First Look: Fox's New 36, 38, & 40 Forks - Pond Beaver 2020

If you saw Greg Williamson's Commencal Supreme downhill bike and all of its shiny Fox suspension bits on the homepage a week ago, you'll already know that Fox has been working on some new stuff. Turns out they've been working on a lot of new stuff: For 2021, there are fresh 36 and 40 forks, as well as the all-new 38 that broke cover last year. All three come with a long list of new features, including redesigned lowers and the addition of Fox's Variable Valve Control system to the compression damper. Details below.









Floating axle

For your suspension fork to slide up and down as smoothly as possible, its legs must be in near-perfect alignment. If the stanchions or lowers aren't essentially parallel, the fork will bind slightly and not feel as active and smooth as it should. Fork manufacturers put a ton of effort into making sure both components are arrow straight, but things can't be perfect all the time, especially when there are so many different hub options out there. That's where Fox says that their new floating axle system, used on the 36, 38, and 40 forks, comes into play.




While not the first floating axle out there, Fox's idea is the sound: ''Match the exact width of the fork’s wheel mounting surface precisely to the front hub flange spacing.'' Doing that, they claim, ensures perfect chassis alignment to lessen friction. The fewer the frictions, the smoother it is. The stock floating axle comes with a quick-release lever and is factory pre-set, so you shouldn't ever have to mess around with it, or you can get the lighter bolt-on Kabolt-X that also floats.



Lower leg channels

Did you know that your fork (kind of) has more than one air spring? There's the normal one that you thread a shock pump onto, but there's also the air-filled space between your lowers and upper tubes. This area usually (hopefully) has some lube oil in it and, just like your real air spring, decreases in volume as your fork goes into its travel. Fox says that this can have "the unintended consequence of preventing full travel from being achieved,'' which is where these volume-increase channels come in.

By creating more volume in the lowers, the trapped air won't have as much of an effect on the spring rate, claims Fox. On top of that, the channels should let the lube oil move around and be more effective. You'll see these on the 36, 38, and 40 forks.




Air bleed buttons

You might have spotted these little guys on the backside of a Fox 40 or 49, and now they've come to the 36 and 38 as well. Remember how we were just talking about air pressure trapped between the lowers and upper tubes messing with your scientifically calculated spring rate? That pressure can build up over time and, instead of sliding the pointy end of a zip-tie down past your seals, these pressure-relief valves release it in a split second.

It's like being able to fart at the push of a button. The fart buttons only come on the Factory-level forks, not the Performance series, but Fox sells them separately and, because the lowers are the same, they bolt right on.




Updated GRIP2 damper

We jumped head-first into the GRIP2 damper's inner workings way back in 2018 when it was released, including its clever and effective Variable Valve Control high-speed rebound system. For 2021, Fox is bringing that VVC technology to the 36, 38, and 40's compression damper. Basically, instead of preloading the shims, they're changing the leverage that's being applied to them. I'm a visual learner, so I pictured a frisbee (the shims) sitting dead center over a skinny pole (the small center bolt) - you'd be able to easily flex the frisbee over the pole if you pushed down on it. Now picture the same frisbee on top of a larger diameter pole that covers much more of its footprint - it'd be much more difficult to flex. Not only is VVC effective, but it's also very compact, which is always important when you're trying to squeeze a zillion important bits into a damper.

Fox will also continue to offer a 36 using their three-position FIT4 damper, or you can choose to equip it with their electronic Live Valve damper.

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