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Edited Date/Time
4/7/2026 4:41pm
This forum is for discussing anything related to the 2027 RockShox Zeb fork (B1 models). Feel free to ask questions , leave helpful tips for setup/service, or provide notes about how the fork has worked for you.
RockShox has completely overhauled its Zeb fork for model year 2027. They took what they learned developing the latest Boxxer and applied many of the same technologies and tuning ideologies to their single-crown gravity fork. Everything is new with the Zeb, from the chassis to the damper and air spring, to the external adjustments. Below is a deep dive into all the changes, as well as Vital’s ongoing coverage of the fork.
What’s New?
Chassis
The Zeb has all-new chassis components, including lower legs, stanchions, and crowns. However, the fork's stiffness was made similar to that of the previous chassis. The only thing that is stiffer is the crown, which is wider than before.
There are supports that form a tunnel where the arch meets the legs, ensuring equal wall thickness and pressure around the upper bushing to reduce friction and maintain chassis feel.
The fork has a plastic cap on the arch that is replaced by the fender. There are now two fender sizes: Mullet (short), Full Coverage (extends in front and behind the arch). The Mullet fender is included with aftermarket forks.
The pressure relief valves that equalize pressure in the lower legs have been moved to the crown, likely to avoid infringement of FOX’s patent. They function the same as before, are easier to reach, and are less susceptible to purging oil.
LinearXL Air Spring
First developed with Boxxer in 2024, the Linea XL air spring uses a tube-in-tube design to balance the ratio between the positive and negative chambers, as well as the spring shaft and piston size. The result is a more position-sensitive linear spring, meaning that as you move through travel, the rate at which the fork increases force is constant.
AirAnnex Chamber
The LinearXL air spring works in tandem with RockShox’s new AirAnnex chamber that protrudes from the bottom of the left leg. The bulge is nothing more than an empty cavity that increases the lower leg volume on the air spring side to reduce casting ramp during compression. When a fork compresses, pressure in the lowers builds, causing uncontrollable air spring progression. The AirAnnex helps lower the end-stroke ramp, ensuring a linear spring rate throughout the travel.
Adjustable Bottom Out (ABO)
To balance the linear spring curve and provide ending stroke ramp, RockShox has created a new Adjustable Bottom Out (ABO) feature.
ABO is a mechanical system that lets you move the position of the jounce bumper up or down on the air shaft. This allows you to tune air pressure and bottom-out support independently. You can still add volume reducers to the positive air chamber to create a more progressive spring curve. The bottomless tokens have not changed.
ABO is adjusted with a 5mm hex wrench and has 8 positions. Fully retracted (counter-clockwise), the bumper engages the last 7mm of travel. Fully engaged (clockwise), the bumper engages the last 17mm of travel. Bottom out is still achievable at full engagement, but it's going to be pretty hard to reach. Marks on the stanchion help identify if you are running the correct amount of ABO.
Ultimate level forks come equipped with the ABO adjustment. The Select model has a fixed ABO position, while Select+ can be internally adjusted but requires dropping the lowers. However, you can purchase an ABO upgrade kit for $80 USD that also includes a ButterCup assembly.
Breather Holes & ButterWagonTech
Below the seals, there are two new updates to the stanchions. First, there are breather holes that connect and equalize the pressure between the lower chamber and seal head, the bushings, and the space around the air spring cartridge. This provides a consistent response time across different shaft speeds and reduces the fork's breakaway force.
On Ultimate models, there are also a bunch of divots on the stanchion, affectionately named ButterWagonTech. Their function is to collect oil from the bottom of the fork and transport it up to the bushings and dust wipers. This helps lubricate the bushings, reducing friction and improving fork performance for the duration of use between services.
Charger 3.1 Damper
The Charger 3.2 damper uses the same layout as the Charger 3.1 but offers more compression damping to match the linear spring rate and reduce friction in the fork. Charger 3.2 will be available in Select+ and Ultimate forks and features low- and high-speed compression and rebound adjustments. The compression dials are also numbered now to simplify counting clicks.
New Oil, Grease & Seals
The previous Zeb used Maxima light-weight oil with 30cc on the damper side and 15cc on the air spring side. Now, both sides use 30cc of Maxima medium-weight oil to improve durability. The fork also uses new Maxima 920 seal grease. New RockShox-exclusive low-grab SKF seals apply less pressure to the stanchions through the entire stroke while still keeping crud from working its way into the lowers.
Models
There are five Zeb models—Base, Select, Select+, Ultimate, and Ultimate Flight Attendant. Each model is available with 27.5- or 29-inch wheels and 150mm, 160mm, 170mm, or 180mm of travel. There is no longer a 190mm travel option.
Zeb Base is a carryover model from the past generation, with the only change being an updated Delta RC damper. The Ultimate models are the only forks to receive every new update. Select and Select+ still receive the new LinearXL air spring, AirAnnex chamber, and pressure relief valves on the crown. The price remains the same for Zeb Select, while Ultimate has increased by $20 USD, and Ultimate Flight Attendant has increased by $40 USD.
Zeb Select
- Linear XL air spring with fixed bottom-out system
- Delta RC damper with external compression and rebound damping
- Pressure relief valves in crown
- New low-grab SKF wiper seals, Maxima oil, and grease
- MSRP: $ 989 // € 1,080* // £ 965* (*Includes VAT)
Zeb Select+
- Linear XL air spring with internally adjustable bottom out
- Charger 3.2 damper with external low- and high-speed compression & low-speed rebound
- Pressure relief valves in crown
- New low-grab SKF wiper seals, Maxima oil, and grease
- OEM only
Zeb Ultimate & Ultimate Flight Attendant
- Linear XL air spring with Adjustable Bottom Out (ABO)
- Charger 3.2 damper with external low- and high-speed compression & low-speed rebound
- ButterWagonTech on the stanchions to pull oil up to the bushings
- ButterCups to filter out trail chatter
- Pressure relief valves in crown
- New low-grab SKF wiper seals, Maxima oil, and grease
- Colors: Electric Red or High Gloss Black
- MSRP: Ultimate - $ 1,299 // € 1,415* // £ 1,265* | Ultimate Flight Attendant - $ 1,799, € 1,965*, £ 1,750* (*Includes VAT)
Linear XL air spring
- Includes air shaft, piston, top out bumper
- Does not include ABO or ButterCup assembly
- MSRP: $50 USD
ABO Upgrade Kit
- Includes parts to achieve external bottom out adjuster
- Includes ButterCup assembly
- $80 USD
Setup
If you are unfamiliar with RockShox Charger damper dials, THIS link explains how to make adjustments.
Air pressure chart:
First Ride Impressions
My time on the fork started with a 3-day RockShox press camp in NZ, followed by testing on my home trails around San Diego. The first thing to know about the new Zeb: it’s straightforward to set up.
RockShox’s tuning approach of starting at ‘0’ and adding or subtracting damping is easy to comprehend, and the change in damping between clicks is significant, which streamlines landing on a setup you like. It also makes it easy to change a click here or there to match trail conditions. Charger 3.2 has honestly felt the same as Charger 3.1, which is a good thing. The latest Charger dampers offer so much control without feeling harsh that I’d urge you to run more compression. I think you’ll dig it.
There are 5 clicks of HSC, 15 clicks of LSC, and 20 clicks of LSR. Each click of HSC makes a big change, while LSC has a wider range, so I tend to go in 2-click increments and rarely go beyond +/-5 clicks. If you are going past that, you’re likely looking for more platform to push against or less feedback, and should adjust pressure and reset compression to ‘0.’ I’ve settled on +1 HSC and +3-5 LSC.
Air pressure is much higher than before because of the new air spring design. I’m running 138 psi, and the recommended pressure for my weight is around 139 psi. I would definitely try the recommended pressure because the new air spring is linear, and the fork is insanely light and easy to get moving right off the top. Which means that it will probably feel softer in the parking lot than you’re used to. During the camp, most of us editors started too high and gradually lowered pressure. I think many riders will have a similar tendency. I would even try starting 5-8 psi below recommended, and see if you can achieve the hold-up you’d like with damping. When pressure was too high, the fork really lost its ability to track and filter out chatter.
Speaking of air pressure, that brings us to the standout characteristic of the new Zeb—it’s definitely linear.
Linear XL positives:
- It has a very supple initial stroke that offers amazing grip. It has that glued-to-the-ground feel, and flutters nicely over small chatter. Offers more traction and less feedback than the previous Zeb.
- Lots of mid-stroke support, which means you spend more time in the middle of the travel, and your handlebar height is preserved more often.
- Consistent response throughout travel gives the fork a calm, predictable personality. No spiking, weird ramping. Even though I’m describing performance by different parts of the stroke, it feels very seamless as you move through the travel. The fork rarely responded in ways that caught me off guard, which goes a long way in building trust as you ride faster, or hit things you weren’t expecting.
Linear XL negatives:
- Has felt more muted. It doesn’t have quite the responsive ramp that we’ve become accustomed to from typical air-sprung forks. It may take some acclimating depending on personal preference. Personally, I liked it. It made the fork planted and easy on the hands. For those wanting more platform to push against or a more engaging feel—try adding LSC before changing pressure or bottomless tokens.
- A real lack of ending stroke support. But don’t worry, adjustable bottom out is here to keep you safe!
ABO: Don’t fear the bottom
ABO isn’t a start from ‘0’ adjustment, but rather a more or less adjustment. With the bumper fully retracted, the fork was blowing me away with how smooth and calm it rode. However, the second a bigger compression came around, the fork was diving. I slowly added more ABO and settled on +3-4 clicks. This gave me the balance of comfort and support I wanted. Anything past that, and the support came on too early in the stroke, which introduced some harshness, especially on fast, square-edge hits.
ABO feels less like a ramp at the end of the stroke and more like it rounds off the harshness of bottom-out events. It still gives the perception of a linear spring deeper in the stroke without reaching bottom out in a violent way.
ABO has been a really impressive and impactful setup tool, and I haven’t had to add any bottomless tokens because of it. That said, if you end up on a Zeb Select that doesn’t have the ABO adjustment, you are definitely going to need to add bottomless tokens to give the fork some hold up. That was my experience with the new Boxxer, which also doesn’t have ABO. Your other option will be to purchase the ABO upgrade kit for $80 USD.
Figuring out the relationship between air pressure and ABO will take the most time when setting up the new Zeb. But having the ability to independently adjust how the fork feels at different parts of the travel is liberating. The good news is that RockShox recommended pressures are accurate, and you can quickly make adjustments that have an impact. I never felt lost in clicks, trying to decide whether a change made a difference.
I’ve also left my setup the same since day 2. All I’ve done is change a click of damping or ABO depending on trail conditions. This paints the best picture of how well the Zeb has performed across the board. In Queenstown, the bike park trails were fast, and I needed the fork to stand tall pushing into berms and hitting holes, as well as filter out the shock of high-speed compressions. In contrast, my home trails are slower, looser, and rockier. They require a lot of front wheel grip to hold lines. Riding a fork that’s felt exceptional in different environments has made for easy living.
What’s The Two-Month Bottom Line?
The new Zeb has been one of the most comfortable, easy to set up, and consistent feeling forks I’ve ridden. It also can’t be overstated how nice it’s been riding a fork that feels as good as it did on day one, two months later, and it’s felt the same day in and day out.
Highlights have been its ability to reduce feedback, track the ground, and remain calm. The combined abilities of the damper, air spring, and adjustable bottom-out feature let you compromise little on setup. You have multiple strings to pull to make the fork perform, and I found I could get the Zeb to be easy on the hands and offer lots of traction, while still holding strong when riding hard.
The only downside I see as of now is that getting on an Ultimate level Zeb, or upgrading your Select or Select+ fork with the ABO upgrade kit, feels necessary since it's needed to add support at bottom out. I also think riders might need to adjust to the fork's less responsive feel at first. This will come down to personal preference, and I think the range of available adjustments will accommodate most setups.
We have plans to do future comparison testing and long-term durability testing with the Zeb, and will update the forum when those tests go live.
Uh oh. My wallet might be getting lighter. Nice work.
Trying to figure out if I should bail on my 38 plans now....
Really interesting to see the travel overlap between the Lyrik and Zeb at 150, 160, and 170mm. I'm curious to see some back to back comparison at the same travel options (if that's planned).
Yeah I agree. I do have both forks at 160mm and can definitely whip something up once I get time on the Lyrik.
Any issues with Rebound not being fast enough..? A few other reviews note that which gives flashbacks to Charger 3.0
I got a Zeb Ultimate for my 161 pretty much exactly one year ago... Has it made me faster even as I approach 40? Yes. Is it the it's the best fork I've ever owned? Also, yes. But I can't help but lust over this new iteration, I'm running a coil on the rear and have the Zeb set up as linear as possible but I rarely reach full bottom out even though I run it with no tokens (I'm 205lbs). An even more linear fork would be silly for my style of riding...
Be great to get Carlie on the new fork and see how it stacks up to the heavily modified Zeb with the MRP parts he was riding.
Are there shim kits available for the 3.2? With 3.1 they had different rebound tunes you could reshim to. I think they also had different compression kits.
On the FA version is the HSC adjustable in any way? Even if via shims, or is it completely fixed like with 3.1 (no shims or anything available)? What “setting” is the FA HSC set to?
Is HSC adjustment seamlessly adding support, or do you feel like it adds harshness too? The most impressive part of the fox grip x2 damper is how much HSC I could get out of it without feeling like it was spiking.
No not on my end. I just checked, and I’m 10 clicks out from closed, out of 19 clicks or 20 positions. So middle of the range, and I’m running middle-ish of the road pressure.
Is the 2600g on new Zeb I've seen floating around legit? That's quite a bit more than the last model. I'm looking at updating the tired Lyrik C1 on my Bronson, and was planning on getting a new Zeb for it. But if it's really 3/4 lb heavier than the new Lyrik (which can finally go back to 170), maybe I go with the Lyrik.
I passed along your shim kit questions to RockShox, will let ya know when I hear back.
The jump between HSC clicks has felt seamless to me. Granted, you only have two additional damping positions (+1, +2), but I can run +2 and it isn't harsh in a way that makes the fork feel like its skipping off compressions. But it is firmer, which can be less comfy. That's why I go for +1, it splits the difference nicely.
With Grip X2, I usually run 4-5 clicks out from closed (out of 10 clicks). Any more closed, and it starts to feel similar to Charger 3 fully closed. Grip X2 definitely has more tuning options because there are more clicks, but I still end up with a narrow window of clicks like I do with Charger 3. I would say I'm more of a 'set it and forget it' rider, especially with HSC. With both dampers I've been able to find a setting I like and then never look back. LSC though...I spin that sucker every lap haha
I agree. @TEAMROBOT think you could get that done before MY30 Zeb comes out?? 😉
Can we get some axle to crown measurements pls?
Also Jeff Weed in his review mentioned that the fork sits basically at 150mm even though its 160mm and there is no way to get the full travel. Would be curious if 170mm is just the way.
I saw that as well. Now I feel the need to check my current 160MM Lyrik to see what it actually measures out to.
How does the DH performance compare between the Zeb new and the Podium? Would you put them in the same category? I have the old 3.1 FA zeb and like it, but I got a demo on a bike with a podium and it was kind of amazing. Felt like next gen performance for sure. Ate up braking bumps and I could crank the HSC for addictive levels of support for bigger hucks/drops etc. Made purposely over-clearing jumps fun.
Jeff was measuring travel from a sagged position. Kinda clickbait move IMO. Any good modern fork will sag a bit under just the weight of the bike, it's been like this for years. Shocks do the same thing.
Yeah this is the reason why they made the C1-generation air springs, purely so the fork would rest at full extension and end those complaints. Problem was it rode worse and they have since changed back towards larger negative volumes which do sag under their own weight
As for tuning, Rockshox tend to release service documents on day one, UNLIKE SOME BRANDS
https://docs.sram.com/en-US/publications/1MdgH61bPulKX0ksJ8f3UH/SM%20-%202027%2B%20ZEB%20and%20Lyrik?models=fs-lyrk-ult-e1#hashItem=compression-damper-assembly_1
Super interesting for rockshox - they actually have mid valve check shims and spring changes as part of the tunes. Although it does not appear to have options for rebound tuning? Ignore the IFP spring rates - I assume that is probably related to fork travel and not a tuning parameter
As a matter of fact I'm on a new 2026 170mm Zeb Select+ (which is an Ultimate minus Butterwagon and Buttercups), so I should be able to answer your questions soon. Hopefully before MY30 @Jason_Schroeder
ok you have my interest. That is more than just new stickers and a .1 on the damper. Legit cool tech.
maybe this is more of a question for the suspension functionality thread... but the idea of drilling dimples in the fork stanchions is really odd to me. I would think that a radial brushed pattern in the fork stanchion would be the better solution. I've honestly always found it a bit odd that we rely on a highly polished/anodized fork stanchion (and damper shafts for that matter) instead of a micro finish of cross hatching and then finer polishing (sanding) to reach the appropriate surface finish so it carries oil. I always assumed that there was a vanity/aesthetic reason that consumers wouldn't be able to understand that surface finishing such as this is intentional and better then chrome/mirror like polishing. I digress, cross hatching or radial brushing the suspension shaft components is pretty common in other forms of motorsports. Of course much of the products in moto/car are chromed steel... but a lot of the aftermarket tuners are doing micro finishing to get better oil adhesion.
I just can't wrap my head around the qa/qc and manufacturing required to dimple a thin wall tube, without deforming it while also not having burrs on the edge of the machining surfaces. Pretty crazy labor/cost process to drill these dimples/pass throughs in the raw material, prior to surface finishing/anodizing.
Regarding the rest of the release... what an interesting set of circumstances to have RS and Fox swap air spring design solutions to each other's respective design at the same time. I honestly feel like this is going to be for the better for RS and I'm pretty nervous about the new fox 38 as a result.
Is the air spring compatible with the older Zeb?
one gen more and we are back at 2006 weights but without coils and 20mm axles
At this weight point, if you want a linear spring, just buy older fork and add smashpot... The funniest thing is that they put all those buttercups and now an ABO which takes lots of space in the lovers and added a small bulge to increase the leg volume, in my books they added just enough volume they lost with ABO and buttercups, so what can be the result really?
I don't know their exact reasoning but I would guess the dimpling is more repeatable than anything else - controlling the surface finish before and after anodising is probably challenging, but also the aluminium tubes do wear and can get smoother over time - these dimples won't. I saw someone posting measured surface finish values a while ago, and the RS forks were in a pretty good range (not too smooth) but the older forks were much smoother in the area where they were working the most. While a "rougher" finish is better than a highly polished one, it doesn't have to be visually rougher to work well, even though some methods out there will leave visible cross hatching or similar.
*EDIT- a few other things to add, the cross-hatched finished you'll see done to stanchion tubes and shock shafts helps to maintain an oil film between the seals and tube surface. Because if the surface is too smooth, the seals can wipe the oil away from the surface and you're running straight on the metal. This is most noticeable if the fork sits for a while and has a lot of stiction the first time you compress it. This dimple tech looks like it helps to pick up oil from the bottom of the lowers and redistribute it to the bushings & seals, so has a slightly different purpose and isn't mutually exclusive of the surface finish of the stanchions
The newer air spring may 'fit' or thread into in the new chassis but it's not tuned nor recommended to run in older forks. So it's best to hold off.
"More linear than ever"
Isn't this only the first major revision?
Pretty much, and it's more linear than ever before haha
Don't @ me for my clickbait title 😉
Is there any way to tune the negative chamber volume? Different airannex tokens?
There was an air spring update to the Zeb, when it went from Debonair to Debonair+. A1 to A2.
And IIRC, A1 to A2 basically was about tweaking negative to positive ratio, dialing down the really active start of travel for midstroke support. But ending ramp was untouched (due to lower leg volume stuff).
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