Powered by Outside

Fox CTD remote / lever - Sram X0 3 speed alternative

PB Forum :: All Mountain, Enduro & Cross-Country
Fox CTD remote / lever - Sram X0 3 speed alternative

 Post Message | Latest Comment
Author Message
flag 242spot
Posted: Feb 27, 2017 at 16:59 Quote
Hi there,

I've seen a number of posts on various sites with regard to replacing the unsightly and frankly poorly designed Fox CTD remote lever.

I struggled to find good information on this topic, so I've posted my experience here for others reference.

In the post below I discuss three options:

1) Fox two position - fail - not enough cable pull
2) Sram two speed front shifter - fail - not enough cable pull
2) Sram X0 3 speed front shifter - successful

I've just built up a Trek Top Fuel with a fox float CTD rear shock and the Fox Float 32SC forks and there was absolutely no way I was putting that monstrosity CTD (Climb Trail Descend) lever anywhere near my new machine. In this respect, I set out on some alternative minimalistic options.

Option 1: Fox two position remote. This is a really nice looking, light weight (important for weight conscious XC folk) two position remote, however, it's function with the CTD shocks (front and rear) is seriously flawed. The two position remote will NOT pull enough cable to shift from Climb (locked out) to Descend (open). It pulls around 11mm of cable and you need to pull something in the order of 17mm to get from C to D. In this respect, you can tune the shocks into a middle range, but you never get the shocks fully open or closed. Although the remote works great and I was happy with the two positions, I found it a complete waste of time as the lock out had virtually no effect. Although you could tune it to have a lock out effect, you then ended up with the shocks not fully opening for Descent mode. A waste of time that fox need to address as they claim compatibility.

Nice light weight lever though:
photo
photo

Option 2: Sram 2 speed front shifter. This option was quickly ruled out by a trip with a measuring tape to the local bike store. The Sram 2 speed shifter only pulls around 10mm, so is not enough to function with CTD forks and rear shocks. Don't waste your time here.

Option 3: Sram X0 3 speed shifter. Great news here, this works pretty damn well. The Sram shifter pulls around 9mm on its first pull and then a further 12mm on the second pull. This results in 21mm of cable pull, which is actually more than is required to go from full Climb to Descend. Further, if you run Sram brakes like me, then it's MMX compatible meaning a super clean bar set up. However, in full disclosure, there are some key points to raise here:

1) As the X0 3 speed shifter pulls a total of 21mm, you will need to tune the forks / rear shock from the maximum pull position. This means when fully released (21mm cable out) you will have a surplus amount of cable from the circa 17mm the CTD forks / shocks require. Basically, this means that you have around 4mm slack in the cable (circa, not actually measured in detail). For me this is taken up within the Fox splitter required to run both front and rear shocks on the single remote (Part number 803-00-817-KIT). This causes no rattles or looseness in the system. Warning, do NOT tune the shocks from the released Descent position on the shifter. When shifted up into Climb, the full two shifts (21mm) will be trying to shift further than the shocks can move. For setup, double shift the front shifter up to the max pull position and then set you shocks (front and rear) to the full lockout Climb positions and tighten the grub screw.

2) You don't get perfectly linear shifting. By this in mean the first shift is less than the second. So, if the first shift of the Sram X0 lever pulls 9mm and the first 4mm of that is slack in the cable, then the resultant first shift is actually around 5mm. In this respect, you get a 5mm first pull (shift), which is your Trail position, then another 12mm on the second pull (shift), which is your Climb position (total results in the full 17mm of the CTD shock travel). This means your first shift (Trail) has far less effect than the second (Climb), which fully locks the shocks. In reality, I find that I tend not to use the middle position (Trail) and I just double shift from Descend straight to Climb.

3) The Sram X0 shifter weighed in at 123g, some 60g heavier than the Fox two position remote at 63g. This bugs me perhaps more than most when every part on my new bike was chosen with weight in mind.

First shift
photo
Second shift
photo
Heavy shifter
photo
Nice, clean, OEM looking bar
photo
photo

As a final sum up, I'm really happy with the outcome here. However, I would prefer a single shift Descent to Climb shifter that was MMX compatible and that pulled the perfect 17mm of cable to work with the fox forks. Oh and bloody light weight. However, no such perfect beast exist though! Cane Creek are close with their new DROPT seat post dropper lever, but this doesn't latch and won't work with suspension forks / shocks.

photo

Anyway, hope this helps others in the same boat looking at that ugly Fox CTD remote every ride.

 


Copyright © 2000 - 2026. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv65 0.006984
Mobile Version of Website