Fox made a major splash final yr with the discharge of their inverted enduro fork, the Podium. At launch, Fox supplied fairly a couple of the explanation why an inverted fork is “higher” — bushing overlap, friction discount, and so forth, and so forth.
Nonetheless, one notable characteristic was lacking from the Fox Podium. Early into the discharge of the fork, many people had the identical query: “What a couple of fender?”
Merely put, with the uppers and lowers flip-flopped, there isn’t any supporting arch connecting the lowers on the Podium. As an alternative, the inverted fork makes use of a bigger 20mm axle, which is mostly used on DH bikes to realize the required stiffness and help. However this lack of an arch additionally means there isn’t any place to mount a fender.
Additionally, as a result of higher and decrease flip-flop, the one place left to mount a fender was on the crown. I feel all of us anticipated it, because it appeared the one believable choice. Different inverted mountain bike forks used the identical mounting location, clearly borrowed from dust bikes.
Properly, Fox mounted the brand new Podium fender precisely the place we anticipated it to be. And the look? For sure, it offers a transparent motocross vibe.
Resulting from its increased mounting place, the brand new Fox Podium fender is barely shorter within the tail and barely longer within the nostril than the model’s different fenders. Nonetheless, Fox claims that at 20-25% compression, the protection space is much like a 36 or 38’s fender.
Whereas the look could be polarizing, Fox claims different advantages to a high-mounted fender over one mounted decrease:
A low-mount design provides unsprung mass—not solely the fender but additionally the elevated dimension and reinforcement across the stanchion supporting it.
A low-mount fender has a bigger floor space and carries extra weight from mud that sticks to it.
Much less probability of rattle or breaking off with a high-mount fender as a result of there’s much less probability of path particles (sticks, and so forth.) hitting the fender on account of excessive clearance.
So what do you suppose? If the Podium is in your bike, are you utilizing the fender or not?
See the brand new fender and Fox’s different fenders at ridefox.com.
