Words and Pics by Ty Fitzgerald

Recently I had the chance to acquired a pair of Fox Forx Vanilla RLs, I owned a set of these forks late last year but my bike was stolen shortly after that so I was keen to get back on some Fox Forx after having to deal with sloppy Psylos*.

The first thing that you notice when taking these forks out of the box is they are dead sexy, the crown is gracefully machined into smooth curves and it has colorful rebound, preload and lockout knobs.

Overall the forks don't appear to be overly burly but this observation is probably due to the fact I installed a pair of Manitou Sherman Flicks the previous day and they are probably the burliest looking single crown fork I’ve ever seen. Another point to note is that all Fox Forx have the ability to run both V-brakes and disks (though the manual recommends not running an 8 inch rotor)

The Vanilla has 3 different travel settings of 80, 100 and 125 mm which are changed internally by adjusting spacers above or below the springs. I personally don’t like this system for a number of reasons; when set to the 80 mm setting the fork still sits at it’s 125 axle to crown height, which for climbing and techy street/park stuff leaves the head angle too slack, secondly it’s a hassle to change the travel. Fair enough you don’t change the travel all the time but having to find a 26 mm spanner every time is a pain. I would prefer a U-turn type system which achieves both a lower axle to crown height and a simple adjustment method.

Once on the trail the little things, travel adjustment issues and looks are all forgotten, the Fox Vanilla is the smoothest and most responsive fork I have ever ridden, EVER. Even running the heaviest spring supplied (Fox includes 3 springs in the box so you don’t have to cough up more cash to tune them properly) the forks ability to suck up the smallest bumps is truly amazing.

At no time during the test did I ever notice the fork bottom, the fork ramps up very smoothly across the range of travel and a lot of the time I was unaware how much travel I was using until I realised the terrain I was riding over. I also found the fork to be incredibly stiff and precise, proving looks can be deceiving. Many times I found myself over steering and expecting the fork to deflect off rocks when it just steered straight through and over, for a regular QR single crown fork it is very impressive.

The dampening adjustment gives you a good range to play with and I found winding it halfway out gave the best all-round performance for trail riding and downhilling, as you would expect. The lock out feature is great for when you need to crank up a smooth fire road but remember this is a true lock out meaning no suspension movement at all. A system like the Marzocchi ETA that leaves you 30 mm of travel even when locked out would be better but it’s really not worth it, I only used the lock out trying to ride up my street.

Now some issues, firstly with both of the forks that I have owned I have managed to break the lockout, this was more than likely due to riding with lockout engaged while riding over rough terrain combined with the extremely small parts used in the lockout system.

The second and probably the biggest issue is the “Fox Knock** ” which is caused by the tolerances and design that Fox uses for the bushings and the stanchions. When sitting still there is a small amount of play which feels like bushing slop even when new, this “slack” tolerance is what gives the fork its smoothness, the forks are designed so that when riding, oil is pushed up between the stanchion and the bushing taking up the “slack”.

Some people claim that they can feel it when out riding but personally I can’t feel it on the trail though sometimes I can hear a faint knocking sound when the fork is fully extended however I am not overly concerned with this. As with all gear your best bet is to take one for a test ride to see if this will be an issue for you.

I would recommend this fork to anyone looking for a high-end single crown fork, if you want a very precise well-made fork and can deal with the “knock” this could be the fork for you. Fox has done very well for it’s first venture into the MTB fork market

* I personally have nothing against psylos, my fork just had very flogged out bushings making it almost unrideable.