FOX Racing Shox

36 Float 27.5 170 HSC/LSC FIT Fork - 2016

While the rest of FOX Racing Shox's line is only receiving updated chassis and Float air springs for 2016, the 36 Float 27.5 170 HSC/LSC FIT Fork has already spent a full model year on the new lighter, stiffer, smoother platform. It's also more customizable, with the twin knobs of high- and low-speed compression (HSC/LSC) providing the ability to precisely dial the 170mm of slope-style travel before dropping in. Depending on the terrain, the 36 Float lets you target G-out elimination and big-hit compliance with separate settings that don't cancel each other out.

During the 36's recent overhaul, the 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 in a chassis with greater rigidity, but weight figures that are very close to the old 34 Float models. The 36 Float isn't a downhill-only article; instead, it's equal to challenging grades and terrain on negative and positive grades, able to clean virtually any line — up or down.

The new Float air spring also enjoyed a significant revision in 2015, and those changes return with this model. FOX dust-binned the old negative coil spring in favor a dual-chamber air spring, a neat trick of metal-to-air alchemy that may be the single biggest contributor to the fork's weight loss. When this new design is paired with the reduced number of smoother seals, it means the fork requires less force to initiate travel.