We first got our hands on these new forks from Fox last summer. Squarely aimed at dirt jumpers and 4X riders…

From DIrt issue 105 – November 2010

Words by Olly Wilkins. Photos by Grant Robinson.

We first got our hands on these new forks from Fox last summer. Squarely aimed at dirt jumpers and 4X riders, we didn’t feel that confident that the Dirt office staff could give them a proper test for their intended use, so we enlisted the help of DMR sponsored Olly Wilkins. Olly was a perfect choice to test them and has been riding them pretty hard for a good while now. Here are his thoughts and opinions:

It’s unbelievable quite how adjustable suspension is nowadays. I must admit when I first got these out of the box I was a little intimidated. They glared at me with all of those knobs and dials. They made me question what I wanted from them. I didn’t know, I only wanted a bit of fun, it all seemed too soon!

Anyway, a lot of this was an education for me. I knew how I wanted them to feel, but couldn’t explain it. Firstly I had to work out what everything was and how it applied to me. So I eliminated the lockout and lockout force adjusters. I’ve never liked the idea of lock–out, it feels like your firing springs at your head out of the top of the stanchions (these are air sprung so this doesn’t apply!). Then I had the low speed compression to deal with. After messing around for 5 minutes I decided too much of it wasn’t for me. I liked the forks to feel nice and progressive and I don’t mind them diving a bit in corners, plus I don’t run a front brake. I put about 100psi in the forks and I was ready to go.

Before any of this I had to get a 15mm hub. The whole front end of my bike now felt dangerously light. These forks weigh 3.73lbs or something, and my new hub and wheel were super light too. Everything felt a little skinny and under built compared to my old Fox 36’s. After one ride I was over this and stopped complaining.

Moving on, after riding these for a year or so there’s definitely a certain quality about them. They make me feel better on a bike than I am. They disguise bottoming out so well it makes you feel like that 70/30 case never happened, or that you meant to flat–bottom the hip. No dirty noises or bends yet, and they’ve not had it easy either. I’m only just starting to feel a difference in the way they feel now, like maybe they need more oil or seals or something, but I feel that’s expected. After all I ride this bike everyday…what else can I say? Ah yes, these ones have 100mm of travel out of the box. I am yet to feel the need to change this, but you can, a lot in fact. They go up to 110 and 120mm, so there’s some scope for different head angles and other nerd stuff. So on the whole I think I’ve just listed a load of positives on the fork. This is because my experience with the 831 has been a storybook romance, a real success. The only ‘but…’ I can think of comes in the shape of the price tag, 750 pounds seems an awful lot for a set of single crown forks, but you are paying for the best, no doubt about it. You gotta pay the toll to rock n roll.           Olly Wilkins

Price £749 (standard 1 1/8), £769 1.5” Taper

Mojo 01633 615 815

www.mojo.co.uk
www.foxracingshox.com

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