FOX Racing Shox

32 Float 27.5 120 3Pos-Adj FIT4 Fork - 2016

With just under five inches of travel, FOX Racing Shox's completely reworked 32 Float 27.5 120 3Pos-Adj FIT4 Fork has enough give to take full advantage of the fork's lower weight, higher stiffness, and updated damper and air spring. The 32 Float's lightweight stanchions and generous 120mm of travel make it one of the most versatile XC to trail models in FOX's resurgent lineup, proving that there's a reason why FOX has been such a significant presence in the suspension industry for so long.

In addition to a few tweaks to structural minutia, the biggest change adopted by the new 32 Float is that the Float Air Spring at its heart is now dual-chambered and self-equalizing. Gone is the negative coil of old, which makes for weight savings that take full advantage of the slim, fast stanchions' reduced bulk. If you want the fork to ramp-up harder, you can customize the spring's compression curve with internal spacers to fit the 32 Float to your specific tastes.

Fit is something of a key word for FOX's reworked 32 Float line. The new model year's other major addition, the Fit4 damper adjustment system, highlights this focus on rider-specific fit by incorporating the word in its title. Instead of the overly prescriptive Climb, Trail, and Descend settings of CTD, the new 3-position Fit4 system toggles between the more descriptive Firm, Medium, and Open settings in a move that — as the name suggests — fits the fork's function to your needs. While this change may read like an exercise in semantics, it actually entails a radical realignment of the 32 Float's capabilities.

The 32 Float's five-ish inches of travel are best managed in the new Open setting, which has been expanded to encompass the range once divided between Descend and Trail and the damper's 22 adjustable sub settings. This lets you keep the front end plush in order to take full advantage of the fork's high-riding tendencies, combining better small-bump compliance with confident tracking across successive impacts and rock gardens. The Medium setting is much firmer than Trail, handling duties ranging from rooty trails to small-stanchioned climbing, and the Firm lockout setting returns as the ideal transition or sprinting platform.