On the topic of Fox being floated on the stock market, it seems like things aren’t so great over at Fox https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Fox-Racing-Shox/reviews

The stories coming out of the factory seem to tie in with what I was told by Mojo, that Fox are moving the last of their production and assembly to Asia. Corporate restructuring? Fox in trouble with their shareholders? Anyway, great **** move in terms of public confidence in your product Fox (if their marketing team are reading this thread).

I can’t boycott trek (and specialized) any more than I already do so I hope it’s not down to them (but it wouldn’t surprise me).

I’ve been at this caper too ling. I can remember trek being new in the UK and people buying established brands over this new brand no one had heard of.

On the topic of Fox being floated on the stock market, it seems like things aren’t so great over at Fox

Similar stories from CK I seem to recall, and Tesla, and many others (bike related) that I won’t go into.
I doubt many people will remember this if the price gets a little sharper and service is as good, that is just how people’s memory goes. It takes far too much effort to ignore a good deal… I was even close to considering a spec bike despite swearing I’d never touch the silly standards game they play.

Was it Intense that had the Hand made in USA stickers – about the time most of their Alu frames were snapping or out of shape? I’ll take the best production for the price thanks.

A lot of stuff has turned from the USA to Asia and lost its mojo.

My Intense Hard Eddie just snapped and that was a fiasco in terms of time and delivery. Back in the Alu days that’s wouldn’t have been the case.

Turner for instance have never been quite the same since the Taiwan carbon jump.

It’s very sad for Fox – as they were made in the US for a long while and such a great product – my current rear can is on 11000 miles with no service.

I think the bike industry is making big changes. I’m seeing lots of issues with warranties these days too.

So even though the move to Asia can be okay , I see things being squeezed to make more profit which given the price of stuff is very worrying.

i heard a rumour today that Trek were pissed at Mojo, threatened to not spec any Fox forks/shocks on bikes next year as a result unless Mojo was binned as the UK distributor and service agent.

So, Mojo did something which pissed Trek off so much, at such a high level, that they made the decision, probably a board level one, at short notice, to blackmail Fox into dropping their UK distributor in the little old UK.

Sounds unlikely when you put it like that, but when Trek decide they want to screw a little guy, they do seem to get behind it.

Funnily enough Manitou swapped to US production, the “budget” brand. I’m going to laugh if Fox have massive QC issues.

Maybe Manitou are going to end up the bling boutique brand.

Anyway these days, if Fox shits the bed we have alternatives like Ohlins and PUSH that I am sure the Santa Cruz and ENVE buying public will be happy to swap to. Manitou are popular these days as well.

They were on the phones at 4.30 this afternoon (I called and grabbed an X2 with a mod from 50 to 57 – it was theoretically the last one). I’ll see what turns up in the post.

I also grabbed one and want it to be changed to 57mm stroke. Did you have to pay any extra? I couldn’t get through to them on the phone.

Maybe Manitou are going to end up the bling boutique brand.

They always used to be back in the nineties!

Sad news for the guys that work there – On the times I have dealt with them, it’s always been excellent service backed up with knowledgeable people ready and willing to help us people who still don’t really know how our suspension works

I also grabbed one and want it to be changed to 57mm stroke. Did you have to pay any extra? I couldn’t get through to them on the phone.

They asked for a ‘small labour charge’ to remove the bottom spacer and up the travel from 50mm to 57mm (it is an identical shock). Total cost of £20 for the labour was quoted, which if fair given it’ll take about an hour to hunt it down, strip the bottom can out, rebuild, test and repack.

#Brexit innit

Shame the music never quite took off either 😥

Mojo – Lady

I’ll get my coat 😳

Seems very odd that Fox have no ‘backup’ plan in place they’re prepared to announce.

There’s a lot of forks under warranty out there that shops and bike distributors are now responsible for with no mechanism to service or replace them.

The lady on the phone at Mojo has the sexiest voice in the universe.

No. That is the lady at Patagonia’s Paris corporate accounts. I used to have all the male instructors crammed in my office, phone on speaker, to hear the gorgeous Parisian Christine* speak….

“I have a theory as to what will happen.

CP liquidates all Fox stock, sells shell of Mojo to Fox to become Fox UK.”
This won’t happen.

“CP still retains Mojo name. Carries on selling Geometrons” this will happen

‘and working closely with fox’ this won’t happen

” but developing his own line of suspension.” this is likely to happen

either way it seems like a big move with not a lot of backup from Fox.

Worrying!

but developing his own line of suspension.” this is likely to happen

Is that like his clutch less mechs?
Sorry but I tend to avoid buying people who believe they are always right. I want stuff they works for me.

Unless Chris has been beavering away in the background for a few years and has a team comparable to PUSH/FAST – then it’s going to be a while before they can bring a shock or fork to market.

That is of course, unless they’ve hired out say, some of the chassis design work to a company like SR Suntour.

rone – Member
My Intense Hard Eddie just snapped and that was a fiasco in terms of time and delivery. Back in the Alu days that’s wouldn’t have been the case.

Back in the USA made Alu days it would’ve been welded squint and given never ending issues as a result of that instead.

Onzadog – Member

Sounds unlikely when you put it like that, but when Trek decide they want to screw a little guy, they do seem to get behind it.

I would think its more likely that if Trek* were pissed off it was because they believed it was something that could be damaging to their own brand, not just a personal grudge

*not really believing it’s got anything to do with Trek at the moment, because vague.

given that their product is a little on the high maintenance side, Fox will want to sort out a new system quickly.

I would expect they can cover this either short or indeed longterm via Germany. It’s not like they would be the only brand with warranty and distribution coming from the continent for the UK.
Kona have or had a European distributor for example

Shop is back online, limited stuff mind.

I haven’t had the best experiences with Mojo and found them generally rude and patronising on the phone but if it is really a short notice situation then that does indeed suck for all involved.

Rumours I heard were towards a more direct distribution model but I’ve no idea of the truth in that.

Well we will see. The last few rides my 36s have developed a creaking CSU so I have fired off an email to the US to see what they suggest. Warranty runs out at the end of this month so I want to get it registered, even if its not sorted straight away, assuming the creaky CSU is a warranty job. The Fox website doesn’t have any direct email address for warranty returns and I didn’t feel it appropriate to contact Mojo to ask if they had one I could use.

Edit email to the info@ridefox.com has bounced back saying they only accept emails from recognised addresses.

Give them a nudge on Twitter maybe?

Tom in the early/mid 90s when I bought my manitou carbon sx forks they were boutique, I don’t think I’d even heard of Fox back then

Yeah they were, then they had huge QC issues didn’t they? Or dodgy designs, I can never remember. Either way, if Fox stuff this up – people aren’t going to be willing to pay a premium for tat or poorly supported products, even if it is covered in Kashima. BOS utterly lost their reputation in the UK because of service support – they were ditched by all their OEM partners as well, eg YT and Orbea.

I am very, very surprised that Fox’s execs thought that it would be a good idea to risk doing a BOS – “Yeah guys, you know what sounds like a good idea – let’s stop doing what was working and move to the same centralised servicing model as BOS because that worked out really well for them, and you know what….lets dick all our customers over by doing it overnight”! The geniuses.

I don’t know mate mine were spot on then over they years they seemed to drop to crap fitted on cheap bikes.
Makes me glad I’m fully rigid on all my bikes 🙂

Assuming Trek are involved then a joint warranty/support centre would make sense from a business perspective would it not? In the short term users such as myself with warranty issues are a bit in the dark but beyond that, with sympathy to those at Mojo, why could Fox not offer just as efficient a service as Mojo? Couple of Fox techs who look after UK demos, warranty and tech support housed in Trek’s UK distribution centre. Use Trek as the demo fleet as well given they have a range to showcase all Fox’s products. Roll that out globally and you probably have a fair few cost synergies to strip out.

Tying themselves so closely to one manufacturer might make others less likely to specify a Fox product though?

To be honest, I’d like to see mountain bikers start choosing smaller brands making goods that have longer lifespans. Eg Hope brakes, the 11-6 shock and it’s ability to be altered in length for different bikes and be upgraded with new internals, modular forks whereby improvements are backwards compatible – all things that I’d rather pay good money for, rather than changes in hub standards every year.

BOS utterly lost their reputation in the UK because of service support – they were ditched by all their OEM partners as well, eg YT and Orbea.

Yup, I had Stif swap the BOS forks off my new bike for a pair of Fox Factory, specifically because of the stories I’d heard about the service support with the factory in France. I had used Fox for years and they were a known quantity, but the thought of waiting weeks and weeks for a fork to be turned around simply wasn’t acceptable to me.

Stuff like this makes or brakes a manufacturer and screwing it up can cause reputational damage that can last for many years. I really hope that Fox have planned this out because if they haven’t, they’ll be doing they competitors a huge favour…

The way this has been handled makes me think twice about buying Fox..

a fair few cost synergies to strip out

What?

I’d love to know whether Fox realise just how involved Chris Porter is in the industry, and how well regarded he seems to be by mags such as Dirt. I’d be interested to see whether there will be some blowback by magazine editors/writers that are friendly with him.

Anyway, I’m mildly amused by how such a successful company can balls up their marketing and PR quite so spectacularly in the course of one night.

why could Fox not offer just as efficient a service as Mojo? Couple of Fox techs who look after UK demos, warranty and tech support housed in Trek’s UK distribution centre. Use Trek as the demo fleet as well given they have a range to showcase all Fox’s products. Roll that out globally and you probably have a fair few cost synergies to strip out.

Sounds great on paper, I bet it did to BOS as well.

He means they’ll really have to square the circle to get all their ducks in a row before picking the low-hanging fruit

HTH

The way this has been handled makes me think twice about buying Fox..

It’s their crappy service intervals that’s always done it for me.

Tom_W1987 – Member

I’d love to know whether Fox realise just how involved Chris Porter is in the industry, and how well regarded he seems to be by mags such as Dirt. I’d be interested to see whether there will be some blowback by magazine editors/writers that are friendly with him.

Not much to be gained by supporting Porter at the expense of annoying Fox. Doubt Dirt has a huge amount of influence these days either, most of the things I see from their site is pretty poor (and 50% ebike related)

I’d be interested to see whether there will be some blowback by magazine editors/writers that are friendly with him.

I predict you’ll see the story covered in a strictly factual way that is highly unlikely to offend major advertisers like Fox (or Trek).