A new Öhlins RXF36 M.3 mountain bike fork doubles down on Trail, pairing optimized architecture and much fewer options to focus on what did best – soak up hits big and small to take your all-mountain rides further. Dialing back travel to a narrower window to suit most modern trail bikes, the newly refined fork promises boosted sensitivity, traction, and comfort for all your trail-riding needs.
Öhlins RXF36 M.3 mountain bike fork narrows focus on Trail
Since it first debuted nine years ago, the 36mm stanchion RXF36 has really been the one do-it-all Öhlins MTB fork. With 140-180mm travel options, 2 wheel sizes, and 4 offset options – you could find it on everything from short travel trail and even downcountry bikes all the way up to big-hitting enduro bikes. But now the Swedish racing suspension experts have a fully complete MTB line-up. The RXC34 cross-country fork, a RXF34 downcountry fork, the RXF38 enduro fork & the DH38 downhill fork.
So now, this newly updated RXF36 M.3 can simply focus just on trail riding. You know, that middle all-mountain zone where most of us mountain bikers actually ride!
What’s new?
On the outside, we can see that the new Öhlins RXF36 M.3 fork gets an all-new set of lowers, inheriting the same stepped design at the upper wipers and revised arch rib that debuted on the RXF34. Inside, Öhlins says the big upgrade is increased bushing overlap with the shorter travel design, which promises reduced internal chassis friction for improved sensitivity.
The other big updates are really just fewer options and less top-end travel overall.
I counted 15 versions of the old RXF36 M.2, while the new RXF36 M.3 pares that back to just 5.
What’s gone are the longest travel versions that really fall into RXF38 territory anyway, and also the multiple 27.5 travel & offset options.
The new Öhlins RXF36 M.3 fork focuses mostly on modern trail 29ers, so you get standard 44mm offset and 140, 150 & 150mm travel options. Some bigger travel 29ers want more offset, so there’s also a 29″ 160mm fork with 51mm offset. Plus, there’s a 27.5 fork with 170mm of travel and 38mm offset.
I anticipated with the refined lowers shaping and reduced travel, the new fork would be lighter. But Öhlins quotes the new RXF36 M.3 with a weight of 2050g, the exact same as the 1st and 2nd generations.
Tech details
Inside, the new RXF36 M.3 sticks with Öhlins’ proven TTX18 damper cartridge and independent air spring for “lightweight and highly progressive” performance. That’s the same tech as 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup DH champion Loic Bruni’s DH38 Race fork.
Plus, the TTX18 adjustment range has apparently been tweaked a bit, “specifically designed for tough trails”. It in fact, now has 1 extra low-speed compression and 1 extra rebound damping click for more trail adjustability. And the air spring has again been retuned for optimal trail performance in its new 140-160mm travel range.
- 36mm stanchions
- 140-160mm 29″ fork travel (plus 170mm for 27.5″)
- 38mm (27.5), 44mm (29) & 51mm (29) offset
- reduced chassis friction thanks to greater internal bushing overlap
- TTX 18 closed damper cartridge: 16 clicks of LSC, 3 clicks of HSC, 16 clicks of Rebound
- independent, retuned air spring cartridge (upgradable to coil)
- floating 15x110mm Boost thru-axle for minimum friction
- eMTB-approved
- 2050g claimed weight (with bolts & thru-axle)
Öhlins RXF36 M.3 fork – Pricing & availability
“The RXF36 platform has evolved since its introduction in 2016, and because it’s so easy to tune, it served as our do-it-all fork for a long time—ranging from short-travel trail bikes to long-travel enduro rigs. As our product line has continued to grow, it was time to give the RXF36 a new chassis, making it a sensitive and predictable trail weapon positioned between the RXF34 and the RXF38.”
– Thomas Westfeldt, Öhlins Racing: Senior Manager of Product Management MTB/AUTO/MC
The completely revamped RXF36 M.3 trail bike fork retails for 1500€. That’s more or less the same as what the previous generation sold for officially, although you can likely find M.2 forks for a couple hundred bucks less these days.
The new fork is now available globally through local Öhlins retailers. And you can also already find it on a few production bikes, like this revamped YT Izzo Core 3 that also just dropped in today.
