Sea Otter 2012: X-Fusion forks, shocks and posts

X-Fusion is working hard to become a major player in the suspension fork world and its new forks, shocks and posts look likely to earn it more fans.

In brief, there’s a new 34mm fork chassis, a chunky 29er fork, a ‘Gold Slick’ slippery stanchion coating option and even a mini rear shock for the racers. Oh, and revamped HiLo uppy downy posts.

Here’s the range. The tall shiny one is the Trace 29er and the new Slant 34 is on the left.

The X-Fusion Trace 29er fork comes in four versions from 80-140mm. Lighter uppers are used for the 80 and 100, with more durable ones used for the 120 and 140 versions. It also has X-Fusion’s Gold Slick coating.

The crown/steerer for the Trace is forged in one piece. First there’s a forging of the crown/steerer rough shape, then it’s machined to nearly the final shape and finally stamped to final spec and anodised.

Here’s the new X-Fusion Slant fork. It comes in a 26in and 27.5in version and comes in 80mm up to 160mm versions. The 120-160mm versions get the beefed up stanchions while the 80-100 again get lighter 34mm stanchions. There’s also a DLO (Down Low Adjustment) 30mm travel adjust option and a Gold Slick option too.

Slant - a 34mm fork we're keen to try soon.

The HiLo uppy downy post has received a large makeover with a new forged year, 125mm/5in drop and a 360° action remote that looks very similar to an old Maverick (and later Crank Bros) remote with a smoother finish. The HiLo SL is aiming for a 450g + remote weight.

The HiLo SL and the HiLo, both remote-only

That tiny shock on the left is the new 170g Microlite rear shock, intended for super light full sussers like Scott’s older Spark, or other Germanic marathon and XC race machines. The X-Fusion boys have been running them on trail bikes just to see if they can break them, with no success yet. The O2 shock next to it now comes with six different tuning options: five trail and one slope style. Plus X-Fusion offer one-off custom tunes for not very much money…

Micro, O2 and the Vengeance on the right gains a Gold Slick coating too.

We don’t have UK prices yet, but we’re sure that Upgrade Bikes’ Rory will be in touch shortly to let us know prices and availabilities.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

Comments (3)

JohnBJohnB April 21, 2012 at 8:07 am

“looks very similar to an old Maverick (and later Crank Bros) remote with a smoother finish”

Any thing to do with Mr P. Turner now being on the payroll??

AlexSimonAlexSimon April 21, 2012 at 9:28 am

“Said remote is also new, and recognizable as a Paul Turner (RockShox founder) design that was first employed on Maverick’s Speedball, then CrankBrothers’ Joplin. Turner is now part of X-Fusion’s development team. “He’s a full-time X-Fusion employee,” said general manager Joel Smith. “He’s working on all of our advanced development projects, which include two chassis, a new damper and this new seatpost. He’s been to Taiwan with me twice this year; for me he’s one of the strongest assets this company has.”

crocodiliancrocodilian April 21, 2012 at 6:54 pm

No prices to moan about? What the hell? Whinge moan whinge…