[Closed] Fox forks = poo poo?

Glad I just sold mine.
They were ok but as they were n my holiday bike probably only got used for 30 days or riding, 6 or 7 hours a day.
I couldn't live with the servicing if they were n my UK bike!

I've never serviced my 36 Vans myself - had them for years then recently got a professional service and they were absolutely fine. Couldn't say the same for the Pikes where the stanchions wore down like crazy and they started pissing oil after only a year's use.

Fox forks are ludicrously expensive now though.

You know what is "poo poo"?

... The grammar in your initial post. Seriously, that was a terrible attempt at expressing an opinion!

I must have serviced 20+ sets of Fox forks this year (I've done 3 this week). I've probably seen the inside of more forks in general than all but the Big Boys like Loco and TFTuned.
I've only ever seen one set of worn Fox forks which are actually sitting in my garage as I type. They're 8 years old. I've done the seals and a service and I reckon they'll go into double digits as they are. Which is pretty good in my book

Was worried when I read that Peter. Then I read the age of the worn forks. Guess mine were the other 2 sets this week!!

And no bullshit in his post. He's done 2 fox forks and a fox shock for me this week.

I've never serviced my 36 Vans myself - had them for years

Mine were completely shagged after 2 years on my Spicy. A bike that I used for trail centre duty so ridden infrequently.

Out of the three Fox forks I've owned, the wear rate on two of them has been appalling. Strangely the third was unmarked. At the other end I've never had a problem with Fox rear shocks and never had one serviced or felt the need to have one serviced.

I spent more on the last bike to avoid the Fox fork on the lower model.

I can never get Fox forks to work very well. I have Fox F120 RLC 29 on my Rumblefish.
I can set them up to be plush so they soak up all the bumps brilliantly but then on steep descents they sit at full travel giving no suspension.
Or, I add some more air to stop it diving through its travel on descents and it rides harshly.
I don't have this problem with Rockshox.

I've got a pair of Fox 36 VAN RC2's on a Nomad, mine do the peaks, Wharncliffe and most of the major trail centres so they're ok for half my riding but not the other half ?

In your opinion !

Thank god I don't listen to know it all guru's who spend valuable riding time posting shite sorry I mean poo poo ! And blaming the bike parts for their inadequacy !

I wished I'd got a quid for every rider I'd seen throwing their bike about because it made them face plant off a drop or come up short on a gap jump !
It's always the bikes fault as well !

Was worried when I read that Peter. Then I read the age of the worn forks. Guess mine were the other 2 sets this week!!
And no bullshit in his post. He's done 2 fox forks and a fox shock for me this week.

Hi Gren
Yeah yours were fine mate.
Thanks for the back up too! 🙂

Nobby - Member
The last pair of Fox I had were F100 RLC's & they were mint after 3 years riding when I sold 'em. Been on SID's for the last 3 years and, despite regular servicing, are showing signs of wear & a creaking CSU - all normally "expected" on Fox.

Just picked up a used set of F Series which are the same age as the SID's yet immaculate by comparison.

Similar to Nobby, I have some 2010 F120's FIT on my Yeti (reviewed in 2010 as the perfect trail fork) which were described as "mint" when serviced last year.

I have dual air RLT SIDS on the other bike and have two issues: a) For the money, there seems to be not much going on inside them b) there's not a lot of small bump compliance. I know this not to be setup after [posting a fair bit about it and comparing with others with the same fork. IMO the SIDS are a racing fork which can be used for Trails, the F120 a trail fork which could be used for racing.

I wouldn't want to pay £800 for a set of fox's though.

I have this sneaking suspicion fox forks are perfectly ok.

Barring the infrequent aforementioned incidents of inexplicably rapid wear.

In 14 years of using spending forks I've had 5 sets.

'99 Manitou Spyder RS - blew up within 6 months and we're replaced under warrant at which point I upgraded them to....

2000 Manitou X-Vert Supers - I'll come back to these in a mo

2006 Fox Float 140's - used for 3 years on Spesh Enduro and were still fine when I sold em.

Spesh E150 SL's that came on my S-Works. They were lovely and stiff, ok for big hits but just as crap as all the reputed started for everything else. After 4 years and not being serviced they have now bitten the dust. Needed a service and we're weeping oil from the negative air leg. Didn't have the heart to pay money to get them fixed.

So, not wanting to pay £900 for Fox, or nearly as much for Marz, I've ended up with X-Fusion. Seem great out of the box but have no more input to give yet as I'm not in the country to ride em.

So - my experience with Fox has been fine - and they were bloody nice to ride.

However - Manitou, err didn't everyone call em Manipoo? They are still going strong - spring and elastomer. Been serviced once in 13 years. Obviously don't get ridden every day but just goes to show - different experiences

I see Pussywillow has come over all quiet since I called his bluff.......

I've got a pair of Fox 36 VAN RC2's on a Nomad, mine do the peaks, Wharncliffe and most of the major trail centres so they're ok for half my riding but not the other half ?

Ey pal you got it spot on there

Hey natural riding gnarly dude.....your probably not as good as you think you are. For one you don't know how to set forks up.

I'm interested in knowing one thing:

What's the difference between a bump at, say, Afan to a bump in, say, Cut Gate? How does that make a difference to a fork?
Hmmmmm......

I see Pussywillow has come over all quiet since I called his bluff.......

I assume he's off somewhere else ranting about 29ers? 😛

Not much pal as cut Gay I mean gate is a bit like a trail centre now innit

Never had anything other than fox, either as stock on new bike or purchased new at a greatly reduced price.

No issues so far over 10 years and being 12st, never noticed noticeable flex on my 32s or talas and run a few more psi and less damping which appears to help the dive factor.

Not sure about servicing them myself as i cant even put up a level bookshelf...so it does cost.

PeterPoddy - Member
I see Pussywillow has come over all quiet since I called his bluff.......

POSTED 8 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Ok peterpoddy, I'm a man of my word if you or any one else on here want to prove that I'm talking shit and my riding isn't up to it to qualify that fox are Shiite then I openly offer a ride off, which will envolve proper mountain bike trails that I would say a descent set of trail forks should be easily left undamaged, fox forks are weak and shite, will you accept my ride off to prove my theory or will you stick to being a keyboard warrior, the choice is yours pal???

Ok peterpoddy, I'm a boy of my word

Fixed.

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That Gee Atherton fellow, he always sticks to the easy trails.

People are moaning about stanchion wear, which is caused by dirt being left on the seals over the course of months. Not going out for a ride and your forks exploding.

The only Fox I've had with stanchion wear are some that I bought off the forum. My own sets I keep the seals clean, no issues in any, the oldest at the moment being about 5 years old. I've had multiple sets of Rockshocks dying, for a variety of reasons, never have a set of Fox died.

Kaesae anyone?

He had a better grasp of punctuation.

I"ve only ever owned fox rear shocks.

My first Van 125 fork (I was one of the owners in the UK) were amazing and my 02 36 floats survived my hamfisted muppetry.

All other forks, well. Nuff said. Now I cant afford Fox!
Awesome products. IMO.

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And some totally unacceptable Fox Stanchion wear on my 2006 36's which get a lowers service every 1-2 years. Seals need doing but it has been 4 years since they were done.
and look at these guys just mincing round on fox forks..
[img] http://www.ridefox.com/newspics/newspic_1165-2458.jpg [/img][img] http://oneindustries.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/DanAtherton2Alpedheuz.jp g" target="_blank">http://www.ridefox.com/newspics/newspic_1165-2458.jpg [/img][img] http://oneindustries.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/DanAtherton2Alpedheuz.jp g"/> [/img]

Industry boys riding Fox forks shock horror

Accept the ride off! That'll prove a point scientifically and definitively 🙄

What annoys me is the Mojo/Fox servicing costs- upto a third of RRP on shocks is ridiculous. Especially if the shock is VERY simple internally.

Daylight robbery.

Fox forks are very nice and perform very well from my experiance. They do/did make the stantions out of cheese though and you do see a far higher % with worn stantions then other brands.

Marzochi are for real riders!

Andreau- bent 888's
Hopkins- snapped 888's
Doerfling- snapped 888's

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I like marz stuffs, I like fox stuffs. Blind brand whoring is a sign of a juvenile mentality.

If I'm ever buying a fork for the Rampage I'll bear that in mind 😆 The fact that these are really downhill race forks but can still be used for absolute [i]madness[/i] is pretty impressive.

They can't though...!

If I'm ever buying a fork for the Rampage I'll bear that in mind

Well no 40s or boxxers broke, which are also a a DH race fork so it's relevant.

People have broken other forks (and ridden succesfully on 888s) so it's a bit of an odd argument tbh- things break, and things are more likely to break when you're doing something daft, so it's hard to see it as useful info...

Romaniuk broke his by nosediving the big wallride gap thing, I don't think you can fault them for that. And didn't the other guy screw up the oakley sender? It's a bit like complaining that a car broke because you drove it into a wall 🙂

Not really. Unless marz only sponsor riders who case everything, and the fox and RS riders are faultless, then it seems a very good test ground for kit comparison. Everything is pretty equal, all riders are riding nutcase grade trails. 3 sets of marz broke. No Fox or RS forks broke. Is it just bad luck? 3-0 suggests not.
I'm no marz hater, I'd still buy a set. But the comparison is a fair one IMHO.

Id imagine the fox 40s are stronger as they have wider stanchions, but jonsey of dirt fame reckons that makes them too stiff he also slaggs off the servicing intervals they require

fwiw id have any of the big 3 on my dh bike quite happily us mere mortals are unlikely to get near to their limits
although being lazy the lower servicing requirements make me a marzocchi man

Industry boys riding Fox forks shock horror

There's a bit of an inconsistency there; if Fox forks are as rubbish as you make out, then why would industry folk (who one might presume have easier access to whatever they want) ride them?

Given that I doubt the Fox marketing budget is bottomless enough to give free forks to journos/bike shop workers, I think there are the conclusion that can be drawn from your post is that Fox forks are good enough that lots of industry people buy them even with other options.

Andy

DOI: Have never ridden a bike with a Fox fork, so have no idea how good. bad or indifferent they actually are.

Because its more likely you'll do something you want to if you get paid to do it.

Also the pros often have different internals to the after market products. Not just new prototype stuff but they will modify dampers to their liking etc. Similar to some of the DH and XC racers will have custom geometry bikes built by their sponsors.

People have also run other branded forks with their sponsors' logos on them but I think that was a long time ago don't think people are doing this now.

wrecker - Member

Not really. Unless marz only sponsor riders who case everything, and the fox and RS riders are faultless, then it seems a very good test ground for kit comparison. Everything is pretty equal, all riders are riding nutcase grade trails. 3 sets of marz broke. No Fox or RS forks broke

No other forks broke in competition runs. But then those 2 were the biggest crashes I can remember on the day, you need to look at breakages per mad crash rather than breakages per run. Gee Atherton bent a set of 40s in practice that year, though, Sorge broke a set of Boxxer lowers last time then went on to win on the replacements, and that's just what you hear about- things off camera don't get the same coverage (wasn't there some boy doing barspins with 66s last year?)

the big difference with pros/ industry types is that they have mechanics/workshops that will do all the set-up/ servicing

even the older crank brothers mallets were favoured by peaty, minaar, the athertons etc despite being sponsored by shimano for other bits
because the mallets are the best functioning dh pedals out there-if you have someone to change the bearings for you every time you get a bit of play

kust look at the alpine 160/650b thread for what the guy at mojo was able to do to his shock just to get bigger wheels on

It's not worth much, but my experience with mag/demo bike stocks from loads of brands is that the Fox forks are the needy-est and get sticky or generally feel crap the soonest, but you don't buy Fox as a fit+forget option anyway.

But it's all fairly irrelevant to me. Even if I could get trade price, £800 or more RRP forks have zero appeal. I had Z1s bitd and they spoiled me, now the idea of servicing a fork every 20-30hrs (ie almost weekly, at times) is a bit off-putting - but fine for 5hrs use a week when performance is a priority (and if you feel that you get that from the fork).

The old Marzocchis were ace. They needed little attention and were so easy to pull apart and sort yourself. I'msstill running a pair of 2004 Z1 Freerides and they ace. Stiff enough in the BFe and plush enough for mucking about on.

As I said my 36's are still going strong and seem to work well in the Peaks as well as the dreaded trail centre although what that has to do with anything, I'm not sure. I do blame Fox for the crazy prices we have today...before the 36 was issued (and sold well) top end forks were around the £500 mark which is still a chunk of cash but a grand is just silly. It almost seems as though the likes of Marzocchi and Rock Shox saw what Fox were charging and thought they'd get in on the act (not that I'm cynical).

All forks suffer from problems and the net does allow them to be blown out of proportion. There are also a lot of bikes out there that don't get looked after which I'm sure adds to this, especially when Fox are a poor OE choice.

PeterPoddy - Member
I must have serviced 20+ sets of Fox forks this year (I've done 3 this week). I've probably seen the inside of more forks in general than all but the Big Boys like Loco and TFTuned.

Because its more likely you'll do something you want to if you get paid to do it.

Yep

I think almost all fork prices are a bit too much these days... X-Fusion would be an obvious exception.

However, never had a problem with early Fox forks (2002 Float RLC's - 5 years and 2003 Vanilla RLC's -
8 years.), when both only had a full service every 2 years. Maybe Fox have for worse durability wise...? That said I didn't have an issue with Specialized E150SL forks for 5 years and most people didn't rate them for durability or performance.

Only fork I have had durability issues with is the AMP F3XC back in about 1996/1997.

It would be interesting to see the profit margins (minus r+d costs for future interations of forks). I imagine mojo and the like also pay a percentage to fox for the servicing of the forks too.

did too much fork and shock servicing in one of my old jobs, typically 6-8 "lowers service" every week, upgrading forks to SKF seals and lots of fork conversions like Talas to Float

owned lots of RS, Marz and Fox forks (32,36 and 40 models). Found Fox forks worked well but required more looking after.

Only problem really with Fox is their tendency to develop annoying clicking / creaking noises after a season or two of regular use in wet climates where regular bike washing causes the stanchion assembly grease to leache out of the stanchion / crown fitment.

it won't cause any safety issues, but its damn annoying and is often mistaken for steerer tube or headset issues

Mojo will replace the CSU free of charge, if this occurs within 1 year of purchase, but after the 1 year warranty runs out, nothing you can do but buy a new CSU which is kinda expensive even for a cheaper 32 model