FOX Racing Shox

32 Float 27.5 100 iRD FIT Fork - 2016

For the new model year, FOX Racing Shox has radically rebuilt the 32 Float 27.5 100 iRD FIT Fork. The spring, the damper, and even the chassis itself adapt many of the upgrades and innovations found on the revolutionary 36 Float models for use in an XC fork. It also includes an iRD remote switch, which relocates the damper adjuster to an electronic switch on your handlebars for easier, mid-flight ride dialing.

Adjustability aside for now, a tiny-stanchioned fork's real job is to disappear on the trail. A lighter, stiffer chassis helps the 32 Float toward this goal, making it FOX's best featherweight, barely-there option for the aggressive XC climber who prefers the middle-ground of 27.5-inch wheels. FOX also lightens the load with the new Float Air Spring, which is now a dual-chambered, self-equalizing affair instead of the half air, half coil setup of the previous model. While the air spring itself is the result of a feat of impressive engineering, it doesn't exactly take a physicist to recognize that air is lighter than a metal spring.

While the new air spring and lighter chassis are the key material changes, the new model year's Fit4 damper adjustment system represents a change in functional philosophy. The new 3-position Fit4 system toggles between Firm, Medium, and Open settings in a move that — as the name suggests — fits the fork's function to on-trail situations. The Open setting is the star, as it encompasses the range once divided between the old CTD system's Descend and Trail settings. Open also incorporates 22 adjustable sub settings, which lets you keep the new 32 Float's four-inches of travel wide open in order to take full advantage of the fork's high-riding tendencies and improved small bump compliance without sacrificing speed.

The Medium setting is much firmer than the Trail setting was, handling duties ranging from fast trails to lumpy climbs, and the Firm lockout setting returns as the ideal platform for fire road transition or sprinting when the finish line beckons. If you decide the easier initiation of travel is too light, the fork can be dialed to ramp-up harder with internal spacers to customize the spring's compression curve.