FOX 34 FACTORY
£1,099 www.silverfish-uk.com
Fox’s do-it-all trail fork is the slimmest on test, with its 34mm stanchions. While the redesigned chassis and new arch shape make it impressively capable, it can’t match the sturdier forks here for confidence in the rough (there’s always the Fox 36 for that). However, for 90 per cent of trail riding it won’t hold you back. The fork’s weight is great for riders seeking a lighter build, and it has bypass channels to keep its bushings and seals lubricated. It’s also massively adjustable, with external highand low-speed compression and rebound controls.
On the trail, it’s hard to fault the performance
– if you’re the right weight. It’s the supplest fork on test, with good small-bump sensitivity, so it easily tames trail chatter. Even with this supple beginning stroke, it has excellent mid-stroke support, which holds it up in its travel well. This keeps it predictable under hard braking and stops it from feeling overwhelmed on steeper trails or when loaded through compressions and turns. It absorbs small and mid-sized hits efficiently and comfortably. We ran one volume spacer, which gave us enough ramp-up on big hits and hard landings to not blow through the travel, while allowing us to access the full stroke when needed.
However, once again, we had to leave the damping fully open to get the most from this fork. Set up like this, it was great at muting bumps but, with 83psi in the air spring, it was at the limit of rebounding too slowly. Heavier riders may get on well with the 34 Factory, but for lighter folk, the overly-damped rebound and compression circuits make set-up trickier and can leave the fork feeling a little sluggish. This is a shame, because the great spring would be hard to beat with a more usable range of adjustment.