FOX Racing Shox

32 TALAS 26in 150 FIT CTD Fork

You live for descents, but you don't want to sacrifice the climbing ability of your trail bike just to enjoy coming back down. That's precisely why Fox built the 32 TALAS 150 FIT CTD Fork. This six-inch travel fork has plenty of support for rough descents, and the sub-four pound weight and adjustable travel mean that you'll be efficient when it comes time to pedal back up.

Like recent generations of Fox's Factory series forks, the TALAS 150 controls its stroke with the venerable FIT damper. As you may have guessed, 'FIT' is an acronym, and it stands for Fox Isolated Technology. And, unlike a traditional open bath system, FIT means that the damper fluid is sealed in an air-tight bladder. This prevents contamination, which improves the consistency of the damper on long descents.

Long-time Fox riders will immediately notice Fox's Climb, Trail, Descend damper adjustments. And there's no need to worry, you're still getting the same adjustments to high- and low-speed compression, only its now packaged in a more user-friendly format. Climb mode provides the most damping for a near locked-out feel. Meanwhile, it still provides a bit of cushion for any unexpected hard hits. Click the damper into the Trail mode, and you'll find that there's ample low-speed compression in order to keep the fork riding high in the travel through berms, jumps, and rocks. Better yet, it still provides plenty of compliance in order to smooth out the ride. Trail mode has three sub-settings that allow you to tune exactly how much feedback that you need from your suspension. And, as you may have guessed, Descend mode provides the lightest compression damping for a plush ride.

TALAS stands for Travel Adjust Linear Air Spring. And true to the name, a quick flip of the spring side fork cap adjusts the travel from 150mm to 120mm, and back again. Accordingly, the 120mm setting lowers the axle to crown height by 30mm. This effectively lowers your handlebars and bottom bracket, as well as steepening the head angle in order to improve climbing control. The reasoning behind this design is relatively elementary. You see, tall forks and slack head tube angles yield more control for descending, but make your bike unwieldy when climbing. This makes the TALAS' travel reduction especially important on the current generation of trail bikes. Additionally, Fox has updated the spring rate to provide more resistance to bottoming out than previous TALAS springs. So, this version of the TALAS is ideal for aggressive riders.

The 32 TALAS 150 features Kashima coated stanchions. Kashima coating is harder than standard stanchion coatings, which equates to a longer wear life, as well as smoother suspension action. The 32 chassis is something of a classic in the Fox lineup, and it's easy to see why. At just around four pounds, this fork is downright svelte. Better yet, it's strong enough to ride rough trails day- in and day-out. This is thanks in part to the massive tapered steerer tube, which fights flex under hard braking. And speaking of stiffness, Fox uses Shimano's 15mm QR axle assembly, which provides both added stiffness and increased security over a traditional 9mm QR skewer.

The Fox Racing Shox 32 TALAS 26in 150 FIT CTD Fork is available in 26-inch wheel compatibility, 1.5-inch tapered steerer tube, and a 15mm QR compatibility. Additionally, it's available in the color Black.