Up until a few years ago, Fox arguably made the standout mid-sized fork on the market; their 36 RC2 was the slider that others imitated but never bettered. Then along came the reworked Pike from RockShox, and everything changed. Since its release three years ago, the Pike has held aloft the crown as reigning champion of the 140-160mm travel crowd, and rightly so; it’s been plusher, more controlled and lighter than anything else on the market. Competition is a great driver of technology, however, so Fox went back to the drawing board to rework their 34 series forks in an attempt to overthrow the throne; an attempted title-fight rematch if you will.
I’ve been riding the Factory series 34 Float for a few months now on two different bikes and reckon I’ve got a pretty good handle on how it performs in a wide variety of riding conditions. Of course the question you all want to ask is ‘is it as good as the Pike?’ The short answer is ‘yes’, but for a more detailed review of how Fox managed to come back swinging, you’ll just have to keep reading…
First up, let’s talk some numbers; our top of the line 140mm travel Factory series 34 will set you back around $1,399. With an uncut steerer and axle it weighs 1,787g. There is also a lower priced ‘Performance’ series fork with a simpler damper and non-kashima stanchions that weighs the same but sells for $899; we’d expect this one to be a common spec on new bikes. This makes the 34 about 85g lighter than its competitor in the same configuration. While we wouldn’t expect the typical 34 buyer to be overly weight obsessed, it shows the Fox team has done a sterling job at trimming weight. The reduction comes from the completely overhauled lower legs, as well as a lighter crown/steerer and the switch to an air negative spring (it used to have a coil negative spring).
If you’re worrying that Fox have removed weight at the expense of stiffness, then you can rest easy. On the trail I couldn’t feel a difference between the 34 and the slightly wider-legged Pike, and my highly scientific ‘take the axles out and flex the legs’ test didn’t reveal any significant difference either. The 34 steers exactly where you tell it to and it will hold that line until you tell it otherwise—that’s exactly what you want given the abuse 160mm travel forks are expected to cope with these days.
FIT4 Anything
Along with a new chassis, the 34 has a new damper; it’s the fourth variant of Fox’s FIT sealed cartridge unit and is aptly named FIT4. Apparently a lot of the technology is trickle-down stuff from the newest 36 series, including a larger damper shaft to allow higher oil flow through the piston. There’s also a dual-stage rebound circuit claimed to improve both control on big hits, as well as allowing for rapid return on successive smaller impacts. There’s still a three-position switch atop the fork’s right leg, but it’s a very different beast to the previous CTD (Climb-Trail-Descend) adjuster.
CTD had a very soft (some would say almost unsupported) mid-stroke in the Descend setting, a low to moderate pedal platform in Trail and a firm platform in the Climb setting. Top tier forks gave you a second adjuster to tune how firm you wanted the Trail mode by altering low speed compression damping. The new FIT4 damper is simply labelled Open-Medium-Firm; the open mode still feels supple but much more controlled throughout the full length of its travel, the medium setting is firmer with a good balance between plushness and efficiency, and the Firm setting is now almost a complete lockout. The lockout is of questionable value for off-road riding, but both the Open and Medium settings saw plenty of use; open for descending and rough trails and Medium for buff trails or climbing.
Factory level forks like ours still have an extra fine tuning adjustment over the more basic Performance series, but now it adds low speed damping to the ‘Open’ mode instead of influencing the middle setting. The extra Factory dial has around 20 quarter-turn clicks of adjustment; wound fully in it feels like it overlaps slightly with the ‘Medium’ setting, whilst wound fully out it’s light enough to not feel at all overdamped, even for my fairly modest 70kg riding weight. Most of the time I ran the open mode at its lightest possible setting, and although I did experiment with a few more clicks, it really wasn’t necessary. For riders at the other end of the weight spectrum, there’s plenty of adjustment range to tune brake dive out of the Open setting. The difference between clicks is pretty minimal so arguably Fox could have covered the same range of adjustment with fewer clicks and less wrist twisting, but as it is there’s the possibility to really dial in your perfect setting.
Springing Back
Fox have struggled a little with their air spring curves at times. Five or more years ago it was almost impossible to get full travel out of their air forks, whilst for the last couple of years many have criticised them for being too linear. The new 34 seems to have hit the goldilocks spot though, with a new profile that feels supple at the start of the stroke, holds up in the middle third and ramps up smoothly towards the end of travel. Riders of different weights and styles can also tweak the level of progressiveness by adding or subtracting volume spacers from under the left hand top-cap. These little plastic numbers clip directly beneath the cap, and whilst two are installed from the factory, four more are supplied with the fork for those who want serious bottom-out resistance.
It takes about two minutes (literally) to change the number of volume spacers. All you need is a shock pump and a quality shifting spanner—just make sure you let all the air out first or you could have an exploding top-cap to the face! I settled on two different settings depending on usage. For more aggressive riding with bigger drops I ran 65psi and two volume spacers, and for mostly wheels on the ground action I went with 62psi and no spacers. It’s definitely worth taking a little time to get the 34’s air spring set up to your liking, especially when tuning it is so easy and all the parts are supplied.
As mentioned earlier, the new 34 Float runs an air negative spring instead of the previous coil version. The main goals here were weight reduction and to ensure that the negative spring pressure stays proportional to the positive spring for riders of all weights. The only potential downside of this design is that you can no longer adjust the available fork travel by simply repositioning spacers on the piston rod. Instead you need to buy a different length rod—in this regard it’s no different to its main competitor. Fox have kept the price of these to around $50, so it’s not a huge outlay if you do decide to step your fork up or down slightly.
3+4 = 10
Out on the trail, the new 34 Float proves the old adage that sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Taken in isolation, the changes Fox have made to the 34 series forks are substantial, but when added together they complement each other perfectly to create a supremely confident all-round fork. Sometimes a suspension unit might have a great damper but a flexy chassis, or a stiff chassis but a compromised spring rate; the new 34 Float simply doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses to speak of.
You can set it with 20-25% sag for maximum traction in the rocks and it’ll still sit up high in the travel. When you hit something substantial it’ll offer up just the right amount of travel to soak up the impact whilst always seeming to have a little in reserve. Land a big drop or launch to flat and it doesn’t want to pogo you off the bike, but nor does it pack down when encountering a carpet of roots at maximum speed. Set it up right for your weight/style and it’ll tackle anything from near World Cup descents through to epic stage races—it’ll take it all in stride.
So is the 2016 Factory Float 34 as good as the Pike, you ask? Absolutely. Is it better? That’s a much harder question. Both forks are brilliant in a wide range of conditions; they have so little weight yet so much stiffness and adjustability that any pros and cons either way are insignificant. In terms of performance, I’d say it’s a dead heat—like the Tied Test. The 34 offers a slight weight advantage however, and if it proves to be reliable in the longer term, this may be enough to sway the masses and reclaim the title. For the moment it’ll have to share the crown but it’s certainly a prime option for suspending the front of your 140-160mm travel trail bike.
Sola Sports (02) 9550 1655 www.ridefox.com
