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Fox Live makes an appearance at Eurobike, but isn’t switched on just yet

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Rumored to finally be near production, Fox Live made it’s first semi-public appearance this week at the Eurobike trade show. Hiding in plain sight, the suspension system was mounted up to a Scott Genius 900 Ultimate. The build card lists the suspension as the Fox 34 Float Live Valve up front and the Live Valve Electronic System out back.

And while Fox made it clear over at their booth that Live is coming late August, there’s not much detail other than it will be a “fast-acting automated electronic suspension system.”

Clearly, there is a battery pack that mounts to the downtube below the bottle cage.

This sits in front of two canisters labeled Live Valve.

If you follow the wires, it leads up to the fork where there is a wire that enters the damping side of the Fox 34 suspension fork. Both the front and rear have an allen bolt with what appears to be a soft/firm adjustment.

There are also two more wires with one that leads to the fork arch, and another that goes to the chain stay, just behind the rotor.

Other than that, we can’t really tell you much. For now.

ridefox.com

 

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TI NO
5 years ago

Is this a system that stiffs up the suspesion during special riding situations like braking or going uphill?

Ghostparty
Ghostparty
5 years ago
Reply to  TI NO

I hope not, as those are two situations where having active suspension is super important.

Carl
Carl
5 years ago

I remember riding a Lapierre that had electronic suspension a few years ago. Is this just a new version of that?

TheKaiser
5 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Lapierre’s used the fork and crank rotation as sensors to toggle the rear suspension from firm/soft, based on if you were hitting bumps with the front end and/or pedaling. This is supposed to be more advanced, as it actually adjusts the fork too, rather than the fork settings being fixed. The only early report I saw on it said that it made a longish travel bike that wasn’t known for it’s pedaling prowess pedal like an XC bike (other than the weight) but all reviews of new tech seem to promise that, and bikes have improved significantly in kinematics and damping since then, so I am unsure if this is really needed, unless it also can prevent brake dive, or squat when climbing, or improves absorption on a wide range of bump sizes.

Clif
Clif
5 years ago

I realize I’m probably behind the times, but what is Fox Live? Nothing about its purpose was mentioned in the article

JNH
JNH
5 years ago
Reply to  Clif

It’s an automatic lockout and/or compression control to make the suspension settings respond to terrain. Prototypes have been appearing on Pro bikes in XC and Enduro events for several years now, by all acounts it works, but what it will cost and how easy it will be to live with remains to be seen.

Celest Greene
Celest Greene
5 years ago

I remember being told at one point that Live Valve was going to be inclinometer (climb closed, descend open) rather than accelerometer (bump open, smooth closed) based. Which would be weird unless Specialized or someone else has some really broad terrain sensing patents.
Either way it will have to be pretty amazing to overcome the cost and appearance.

aaa
aaa
5 years ago
Reply to  Celest Greene

Lapierre has a similar system since a few years

i
i
5 years ago
Reply to  Celest Greene

Everything I’ve read about it was along the lines of “we tired it, it’s amazing, but we can’t really say more”

that said, I’d bet the rent money it’s not incline based. Both because that would be trivially simple to implement, and they wouldn’t have any need or reason to string it along this long (my understanding is what’s revolutionary is electronic valves that can react fast enough to be of use, and that wouldn’t be needed to respond to incline, since that doesn’t change in fractions of a second), and the fact that angle-based automatic suspension adjustment wouldn’t be even remotely useful to anyone. It’s an idea along the lines of position-sensitive damping that might sound ok if you didn’t know what you were talking about, but if you’d actually ridden bikes and thought about it, it’s a stupid idea.

RP
RP
5 years ago

I`ve found this – its for cars, but shouldnt be much different I Imagine http://www.ridefox.com/content.php?c=livevalve-raptor

Jono Davis
Jono Davis
5 years ago
Reply to  RP

From the description of Live Vale in use on truck suspension: “Live Valve technology continuously and intelligently adjusts compression damping in real-time to deliver the ideal ride for any terrain or driving situation. By utilizing various vehicle sensors and accelerometers, the shocks can instantaneously adapt to inertial, steering, braking, and acceleration inputs to actively maximize handling, comfort, and bottom-out resistance.”

Sounds pretty applicable to bikes too.

Marky
Marky
5 years ago

I’m waiting until I can link it to my gps and set the suspension to auto adjust to custom settings for the different regular trails I ride 🙂

John
John
5 years ago

Looks fugly and complicated for us regular joes and janes, but I bet it can be pretty useful in EWS or Downhill racing.

networkman
networkman
5 years ago

Electronic control would be via adjustment of an orifice. Shim stack valving is a much better system. ProFlex had this in 1998.

Walter Fred the Third
Walter Fred the Third
5 years ago

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