New forks from FOX

Fox released its entire 2019 line up. Here are some of the highlights:

34 Step-Cast

More than one staffer around the office has eyeballed the 32 Step Cast for personal bikes, but the 100mm travel limitation prevented anyone from pulling the trigger. Rather than extend the travel of the 32, Fox slimmed down the 34 chassis, creating a fork that is claimed to be as stiff as a 140 mm-travel 34, but almost a half pound lighter. Travel is limited to 120 mm, but big tires can fit – the 29er fork can go up to 2.6, the 27.5 to 2.8.

Fox only sent info on the Factory series forks, but when I pulled the image from the press-release pdf the rest of the line up appeared as well.

• NEW Entirely new Step-Cast chassis

• 3.5lb/1.59kg (27.5” w/ Kabolt axle)

• Same stiffness as 34 140mm, nearly 0.5 lbs/0.23kg lighter

• 15% stiffer than 32 long travel and 0.3lb/.14kg lighter

• FLOAT EVOL air spring

• External steps in lower casting reduce weight

• Dedicated air spring and damper tune

• 120 mm max travel

• 27.5” chassis fits up to 2.8” tire, 29” chassis fits up to 2.6” tire

• Gloss orange or matte black paint options

• Factory Series models feature Genuine Kashima Coat

Pricing

Factory FLOAT FIT4 $943

Factory FLOAT FIT4 Remote $1,024

36 with new GRIP2 damper

In an odd twist, the excellent GRIP damper from Fox’s Performance fork has “trickled-up” to the Factory forks. Dubbed GRIP2, the new damper has 4-way adjustment (high and low speed for both compression and rebound) and a coil-spring-backed internal floating piston rather than the bladder found on the FIT4 damper.

We’ve got one of these forks to ride, but in a cruel twist of fate, the weather has been terrible around here, so we don’t have much to say about how it rides, but Spring seems to finally be taking hold.

• NEW FIT GRIP2 damper with 4-way high- and low-speed

compression and rebound damping

• NEW max travel options: 180 mm (27.5” ) / 170 mm (29”)

• NEW Gloss Orange paint option

• 27.5” with 37mm offset and 29” with 44mm offset options

• FIT4 three position damper options

• FLOAT EVOL air spring

• 831 model – GRIP2 with convertible 15 mm/20 mm axle

• Factory Series models feature Genuine Kashima Coat

Pricing

Factory FLOAT FIT4 $994

Factory FLOAT FIT GRIP2 $1,065

Performance Elite FLOAT FIT4 $899

Performance Elite FLOAT FIT GRIP2 $973