A Closer Look at Jesse Melamed's Prototype Electronic FOX Suspension

Last month we saw some new Fox bits on Ed Masters' Pivot Firebird, and it looks like that product is now being rolled out to other athletes. Jesse Melamed's Rocky Mountain has the new system as well, and he's just piloted it to an impressive result in the EWS Whistler Pro Stage. Unfortunately, Kaz and Alicia are racing the EWS100 right now, Henry's packing up the Pinkbike Racing setup in MSA, Seb's asleep in the UK, and Levy and Matt are off today. So, you'll have to settle for my uninformed, non-tech-editor insights.


There appears to be a remote which presumably would cycle through different modes. That's missing from the current LiveValve system at the moment, and could be a good way for the system to err on the side of openness. On track, we saw Richie Rude and Youn Deniaud with similar-looking setups. I'm personally surprised to see racers trying the system out in a place like Whistler, where many of them have historically chosen coil suspension. Although this year's Whistler EWS course has some punchy climbs, I imagine that any advantages from a system like this would be amplified at faster, smoother races elsewhere. Either way, after the Pro stage it appears the system has passed its first major test.

If you were hoping for more information, hang tight. I know Levy and Matt shot a video with Jesse testing on this system that's going to be done for tomorrow. I'm fairly sure Fox is still a ways from production, so not exactly "review tomorrow," but close enough.