Suspension Component Technology/Functionality Discussion

I don't have any real world experience yet but it looks promising - the new air springs have been really good, to the point that last year I would suggest people bought the new 36 over a 38 in the same travel range. So if the new 38 turns out to be as good as the 36 then it should be pretty sweet

I need help with my ‘26 Fox 34SL Factory.  The fork came on my Epic Evo and has 130mm of travel.  I have only been able to get 120mm out of it.  I’ve tried all the typical things (removed the volume spacer, opened up both high and low speed compression dampening, reduced air pressure) and nothing seams to work.  I thought maybe the fork was mistakenly shipped with 120mm travel but it will go to 130mm with the air out.  What am I missing?

Getting full travel isn't a target - reaching 120 is probably fine if it feels good. The air volume in the lowers can add a lot of progression and is hard to completely eliminate but its not really a big deal. Also friction from the bushings causes binding which stops the fork from reaching the last few mm under load as well. Replacing the damper side oil with something heavier than the 4wt they use could help, as does resizing the bushings but at the end of the day it is often impossible to get every last mm of travel in use AND work good the rest of the time. Using all the travel sometimes only happens in odd situations that you don't expect so you might not encounter that very often

How long have you had the fork? If its old it could be overdue a service and has too much friction, and if its new it might just need some running in or getting used to, so I wouldn't worry too much about it as 10mm from the end is not an issue at all.

Thank you for the response.  I bought the bike back in January so it’s not old but it’s definitely  broken in.  I agree max travel is not the most important thing, but in the past I’ve always been able to set my front and rear suspension up to achieve max travel on the biggest jump landings. 

Also respectfully, it's called damping, not dampening.

Indeed it is.  Thanks for the correction.

I’ve always set my stuff up first and foremost by feel. If I’ve got some adjustment flexibility in the setup window I might try to target about 90% travel for my biggest intentional hits. Having a buffer is nice and in many case trying to chase that last 10% can sometimes cause setup compromises depending on the suspension. If Im under 90% and like how it rides I just don’t worry about it.

Compared to 5-10 years ago, forks have evolved (or should that be EVOLved....) to have larger negative springs and and overall more progressive spring curve, which is much better in performance but does make them harder to get every last mm of stroke - its very common for the average rider to have 0 volume spacers in their forks vs 2 or 3 not too long ago. Especially if your fork is set to its longest travel option since they have the largest compression ratio in both the air spring and lowers.

On top of that, the extra negative volume is normally robbed from the lowers which adds even more progression to the system. IMO these are more than acceptable trade offs as air springs are so much better than they used to be - I would be more concerned if you were always using all the travel, or if there was 30-40mm left over. But 10 is nothing to stress about, and I would probably even recommend that over using all of it - so if something goes wrong you know there is some in reserve!

I appreciate all the feedback.  My point of reference to compare the ‘26 34 is the ‘16 34 on my Yeti.  I guess the air springs have just gotten more progressive in the last 10 yrs.  The reason I’m harping on it is that I’ve developed numbness in my hands on long rides which I’ve never had before.  I know the numbness is likely due to cockpit setup but I figured I’d ask the Vital brain trust about the fork just in case. 👍🏻

Ahh yup...OK It could be the fork but it is unlikely to be directly caused by too much progression, its normally tyres (width/casing/pressure), friction or initial spring rate (in that order). I would suggest zero spacers (which I think you already have) and then probably increase the pressure until it gets worse (in a different way) or you are around the recommended pressure (or it gets better!).

Try lower tyre pressure if you havent already, then bracket the damper settings - it would be handy to drop the lowers and grease the dust wipers if they haven't been already as well. Whatever you do, and before someone else suggests it do NOT wipe the grease out of the air spring - that will only make things worse.

Great advice.  Yes, tires could be a contributor.  I am not a fan of the Specialized Purgatory tire up front.  Grip is good but the casing seems very stiff even with the tire pressure at 20psi.  I’m going to mount a Maxxis Rekon to see if that helps.  Thanks again!

So, I think I finally have enough time on it to develop an opinion.

Is it a better fork than the 38 gripx2? Yes. 

Does it have a much narrower sweet spot than the old fork. Very much so. 

So, I've kinda thrown everything at the fork in trying to make it feel good. Tokens in, tokens out, less sag, more sag, tons of HSC, no HSC, so on and so forth. If you did this with the old fork you could still get something that was more or less rideable. Not so with this fork. I think, in large part to the different ratios between the positive and negative air chambers this fork is incredibly sag sensitive. If you run a ton of sag the fork just has no suppleness, and if you try to run it with very little sag it just ends up way too progressive. The rebound on the new gripx2 damper suffers from the same problem, a fairly narrow sweet spot between HSR and LSR. I find in both of my forks running the new gripx2 damper that I'm running 2 clicks of LSR for ever click of HSR. The fork also seems very sensitive to service intervals due to losing 10 cc of 20 wt in the air chamber. 

With that out of the way, I can now say the following:

The fork is incredible. Easily the best iteration of a single crown fork I've ridden (for reference my previous benchmark was the glidecore 36). As a heavier rider the lack of binding in the air spring is very noticeable, and between the damper improvements and the spring improvements the fork feels more responsive and controlled. It may seem odd but you can tell that the resistance in the fork to movement is coming from the spring and the damper and NOT the interplay between static friction moving to dynamic friction. Damper wise, everything feels useable and actually can provide the damping characteristics I want. 

That being said, due to its narrower sweet spot its even more of a pain to setup. My recommendation is do not go above 20% sag (probably use one less token than what comes in your fork), 2:1 LSR to HSR, minimal LSC and actually don't be afraid of the HSC dial (its quite good).