell from the outside by the angled-mounted reservoir. But internally, we were assured, it uses an independent damping system as well — based on the reliable design of the Bomber CR coil-spring shock. For example, the implementation of the base valve, which controls the oil flow into the reservoir and is a very important part of the compression damping, was built very similarly to the Bomber CR.

We have already discussed the technical specifications in our detailed presentation.
In addition to the information that the Bomber Air is available in numerous metric standard and Trunnion sizes, it should be mentioned that thanks to internal adjustment using travel spacers, certain travel configurations not listed in the official chart can also be achieved in 2.5 mm increments.

A simple and quick tuning to rider weight and riding style is — besides the lower weight — still the main argument in favor of air over steel spring elements. With the Bomber Air this procedure is made particularly easy.
Using air pressure (maximum 350 psi) the unit is tuned to the rider's weight and the desired sag. Depending on the required air pressure there is a table with recommended settings for rebound damping in the user manual. There isn't much else to consider for the basic setup.

In detail, the spring curve can be varied in its progression using volume spacers, especially in the mid and end areas of the travel. This process is extremely simple: let out air in 50 psi steps (in between compress the damper 10 to 20 times by about 25% so that the automatically balancing negative air chamber can adapt), then unscrew the main reservoir by hand and you'll reach the inside of the main air chamber (unlike our quick swap on the trail, of course this should be done in as dust-free an environment as possible).
Depending on the frame design you don't even have to remove the damper for this. The volume spacer is hidden at the end of the piston behind a large washer and can simply be clicked out and in.
Volume spacers are available as an accessory in sets of six (with volume thicknesses from 0.1 to 1.0 cubic inches). Depending on the damper stroke only certain thicknesses of volume spacer can be installed. There are also charts for that available for download from the service section of the website. The Bomber Air can also be run entirely without volume spacers.
Looking inside the suspension unit you can also see the bottom-out bumper, which prevents a complete metal-to-metal bottoming out during heavy impacts.

The damping can be adjusted in two ways: by rebound adjustment (ten positions) and low-speed compression, also called Sweep Adjust.
The rebound setting primarily affects the low-speed rebound, but also interacts to some extent with the high-speed rebound. The adjustment range of the rebound is chosen so that it works for a wide range of rider weights. For riders who fall outside this "normal range", suitable tuning options are available in the shop.
The Sweep Adjust on the Bomber Air is a stepless low-speed compression adjustment, very similar to the adjustment option on the Bomber CR. Although Marzocchi lists the adjustment as a 2-position variant, the exact opposite is actually true: it can be used in any position without detents over a 180-degree adjustment range.

Despite — or precisely because of — the limited adjustment options of Marzocchi’s Bomber Air, it’s easy to send the bike down the hill with a lot of confidence in no time. That’s not a given, and without question one of the most appealing characteristics of the Bomber Air: simply tuned to the bike’s required sag and the recommended rebound range read from the chart, and the air unit immediately works in a consistently predictable way.
The shock always provides a lot of support without wallowing into the travel and seems to really come alive when it’s properly challenged. Its ability to deftly react to quickly successive hits, in particular, delivers a high degree of control in rough terrain and on fast descents.

Besides the obligatory enduro trails, I also did many laps in the bike park with a 160 mm enduro test bike and mostly sent it down the downhill-race tracks with roots, rocks and the occasional larger drop, never once feeling that I was overtaxing the shock. In that respect the unit can be said to have a very wide operating range that will benefit a variety of riding styles and uses.
There were no performance problems during the test period, and I could not detect any change in suspension performance during a full downhill run.

The sensitivity is good, although there are suspension units that, due to their construction and expensive coatings, allow a slightly more cushioned response. After a longer break-in period this difference, however, becomes smaller and has only a minor impact in the overall balance.

That Marzocchi lists the Sweep Adjust compression-damping adjustment as a 2-position variant is misleading and can really only be chalked up as a mistake.
The round adjustment lever is continuously adjustable and shows a functional difference in every position across a 180-degree arc, similar to the compression adjustments on Marzocchi’s suspension forks.
The Sweep Adjust should not be understood as a lockout lever. It is fundamentally used to adjust the counter-pressure of the damping for loads the rider actively induces with their body — be it pedaling, the push-off when jumping, loads in berms and the like.
Accordingly, the Sweep Adjust can also somewhat suppress bobbing of the rear suspension while climbing. However, due to the shape of the lever, the Sweep Adjust is not necessarily suited (although quite possible, depending on the shock’s position on the bike) for quick adjustments while riding; thanks to generally well-developed suspension kinematics, most modern bikes cope well with climbing even without supporting functions.
If you run through the spectrum from completely open to the firm stop, a difference in suspension behavior is slightly noticeable, but never to an extent where you would perceive the suspension as negatively affected.

In the end my general choice for trail use landed on a position roughly in the first third of the setting; in the bike park the full firm stop made sense for additional support on jumps and berms, where the feature probably proves most useful.
Speaking of bike parks: Is it possible, and justified, that some downhill racers look for highly specific adjustment options like separate high- and low-speed compression and rebound damping? Absolutely. On the other hand, nothing speaks against the idea that even in a downhill race the Bomber Air would keep a bike safely on line.

The effect of the volume spacers on the suspension curve is clearly noticeable. Even with the thinnest 0.1 cubic-inch spacer the Bomber Air works sufficiently progressively with a modern, reasonably smartly designed rear-end kinematics. With a 0.6 cubic-inch spacer you don't have to worry about uncontrollably bottoming out at the end of the travel even with bigger drops and generally demanding riding. With the thickest 1.0 cubic-inch spacer — especially in combination with the bottom-out bumper, which acts as a mechanical end stop in the last millimetres of travel — even extreme freeriders will be happy; however, the bike's all-round suitability will probably suffer a bit, since under moderate riding you'd only be able to use a smaller percentage of the travel effectively.
Thanks to this extremely high achievable bottom-out protection and apparently good mid-stroke support, you are inclined to buy into the marketing department's claim that the Bomber Air is generally suitable for Rampage-style riding. At the most recent edition of the freeride event in October 2022, many sponsored athletes apparently did indeed choose the Bomber Air model.
Conversely, the Bomber Air is a good choice if you want to try to positively influence a linearly behaving suspension by increasing progression.

Since there were no space constraints during the review, it's hard to say to what extent the angled reservoir makes access easier. Technically speaking, however, even adjusting the Sweep-Adjust from one of the two sides is somewhat simpler due to the angling — regardless of which frame design is used.

Marzocchi is known for delivering a lot of performance at reasonable retail prices. Compared to competing products on the European market, the Bomber Air fishes for fans in a fiercely contested segment — often against dampers that can offer additional features for a few euros more.

But not everyone wants to study how to correctly tune their damper. On the contrary, the majority of riders are probably better served by simpler setup methods to get the most riding enjoyment.
Undoubtedly the biggest strength of the Bomber Air is that it can show its high functionality across a very wide range of uses with the simplest of setups. That even pro freeriders often opt for the Bomber Air underlines its potential. Should it also confirm Marzocchi's good durability – which the brand has clawed back in recent years – it would not be surprising to see more and more Bomber Airs on all kinds of bikes in the future.