Fox Racing Shox has completely revamped its line of Fox 34 forks for the coming 2022 model year, with designs that reflect the development of frames and of the all-round trail riders that traditionally run Fox’s 34mm stanchion forks.
However, despite two new forks (the 34 and 34SC) there’s no mention at all of 27.5in forks in the press release. Nor are there any non-Boost options here. Fox will point you at previous versions of the 34.
Yep, trail riders are getting faster and riding more technical terrain, while still wanting a light weight fork. And, it seems that frame designs are giving bikes fatter head tubes, needing a tweak to the fork brace to clear these new and chunky trail bike frames. Fox has tweaked both the regular Fox 34 fork and the lighter weight 34SC (StepCast) too.
That’s not all. There’s a lot of clever new tech going on with the 2022 Fox 34 forks. In addition, there’s a brand new Fox Float X piggyback rear shock for hard-charging trail riders. And finally, there’s an all-new Fox DH-X coil shock ‘for the trail and beyond’
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2022 Fox 34
Let’s start with the all-new Fox 34 – it features an all new (and very smart looking) chassis, which has been sculpted and trimmed to keep the weight down
The new 2022 Fox 34 isn’t all sculpty for show. There’s some big weight saving going on while keeping the fork stiff, but there’s also some more subtle improvements going on, like these Lower Leg Bypass Channels. The idea here is to stop unwanted air compression. While having an air fork is all about compressing air, you want it done in the upper legs, where it’s damped and controlled. We’re talking about the air that can be compressed by the stanchions moving into the lower leg that can cause unintended ramping of the air spring, as the lower legs are effectively sealed off pockets of air.
For 2022, Fox has moulded in some air channels that link the lower leg air space to the outside world. It also has the advantage of moving some of the lower leg lubricating oil into the foam rings and bushings to keep those from drying out.
Talking of air, the Float EVOL air spring now has an enlarged negative air spring to assist with mid-stroke support (and the 34SC even lets you tune this negative spring with a volume spacer if you want a firmer, racier feel).
The 2022 Fox 34 fork arch has been tweaked as well to take into account the trend for chunkier and chunkier head tubes (we’re looking at you, Evil Bikes…) The new brace kicks forward a little more than the old 34 so that there’s plenty of clearance at full compression.
Fox 34 Summary:
- ALL-NEW chassis
- NEW air/oil channels
- NEW arch shape offers improved head tubeclearance with shorter rakes
- NEW 58mm diameter crown
- Updated EVOL air spring
- Damper option(s): FIT4, GRIP2, and GRIP
- Travel option(s): 120mm-140mm
- Wheel size(s): 29in
- Offset(s): 44mm and 51mm
- Axle(s): 15×110 QR and 15×110 Kabolt
- Factory Series models feature Genuine Kashima Coat
- Available in Factory, Performance Elite, and Performance
- Starting weight: 1698 g
UK Prices:
- 2022 34 Fox Float Factory FIT4 £1059 (130mm and 140mm travel, orange or black, 44mm/51mm offset, 29in only)
- 2022 34 Fox Float Factory GRIP2 £1139 (130mm and 140mm travel, orange or black, 44mm/51mm offset, 29in only)
- 2022 34 Fox Float Performance Elite £959 (120, black, 44mm, 29in only)
- 2022 34 Fox Float Performance £879 (140mm, black, 44mm, 29in only)
2022 Fox 34SC
The Fox 34SC (Step Cast) is a lighter weight fork intended for competition use and for shorter travel bikes. It’s essentially Fox’s rival to the new 34mm SID. The new 34 SC comes in around 1496g, so a good 200g lighter. However, it only comes in 100-120mm length and there’s a bolt-in ‘Kabolt’ axle rather than a quick release lever, for lighter weight. The upper forks maintain that new air channel moulding and the smart new arch design too. The lowers have that hollowed out ‘step cast’ look to them. 29in only, we’re afraid. Oh, and 2.4in tyre max too. You’re supposed to be going fast, remember?
As they say in the clothing world ‘Also comes in (shiny) black’
2022 Fox 34SC Summary:
- ALL-NEW chassis
- NEW air/oil channels
- NEW arch shape offers improved head tubeclearance with shorter rakes
- NEW 58mm diameter crown
- Updated EVOL air spring
- Damper option(s): FIT4 and GRIP
- Travel option(s): 100mm-120mm
- Wheel size(s): 29in
- Offset(s): 44mm and 51mm
- Axle(s): 15×110 Kabolt and 15×110 QR
- Factory Series models feature Genuine Kashima Coat
- Available in Factory and Performance
- Starting weight: 1496 g
Fox 34SC UK Pricing:
- 2022 34 Fox Float SC Factory FIT4 £1119 (100mm and 120mm travel, orange or black, 44mm/51mm offset, 29in only)
- 2022 34 Fox Float SC Performance GRIP £929 (120mm, black, 44mm, 29in only)
New Fox Float X and DHX rear shocks
Also for the 2022 model year, and in keeping with that move to burlier trail riding, even with XC and recreational trail riders, the new Fox Float X shock is (obviously) a piggyback air fork designed for hard use on a trail bike. It will come in a Factory and a Performance Elite version, with sizes for many of the new generation of trail bikes (although, strangely, seemingly nothing that Andi rides at the moment…)
The Float X is very tunable, with small increment volume spacers (down to 0.1 increments), numbered (yay!) tool-free 12 position single turn Low Speed Compression adjuster, an independent firm mode with separate two-position adjuster and an increased rebound range compared to the DPX2 shock.
A larger air sleeve allows a lower (by 40psi) shock pressure compared to the DPX2. There’ll be several popular sizes in both metric and metric trunnion (for the Performance) versions. And as mentioned, it’ll be available in a Factory (Kashima) and Performance Elite (black) version. There’s even a remote lever if you’re after one.
Prices will be: £659 for the Factory Float X and £569 for the Float X Performance Elite.
Fox DHX Factory
And finally, there’s a new Fox DHX Factory coil spring shock. According to Fox “the new DHX brings coil-sprung, magic-carpet, trail smoothing performance in a wide range of configurations to the trails and beyond.“
The DHX coil-over shock is all-new. It features the detented spring preload collar first seen on the DHX2. It’ll come in seven different sizes (and four trunnion sizes too). There’s a hight flow main piston, numbered, tool-free 12 position LSC adjuster, as well as a two-position firm mode circuit. The reservoir sizes vary according to shock size for more appropriate performance. It appears to borrow many of the best things of the new Float X and the existing DHX2.
The DHX shock will be £629 for all sizes.
More details will be on RideFox.com and your UK importer are the ever-cheery folks at Silverfish.
Comments (13)
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29er only? The bike industry is an arsehole.
Agreed @teethgrinder
I’m in the wrong sport when a fork starts at £879…..
In fairness Matt, fox aren’t exactly pitching themselves at the budget end of the market, they’re not a value oriented brand. It’s a bit like suggesting you shouldn’t drive because a new Aston Martin can’t be had for 10k.
Now whether you see them as a premium brand and worth the expenditure is a different story.
That stanchions brace looks very much like first generation Pike to me 🙂
Cheers!
I.
A 29 fork allows you to run both wheel sizes if plus is your 27.5 flavour.
Yeah, the stepcast probably makes some sense as 29er only but surprised about the other one. Maybe the internals need the space?
I like the addition of volume spacers for the negative spring, though I guess we’ll see if it’s actually big enough to be useful- seems like forks have pretty much got to the point now where the negative is a reasonable size. but most could still benefit from the option of being bigger and I’ve literally never ridden a single fork that I thought “needs a smaller neg spring”. So maybe they’ve made it massive so that the spacers offer meaningful adjustment both ways?
All just one step closer to reinventing dual air!
@matt_outandabout
Fox is positioned as ‘premium’ brand now, Marzocchi is their value brand. RockShox of course just offers a broad range. You can get a great fork for around £500 from in a Bomber Z2 or Reba/Revelation/Yari.
Why make the fork arch soooo big? If it were a little smaller the overlap with frame wouldn’t be an issue. Seems like they have created a problem so they can solve it and call it an upgrade!
And now boost has taken over the world so I would need a new hub \ wheel \ hack to make it work – brilliant!
Nice tyre blow out at 2:35!
Pretty basic design flaw to make the arch stick up above the level of where the crown race sits. What total eeejit came up with that ?
Ever stranger product release dates. Bike manufacturers struggling to deliver 2021 bikes (with Fox apparently being one of the hold ups) and “2022” parts already announced