In addition to their new dropper seatpost, Fox unveiled a prototype full titanium, one piece crown and steerer that be making it’s way to reality next spring as a 2012 product feature.
Will be on F-Series forks only, and like the DOSS, it will most likely have it’s coming out party on an actual fork around Sea Otter next April. If past trends prove any indication, that means it’ll start shipping mid- to late next summer.
It’s a single-piece wax molded titanium. This is still a prototype, so not sure if it’s 3/2.5 or 6/4 ti, but it tests as strong as their alloy crowns while tipping the scales 90g to 100g lighter. Since it’s one piece there are no welds or potential stress risers, and there’s nothing bonded together as in typical metal crown/steerer construction. Current plans are to offer it in a tapered version only at launch.
More pics after the break…
Side by side, you can see how much thinner the titanium sections and tubes are than the current aluminum crown. The tubes that will slide over the top of the stanchions appeared to be a slight bit taller than the aluminum ones.
The ti crown/steerer falls under Fox’s RAD (Racing Applications Development) skunk works division.from this view, you can see the stanchion tube mounts are drilled out where the meet the crown, saving a few grams.
