Fox Racing Shox has update their damping technology and function to make it more user friendly and better match front and rear performance.
“In the past we treated front and rear as separate,” said Mark Jordan, Fox’s global marketing communications manager. “We did what we thought the front needed for the front and the rear for the rear. Riders really needed a solid understanding of how low and high speed compression and rebound works to really get the most out of their suspension. And these settings and adjustment were different from our forks to our shocks.”
“For 2013, we made it simpler by creating the CTD damper fr both the forks and shocks. CTD stands for Climb, Trail and Descend, and you simply set it for the type of riding you’re doing.”
There’s also a new 650B fork in the 34 Series and the DOSS adjustable height post is finally for real!
CTD will be on the Evolution (mostly OEM), Performance (also mostly OEM) and Factory (top of the line aftermarket) lines. The latter two have their FIT cartridge, the Evo line is open bath. On the lower lines, they’ll have a simpler CTD lever. On the Factory, there’s a more advanced middle setting that’s reminiscent of Pro Pedal. Put it in Trail, and there’s an outer Trail Adjust bezel that let you pick between three settings: soft, medium and firm.
CTD will be on all forks in these lines up to 160mm travel for all three wheel sizes: 26, 650/27.5 and 29er.
Rebound remains basically the same, just a different looking lever on the shocks.
Two (obnoxiously large) remotes will be offered, a dual control one that’ll change CTD settings simultaneously on the fork and shock, or a single version for one or the other. the dual is shown above, note the two cables exiting.
Using the remote eliminates the external Trail Adjust feature. They’ll be letting OEM customers customize the compression settings, but aftermarket forks with the remote will be in the middle (2) setting. The aftermarket kit to add the remote to the top of the fork will come with parts to let you set the Trail Adjust where you want it, though. Shocks will be sold either as a remote or regular, but forks will be able to add the remote after the fact.
Jordan says you should put it in the fully open Descend mode to set sag and they recommend starting between 15% and 20%.
CTD forks and shocks are shipping for OEM now, and aftermarket parts should be available around June.
They were also developing the DOSS dropper seatpost while developing the CTD system, and they’ve incorporated it into its settings nomenclature. Climb is all the way up, Trail drops it 40mm and Descend drops it all the way down – 4″ or 5″ depending on model. They’ll offer 30.9 and 31.6 diameters. It uses a (very large) remote dual lever, and they designed it so that the in we black lever goes to the Trail setting and the outer lever will drop to either the middle or bottom level. There’s a Schrader valve on the bottom of the post to adjust air pressure and return speed. It returns pretty quickly, ad Jordan says that’s because the keys that stop it in each position retract completely. The benefit is claimed improved durability and less friction. There are eight locator pins, four to drop it to the mid setting and all eight when your bringing it to the bottom. When compressed, you can lift the saddle without pulling up the post.
Pricing is $439 and it starts shipping in May.
The 34 forks will get a new chassis with lower axle dropouts for 650B/27.5 wheels. They’re going to see how demand is before making the 32 available in 27.5, but there’s OEM demand for the 34’s. Jordan wouldn’t say who other than there’s at least one major brand that’ll be spec’ing it.
Something I didn’t know is that all of their bicycle suspension products are made in Watsonville, CA. USA! USA!
