TESTED: Fox 34 FLOAT Factory Series Fork

Originally introduced back in 2012, the Fox Racing Shox 34 fork first debuted as Fox’ Goldilocks fork, with the goal of striking a balance between the stiffness of the big-hitting 36 fork, and the lightweight of the 32 fork. Just as Enduro started to become “a thing”, Fox struck while the iron was hot. The 34 fork quickly became the go-to option in the Fox range for trail riders and who had begun to find their bikes and their riding style pushing beyond the limitations of a fork built with skinny 32mm stanchions. At the same time however,the 34 also offered up a tantalising weight reduction for the Enduro racers lugging around a heavier 36 fork at the time.

While the 34 is now a staple in the Fox lineup, it has evolved significantly since then. In 2016, the 34 is available in 27.5″ and 29″ sizes, in multiple travel configurations, and in both fixed-travel FLOAT models and in adjustable travel TALAS models. The 34 has seen significant changes to its internals, with the 2016 version being effectively re-designed from the ground-up. The result is the lightest, plushest and most adjustable 34 fork that Fox have released to date. For the past four months, I’ve been putting the FLOAT Factory model to the test to see just how far this Goldilocks fork has come, and whether all the new bells and whistles really are as big of a deal as Fox makes them out to be.

“Designed for the aggressive trail rider, the 2016 34 has been completely re-imagined from the inside out, featuring an all-new FIT4 damper, FLOAT air spring, and super lightweight chassis. It drops significant weight over its predecessor while providing improved trail performance that instills confidence and control.” – Fox Racing Shox

The Fox 34 FLOAT Factory Fork features:

• Lightweight, long-travel trail fork
• 150mm travel (internally adjustable to 140mm)
• FLOAT air spring
• FIT4 sealed damper
• 34mm diameter Kashima Coat stanchions
• Tapered 1.5″ alloy steerer tube
• One-piece Magnesium lowers
• QR15 thru-axle
• Adjustments: Spring, spring volume, rebound, 3-position compression lever, low-speed compression dial
• Claimed weight: 1780 grams
• RRP: $1349

Being the top-level Factory Series model, our test fork features the slick gold-coloured Kashima Coated stanchions. Kashima is a type of coating for the alloy stanchions, and it’s designed to reduce surface friction between the uppers and the fork bushings down below. Fox has steadily been making their forks slipperier over the past few seasons, with every area of their forks and shocks being scrutinised to find new ways of eliminating stiction. New on the 2016 Fox range are redesigned SKF fork seals that feature a no-flange design that sits flush with the uppers, and an even lower friction value compared to previous wiper seals. It’s worth noting that these new seals are available for older model Fox forks.

One of the biggest changes to the 34 fork is the move from last years CTD damper, to the new FIT4 damper. FIT4 still offers 3 primary compression settings on the 34 fork, but they’re now labelled as ‘Open/Medium/Firm’. On the Factory Series fork, the Open setting features additional adjustability via the black dial, which offers 22 clicks of compression adjustment. FIT4 has been a welcome change over the oft-criticised CTD system, which never quite offered the same tuneability as Fox’s previous RLC damper or the RC2 damper that’s found in the longer travel forks.

FIT4 is named as such because it’s the 4th generation of Fox’s now synonymous FIT damper. Standing for ‘Fox Isolation Technology’, the FIT damper seals all of the compression and rebound gubbins inside a bladder that’s made from a type of rubber. As the fork compresses and oil moves through the compression circuit, the bladder can expand as required. The advantage of the FIT design is that all of the damping oil is sealed inside the unit, making general fork maintenance much easier, and also reducing cavitation – that’s when oil and air bubbles mix inside the damper and result in inconsistent damping on extended descents.

With alterations to the fork crown and the one-piece magnesium lowers, Fox was able to strip a significant amount of weight from the 34 chassis. Many of these changes were first seen in the latest 40 and 36 long travel forks, and the same design logic has been applied to the 34, which now sports a slimmer profile and a heavily chiselled and relieved fork arch. Along with the new air-spring design, nearly 200 grams has been trimmed off the 34. Our 150mm travel 27.5″ test fork tipping the scales at just a fraction over the claimed weight, but still 85 grams lighter than a RockShox PIKE. For a 6″ travel fork that’s built for rugged riding, 1.8kg is damn impressive!

One area to take a few more grams off the bike is the axle. Available as an aftermarket upgrade, the Kabolt replaces the QR15 thru-axle with a single bolt-up alloy tube. It weighs just under half of what the QR15 skewer does, and providing you carry a multi-tool with you on your ride (which I do anyway), then it’s not a huge deal having to remove the front wheel. It’s available in Black or Orange Anodized colours, and you can also get it in a 110mm wide Boost size too. It looks super clean on the fork, but it will set you back a not-inconsiderable $99.

Trail Time on the Fox 34

Riding the Fox 34 has been an absolute pleasure. The changes that Fox have implemented with the new fork are noticeable and very welcome on the trail. The action is incredibly smooth, and it is without doubt one of the most supple Fox forks to date. Mind you, Fox had some work to do in this area given how popular the RockShox PIKE has been in previous years, which is well known for being a smooth operator. Thankfully, Fox have hit back hard with the 34, and it offers up a level of small-bump sensitivity that rivals its fellow American counterpart.

One of the areas responsible for the 34’s newfound plushness is the redesigned air spring. Previous air springs from Fox have used a hybrid setup, with an air positive spring, and a coil negative spring. The new FLOAT forks however, now feature an all-air design with a self-equalising negative air spring. Ditching the coil spring has helped shave weight, but more importantly, it also offers a more consistent spring rate whether you’re a 50kg flyweight, or a 110kg clydesdale. The idea is that as you increase air pressure in the positive spring (adjusted by the usual schrader valve underneath the blue dust cap), the negative air chamber fills with equal pressure, offering a smooth transition between the two springs as the fork compresses through its travel.

The new FLOAT air spring offers further adjustability by the way of volume spacers. Just like the Bottomless Tokens in RockShox forks, the yellow volume spacers simply click into place underneath the top cap of the air side of the fork, allowing you to fine tune the spring rate. It’s a simple procedure to undertake, simply requiring a 26mm socket to remove the top cap. As to the effect, it’s also pretty simple to understand. More spacers = a more progressive spring rate. Heavier riders will appreciate more progression to the fork travel, as it allows the fork to ramp up firmer towards the end of the travel. Lighter riders and those who aren’t hitting huge drops can benefit from removing spacers to increase the volume of the air chamber. This results in a more linear feel to the travel. If you’ve ever found that you just can’t seem to use all of the travel on your fork, then removing a volume spacer will help you to access those last 10-20mm of travel.

Travel Tuning

Being on the lighter side (70kg with gear), I was indeed struggling to get all of the travel out of the 34 initially. I setup the fork at 65psi to begin with, then over the course of the first few weeks, slowly dropped pressure down to 60psi in search of full travel. Despite hitting good-sized drops and getting all 150mm out of the back end of the Avanti Torrent test bike, I was still only getting about 130mm out of the fork. After removing one spacer from the air spring however, the travel opened up immediately thanks to the increase in volume. I was able to maintain the same sag position and similar air pressure, while soaking up more of the travel on the bigger hits. Despite the increase in activity though, I’ve still yet to come into any issues with bottoming out the fork travel.

Of course there is a balance to be made. This balance is reliant on several factors including your weight, your individual riding style, and the bike you’re slapping the fork onto. In my case, being a wheels-on-the-ground type guy, I’m a big fan of supple and smooth suspension that helps your tyres to stick to the trail. Take into account the active 4-bar suspension design on the back of the Avanti Torrent with its supple Fox EVOL DPS shock, and I was always going to want a more ‘active’ feel with the 34. However, put the 34 under a more aggressive rider on a stiffer and shorter travel trail bike, and the needs change.

Speaking of adjustability, I’ve mostly run the blue lever of the FIT4 damper in the Open position, with the black compression dial wound most of the way off. For steeper alpine trails, setting the compression damping halfway is useful for minimising brake dive in situations where you don’t want to be sinking towards the ground. The Medium position is ideal for longer climbs where the trail is smooth, and particularly if you need to stretch the legs and get out of the saddle. That said, I still found it too firm for riding proper mountain bike singletrack, where I missed the sensitivity of the Open compression mode. As for the Firm setting, it’s really a bitumen-only setting for when you need a solid platform.

The Verdict

While Fox was on its own when it first introduced the 34 fork back in 2012, the competition has since risen to the challenge and delivered some serious punches along the way. The RockShox PIKE is popular for a reason – it’s plush, controlled, highly adjustable, and it features excellent torsional rigidity. The X-Fusion Sweep is another excellent trail fork with 34mm stanchions, and the Formula 35 fork that I tested previously is also another worthy candidate for long-travel trail riders. For 2016 however, Fox have hit back, with the all-new 34 providing an impressive balance between weight, chassis rigidity, adjustability and on-trail plushness. It is one of the smoothest forks out there, and with the adjustable volume spacers, it offers plenty of fine-tuning to deliver the right action for your riding style. I also like that the 34 fork isn’t bone-shakingly stiff, because there is such a thing with suspension forks. Like the PIKE, there’s just enough ‘give’ in the 34’s legs that your bike’s front-end doesn’t get slammed about when glancing off rocks at speed.

Aside from this particular 34 FLOAT Factory fork, I will mention that I’ve also had the pleasure of riding several other iterations of the 2016 Fox 34 fork on the front of various test bikes during the past 12 months, and I can say that my experience with those forks mirrored my experience with this guy. If you’re not so fussed about the blingy Kashima stanchions and the adjustable compression dial though, it’s worth noting that you can get a cheaper Performance Series model of the 34 fork, which still employs the same lightweight chassis, all-air spring, and the new FIT4 damper. For a $400 saving, the 34 Performance fork offers up some serious bang for buck.

Sola Sport

Website: solasport.com.au

Fox

Website: ridefox.com