2012 Fox Factory Team Forks and Shocks with Kashima Coating

Fox has been busy this past year, and they have revamped the product line, added a long travel 29er fork, and titanium crown/steerer fork, tweaked the FIT damper, changed seals, and added Kashima to rear shocks.

The new family grouping covers their entire suspension line, and everything is now divided into three entities, Factory, Performance and Evolution.

• FACTORY - Best: has their latest, greatest and most advanced technology
• PERFORMANCE - Better: FIT on 32, open bath on 36 and 40, less advanced technology and adjustability
• EVOLUTION – Good: entry level, open bath forks, simpler technology

Kashima
The Kashima coating was introduced last year for aftermarket only, and they have now opened the doors (or flood gates) for OEM usage, so you’ll be seeing the fancy gold color on significantly more bikes. The coating has been tweaked, and it should appear as a darker color, and be slightly more slippery. Only the Factory series will have the coating, and it has now been added to the FLOAT RP23, DHX Air and DHX RC4 rear shocks, including portions of the air sleeves (RC4 is shaft only). For manufacturing reasons, the coating has to be added to both the inside and outside of the air sleeve, so thing’s slide on a smoother surface internally.

Forks

The other unique new fork is the FLOAT Ti, which has a one piece cast titanium 6-4 (Ti-6Al-4V) crown and steerer. It will be available in FIT Terralogic, FIT RLC and FIT Remote, all with either 100 or 120mm of travel, 9mm or 15mm axle, and tapered steerer. The forks weigh between 2.91 lbs to 3.46 lbs, and will come with a very trick Kashima coated top cap, titanium bolt and expansion plug.

For the long travel 29er market, they created a new 34mm stanchion group, which has 140mm of travel. The fatter lowers and bigger arch, will assist in reinforcing the tall 29 inch system, offering more stability and rigidity in the stressed induced environment of the longer travel. It comes in FLOAT FIT RLC and TALAS FIT RLC (140/110) Factory versions (RL in Evolution), and is available in only 15mm thru axle and tapered steerer.

Fox has tweaked the FIT damper with new internals, and the new seal head has less stichion at the start of its stroke. They had a simple demo unit to compare the 2011 and 2012 dampers, and in direct comparison, it was definitely a noticeable feel, and felt much smoother, without any notchiness. They have two tunes for the FIT, a cross country one for 120mm or less (firmer tune), and a trail for 140mm and greater (plusher tune).