FOX Racing Shox

36 Float 27.5 160 HSC/LSC FIT Fork - 2016

For 2016, FOX has revisited its entire mountain bike suspension line, and it’s left very little untouched. Sweeping upgrades across every aspect of every product have led to forks and shocks that are not only stiffer and lighter, but simpler and more customizable at the same time. The 36 Float 27.5 160 HSC/LSC FIT Fork is a perfect example of Fox’s attention to detail and willingness to reinvent its own wheel.

The 36's chassis was the first area of scrutiny. The crown has been redesigned to be both lighter and lower, resulting in a shorter axle-to-crown measurements across the board, so that installing the fork means minimal — if any — alteration of the bike's front-end geometry, unlike when installing some other forks, including FOX's previous 36 series. The fork's lowers have been re-engineered to be lighter and stiffer, as well, resulting a chassis with greater rigidity, but weight figures that are very close to that of its smaller 34 series of forks. A newly formulated, higher-viscosity proprietary fork oil is now used, too.

The 36 forks come in two families: the adjustable TALAS versions and the non-adjustable FLOAT versions, like this one. The air spring systems have been revised on both. A reduced number of seals means that both operate more smoothly, but that's not all. The FLOAT forks now include volume-reducing spacers so that riders can fine-tune the system's ramp-up rate. The letters FIT designate that the fork is equipped with FOX Isolated Technology damper, which means that the fork's damper sits in an air-tight bladder, as opposed to a more common open bath system, making the damper more resistant to debris contamination and thus remaining smoother and more consistent between maintenance intervals.

The FLOAT acronym on the 27.5-inch 36 fork you see here stands for FOX Load Optimum Air Technology. It's not travel-adjustable on-the-fly like the TALAS version, but as mentioned, the volume of the FLOAT cartridge can be adjusted via internal spacers to more precisely dial in your preferred performance characteristics, in conjunction with the HSC/LSC adjustments. These stand for high-speed compression and low-speed compression, and allow the rider to precisely customize the fork’s compliance on the fly, depending on the terrain.