FOX Racing Shox

36 Float 27.5 180 HSC/LSC FIT Fork - 2016

The venerable forks of FOX Racing Shox have undergone a significant renaissance heading into 2016, incorporating such a quantity of new technologies and chassis design features that one of the few remaining similarities between the 2016 models and their predecessors is the stanchion size. The 36 Float series largely led the way, and virtually all of the new tech that's taken the enduro and XC worlds by storm was pioneered on the 36 Float 27.5 180 HSC/LSC FIT Fork.

The rebirth begins with the fork's basic structure. The crown and magnesium lowers are lighter, lower, and stiffer, which makes for easier work cleaning climbs between getting dirty in downhill fun zones. The changes also net shorter axle-to-crown measurements across the board, so the frame's head angle doesn't drastically change between forks. While the materials in the chassis are roughly the same, FOX opts for a newly formulated, higher-viscosity proprietary fork oil for smoother, more responsive travel.

The new Float air spring also enjoyed significant revision, with FOX seeing off the old negative coil spring in favor a dual-chamber air spring. This neat trick of metal-to-air alchemy may be the single biggest contributor to the fork's weight loss, and when it's paired with the reduced number of smoother seals, it means the fork requires less force to initiate travel. It maintains excellent small bump compliance without completely obscuring your feel for the trail. The air spring can also be dialed to ramp-up harder by customizing its compression curve with internal spacers, and the other leg's HSC/LSC FIT damper lets you tune the fork's behavior to complement your own approach toward big hits, slow inputs, and everything in between.