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Spotted: Fox49, 29er downhill fork in the wild in Portugal

Written by Cory Benson
15 Comments
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courtesy Feedback Sports, photo by Kolja Schmitt

The folks at Feedback Sports (that’s their Pro-Elite work stand holding this bike up) clued us in on a prototype Fox downhill fork being put through its paces at the Lousã bike park in Portugal ahead of a season of the World Cup DH season opener in a couple weeks in France. The photo was snapped by one of Fox’s top technicians, mechanic Kolja Schmitt. What do we know from this pic? Well, it seems to confirm rumors of 29″ wheels making their way into the World Cup DH scene. Other than that, we’ll likely have to wait a bit longer to confirm what new tech might be hidden under those RAD49 decals (and who’s got a World Cup ready DH 29er waiting in the wings). Check out a closer look at these lowers, and a bit of speculation after the break…

So, we’ll have to start rumoring now as to who the bike belonged to, but around the same time this photo got posted from Lousã, the Radon Factory DH team was at the bike park as well, with Manon Carpenter giving a shout out on social media to Fox thanking them for support. At the same time it seems Trek Factory Racing was spending time with Fox there (also touting a new faster Trek Session), as was the Cube Global Squad and Brendan Fairclough’s Scott-Velosolutions. Yeah, let the speculations begin…
Cory Benson
4,342 articles

Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com.

Cory has been writing about mountain bikes, enduro, cyclocross, all-road, gravel bikes & bikepacking for over 25 years, even before the industry created some of these names. Prior to Bikerumor, Cory was a practicing Architect specializing in environmental sustainability, has designed bike shops & bike components, and worked as a bike shop mechanic.

Based in the Czech Republic for 15+ years, he is a technical mountain biker, adventurous gravel rider, and short & medium-haul bikepacker. Cory travels extensively across Europe riding bikes, meeting with key European product developers, industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new, and what’s coming next.

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Chader
Chader
7 years ago

“hidden under those RAD29 decals”
*RAD49*
Eds. Fixed, thanks.

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Carl
Carl
7 years ago

Curious what the benefits of a DH 29er will be besides the usual better ability to roll over stuff. The big wheels work well for XC, but for downhill bikes and courses I feel like the 27.5″ size may be the sweet spot for handling agility vs. obstacle rollover. Speaking as an XC rider with limited experience on anything other than a 29er…

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Mortimer
Mortimer
7 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Front 29 and back 27.5?

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hllclmbr
hllclmbr
7 years ago
Reply to  Carl

It’s downhill racing, so the advantage would be the ability to get from the start to the finish in a shorter time than ones competitors.

Whether this is the case or not, I don’t know, but lots of enduro riders are switching to 29″, and they basically run DH courses on bikes with 25% less travel.

It’s certainly not a poor idea.

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Darryl
Darryl
7 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Higher hub gives higher pivot point for going over the bars so better in the steepest downhill.
Until you put the brakes on at least and then the pivot point shifts downwards depending on the amount of brakes applied.

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JNH
JNH
7 years ago
Reply to  Carl

For the most part the ‘agility’ or lack of with certain wheel sizes is marketing balls. A strong rider makes the bike agile and frame geometry makes the bike stable. 29in wheels roll over stuff better, add that and a bit more bb drop to already very stable downhill (and Enduro) bikes and you have bikes that handle about the same as before, but roll faster and carry speed better. I expect to see a lot of 29ers on the podium this year.

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Rickinaoka
Rickinaoka
7 years ago

look at the shadows, looks like a mondraker

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Zach
Zach
7 years ago
Reply to  Rickinaoka

Trek Session….

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captain derp
captain derp
7 years ago
Reply to  Zach

both companies have 29″ versions of the DH bikes in the works.

https://dirtmountainbike.com/bike-reviews/downhill-bikes/inside-trek-rd.html

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pd
pd
7 years ago

what frame? based on the shadow…top tube design says: mondraker

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TheFunkyMonkey
TheFunkyMonkey
7 years ago

Is this an advertisement for Feedback Sports or an article about the Fox 29 DH fork? I was confused by the opening sentence especially with a link to the stand… And then you credit Feedback Sports for the tip and not the Fox mechanic that posted the pic on Instragram? Yep – that makes sense – and what’s wrong with the media these days.

Eds. Just to be clear we credit Kolja Schmitt twice. On the photo as the author & with a link back to his Instagram. Yes, we were alerted by Feedback, but that is all. Feedback also credited Schmitt on their own Instagram as well.

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TheFunkyMonkey
TheFunkyMonkey
7 years ago
Reply to  TheFunkyMonkey

So either Feedback Sports or Bike Rumor “stole” the pic from Fox mechanic Kolja Schmitt since neither gave him credit.

Eds. Both of Feedback & Bikerumor actually credited Schmitt from the start.

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hllclmbr
hllclmbr
7 years ago
Reply to  TheFunkyMonkey

Don’t you have better things to do?

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ascarlarkinyar
ascarlarkinyar
7 years ago

But will this DH 29er fork fit 29+ tires?

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