ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK

If you keep tabs on Fox’s sponsored riders, you may have noticed them running rather slick-looking orange forks. They're now releasing them to the public, and we've got our grubby mitts on one. The main change on the 2018 Fox 36 Float – which, rather confusingly, will be available from May 2017 – is a new 'EVOL' (extra volume) negative spring. This sheds some grams and, more importantly, means the fork requires less breakaway force to get it moving, resulting in more suppleness at the start of the stroke and better small-bump sensitivity. Besides this, the technology remains pretty much the same, with high and lowspeed compression and rebound adjustment. On the top-of-theline RC2 Factory model pictured, Kashima-coated stanchions reduce stiction and add some gold bling. Various wheel and axle configurations will be available. Our 650b Boost fork weighs 2,020g, which is on par with the RockShox Lyrik RCT3.