Fox 36 Float Factory GRIP2 Review

Erm … that seems like a very short review based on 18 months of riding.

I’ve just recently swapped my XFusion Trace 36 for one of these.

I’m not sure yet whether it’s worth it, but probably need to get it dialled in.

It really can’t be the best fork out there, the damping seems to be somewhat different per each fork, it might not be possible to have it work on big and small hits on same setup and some haved needed bushings readjusted.

Sold mine and got different fork with different issues – I only miss the 36 on bike park days which I do 1-2 per year.

I feel like I should provide some constructive criticism for this review, because recently I’ve felt a lot of STW reviews have been pretty poor quality – they never used to be like this, hopefully they can improve.

– This review reads like the final conclusion section of what should be a much bigger review, it feels like its missing the beginning and middle and just skips straight to the end (I know it says conclusion first, but it doesnt even have the beginning and middle at any point) . For example it doesnt describe much about the fork itself, for example
– what travel lengths is it available in?
– what wheel sizes is it available in?
– what offsets?
– What model year , travel, offset, wheel size etc was this particular fork that was tested?
-what bike did you test it on?
– How heavy is it?
– what size if the brake mount of thefork?
– what is the max brake disc size it can take?
– How often does it officially need a service?
– what are the damping adjustments that are available to the end user? do they have a good range of adjustment?
– What are the air spring adjustments that are available to the user?
– Does it have bolts for a mud guard?
– Can you easily adjust the travel, if so how?
– WHat sort of riding does the tester like, how was the fork tested?
etc etc

I feel the quality of reviews on STW has dropped quite a bit recently, so please take this criticism the way its intended, constructively.

I got as far as the use of “bestest” and gave up reading.

I’d like to know what other forks the reviewer is basing his “best air sprung” fork upon? As “sag point, mid-stroke and end-stroke” are all adjustable on other forks.

I wouldn’t necessarily want to see all the tech stuff in a review, though I appreciate it might save me going to the Fox site.

I’d just like a bit more about what it feels like, perhaps making the stuff about mid-stroke support etc. a little more context specific – rather than just in the abstract.

Like Julian, I hope this helps as constructive criticism.

In fairness, in its original context- ie the magazine- this is just one out of the 7 pages of reviews, where it gets a full page, as much as an entire bike. On the website it feels small and a bit odd, on the page it feels to me concise and to the point, and way more comfortable in company.