For a few years now, the 34 Step Solid used to be the go-to XC fork for a large number of manufacturers–it used to be stiffer than the 32, and had 120mm of commute to check up with most present XC motorcycles.
However Fox sought after to take that light-weight really feel and make it more potent, stiffer, and building up the commute, all with out including weight. The result’s the all-new Fox 34 SL–XC bred, Downcountry able.
The 34 SL is in reality a completely new fork, from the bottom up. Not anything about it carries over from the 34 SC. Listed here are the important thing options, all defined underneath:
Generative arch & crown
Complete-size chassis (no Step Solid)
Larger bushing overlap
Inboard bypass channels
Extra commute
The in reality spectacular factor is that they didn’t prevent with energy and stiffness. It’s additionally markedly smoother, because of small however essential design adjustments. Mixed with the brand new dampers offered in 2024, this in reality is the most efficient 34 fork ever. I’ll have a separate assessment, however first, right here’s the tech:
Generative Design
(Photograph/Tyler Benedict)
The 34 SL borrows the similar generative design philosophy from the brand new 32 SC, with a punctured arch to save lots of weight, and dramatic sculpting and machining of each the arch and crown.
Why no opposite arch? As a result of over 100mm commute, it turns into much less sensible for body clearance causes as a result of how the fork rake is accomplished … the 32 SC does this through angling the crown greater than the axle offset, however the others use extra conventional angles and axle dropout positioning.
It’s 29er simplest, and is simplest to be had with a 44mm offset.
Complete Dimension Chassis, Principally the Identical Weight
All footage courtesy of Fox until in a different way famous.
The brand new 34 SL replaces the 34 SC, the use of a standard-width chassis quite than the narrower SC design.
This opens up tire clearance and improves torsional stiffness. General stiffness is 17% higher, commute is going as much as 130mm now, and it suits 2.5″ tires:
Numerous clearance with those Schwalbe 29×2.4″ tires. (Photograph/Tyler Benedict)
Absolute best of all, all of those enhancements include only a 3.5% weight building up over the 34 Step Solid.
To try this, Fox implemented the entire methods, like black anodizing the crown quite than powder coating, saving 7-8 grams. And internally butting the damper-side stanchion, as it doesn’t want immediately interior partitions just like the air spring aspect. And so they skipped the power bleeders.
The outcome? A claimed weight of one,475g. That’s simplest 33g heavier than the outgoing 34 SC’s weight of one,442g. Oh, and that’s for a 130mm commute 34 SL as opposed to a 120mm 34 SC.
Larger Brakes
Every other trade is it now suits a minimal 180mm rotor. OK, but when that is their new XCO race fork, why 180mm rotors? As it’s additionally their downcountry race fork, and a few of the ones people need 200mm rotors. They are saying many in their XCO execs have been operating 180mm rotors anyway, so why no longer cut back the collection of adapters?
Smoother Than Ever
Right here’s the place it will get in reality attention-grabbing. To make the fork smoother, Fox made 3 primary redesigns:
Longer Stanchions = Extra Bushing OverlapFirst, they gave the fork longer higher tubes (stanchions). This allowed for extra bushing overlap (20mm extra!), this means that decrease binding forces (friction) beneath fore-aft loading.
(Photograph/Tyler Benedict)
Inside Bypass ChannelsEver spotted the ones graduated ridges at the backs of Fox’s fork legs? The ones are bypass channels, permitting the air from beneath the damper or air spring to get admission to the distance between the bushings.
They’re essential as a result of that air is trapped within the fork, and it’s no longer a tunable component like your standard air spring. But it’s mainly a 2nd air spring, as it will get compressed each time your fork compresses. So it, too, ramps up and impacts suspension efficiency.
Sure, Fox (and most likely each different logo) tunes the fork in accordance with this, as it’s a identified amount. However anytime they may be able to make that air quantity larger, they may be able to reduce its impact on efficiency.
As an example, in a Fox 36, with out the ones bypass channels, at backside out, there can be about 45psi within the decrease legs, on every aspect. However with the bypass channels, that drops to about 15psi, which has a lot much less have an effect on for your fork’s efficiency.
Which is superb, buuuuuuut……
Fox upgraded their FEA instrument and located new hotspots at the bushings round the ones channels. Forks see a lot upper fore-aft a lot than lateral a lot, and so the bushings may deform ever so reasonably over that channel, which created power issues and thus friction.
So transferring the bypass channels to the perimeters supplied extra improve for the decrease bushing the place it wanted it, yielding extra even touch power with the stanchions. Increase, much less friction.
Longer Air SpringsLastly, the air springs are actually longer, so there’s extra unfavorable quantity, which makes for a plusher fork.
However wait, there’s extra… or, notThere are in truth different applied sciences they advanced to additional support smoothness, however discovered that for this fork and its shorter commute utility, the ones concepts didn’t transfer the needle sufficient to offset the small weight achieve. However, you could see the ones later… I simply can’t let you know about them but.
Dampers & Different Upgrades
They’ve switched the air spring cap to a Shimano Cassette Lock Ring interface. Till now their forks used an especially low profile socket, requiring particular flat-faced sockets to keep away from rounding it off. Now, they’ve joined Rockshox in the use of the cassette software interface for extra protected, more uncomplicated servicing with a commonplace software.
Choices & Specifications
The 34 SL can be to be had with the next choices:
110 / 120 / 130 mm commute choices
Trip adjustments require swapping the air spring
Trim Ranges
Manufacturing unit – Kashima, Kabolt SL through axle
Efficiency Elite stage – OE simplest
Efficiency – Kabolt SL or QR through axles
Damper Choices
Grip Damper (Efficiency simplest)
Grip SL Damper (lightest damper, all commute choices)
Grip X Damper (extra tuning, 130mm commute simplest)
Fox 34 SL Pricing
$649-$1099 USD
$869-$1469 CAD
€869 – €1469 EUR
1149-1899 AUS
£749 – £1259
It’ll be to be had without or with Far flung lockout (Grip SL damper simplest), and to perform it there’s an all-new…
Fox Dual Stick Far flung
Twin serve as remotes are continuously giant and clunky, however the brand new Fox Dual Stick does an attractive just right process on each aesthetics and ergonomics. Two small paddles provide you with simple operation of each a dropper put up (greater, decrease lever) and your suspension’s lockout.
The lockout portion is appropriate with both 2-position (Open/Company) or 3-position (Open/Medium/Company) suspension setups. Push it to fasten it, then push it once more to free up it. It may be arrange for fork simplest, surprise simplest, or fork and surprise concurrently. Weight is 66g (76g with clamp), and worth is $149 USD ($199 CAD / €199 EUR / 269 AUS / £184.95).
Movies & Daring Claims
Fox says this new fork provides the lightest XC ecosystem, of their phrases:
“When you combine Fox SL parts – 34 SL, Float SL, Transfer SL – you get the lightest overall complete XC suspension and dropper system from any leading brand, 333 grams lighter than our closest competitor with equivalent spec, and 489 grams lighter than the competition’s electronic XC system, both of which offer a maximum 120mm travel fork vs. Fox’s 130mm max travel.”
Keep tuned for the journey assessment…and extra.
RideFox.com
