It’s Crankworx, and it’s at all times an fascinating time for biking manufacturers and the media. Some manufacturers are launching new or up to date elements, others are unveiling new bikes, and others are not-so-stealthily “hiding” their upcoming merchandise in plain sight. One factor’s for positive: when you’re making an attempt to maintain a brand new product underneath wraps, it is best to in all probability have the most important title on the occasion racing on it for all to see. Am I proper? However significantly, it’s acquired to be difficult to have your top-level athletes take a look at merchandise whereas concurrently protecting them out of the general public eye.
Our man, Steve Fisher, is at Crankworx this week. Yesterday, he noticed Jackson Goldstone within the end corral on his Santa Cruz DH bike, which had a number of fascinating elements hooked up to it. He snapped a couple of “spy photographs” and handed them alongside to us. Whereas we initially assumed that it was only a Prototype Fox 40 we have been taking a look at, a better look revealed a few different objects value mentioning. Let’s speculate!
Prototype Fox 40
Fox has been on a roll with fork updates this 12 months, so it stands to cause that they’d replace the Fox 40, too. The fork that Jackson is using could be very clearly a prototype, with the phrase “prototype” clearly printed above the Fox emblem on the lowers, together with the massive RAD sticker denoting that it’s a part of Fox’s Racing Functions Improvement Program. There’s additionally a small 40/29 sticker confirming that it’s a Fox 40 and that it’s made for 29” wheels.
Past these useless giveaways, the most important visible clue is the brand new arch design. The present Fox 40 has a clean, curving arch, whereas this fork’s arch is a little more squared-off and has cut-outs just like what we’ve seen on Fox’s newest forks, like the brand new 36 and 36 SL and light-weight 34 SL. Utilizing “generative design”, these forks have been redesigned with new arches that not solely cut back weight but additionally reportedly improve torsional stiffness. It’s truthful to imagine the identical strategy is being taken right here.
Past that, there isn’t a lot to see from the surface to make any definitive calls about different design variations. Based mostly on the images, the damper controls look the identical as the present Grip X2, and the opposite knobs and bleed buttons look related, too. Nevertheless it’s truthful to imagine there are some adjustments to the internals that Fox hopes will make the following model of the Fox 40 higher than the present one.
If this replace follows the pattern of Fox’s different fork updates this 12 months, that in all probability consists of extra bushing overlap to assist improve stiffness and cut back friction. In accordance with Fox, the bushing overlap on the brand new 36 and 34 forks grew significantly with the current updates, in order that appears logical right here, too. One other doubtless replace for the Fox 40 is the transfer to Fox’s new “GlideCore” compliant air spring. We noticed this on the Podium inverted fork and likewise on the brand new 36s when these got here out. Primarily, this spring has small bushings which can be meant to cut back friction by permitting the shaft to flex together with the fork.
New Maxxis Tire?
Whereas analyzing the fork, we additionally seen the entrance tire that Jackson is using isn’t presently within the Maxxis lineup. It seems to be a prototype as effectively, with a tread design that appears like an up to date model of the Minion DHF or just a brand new mannequin that shares some traits with that tire. Perhaps it’s a DHF II, or perhaps one thing utterly totally different?
This new tire has alternating pairs of tread blocks within the middle, however appears a bit extra aggressive than the ever-popular DHF. The acquainted rectangular middle lugs are paired with units of L-shaped knobs and a burly-looking row of shoulder knobs. There isn’t fairly as a lot of a niche within the transition zone between the middle tread and the burly-looking row of shoulder knobs because the DHF both.
New Shimano Gravity Brakes?
Final however actually not least, we noticed some curious, unmarked, and unfamiliar uncooked silver brake calipers on Jackson’s bike. We didn’t get a fantastic shot of the brake levers, however they seem like a manufacturing model of the brand new XTR levers (can’t say for positive), so we’re assuming the calipers are some kind of Shimano Gravity brake prototype. The massive calipers actually look gravity-oriented, and fairly massive, just like the SRAM Maven or the Specialised/Brembo prototypes.
Is that this the long-awaited replace to the Saint? That brake hasn’t been up to date in seemingly without end, so it might make sense that Shimano has one thing within the works. I suppose we’ll have to attend and see. We’ll be protecting our eyes and ears open, and we’ll let you already know about all or any of those merchandise if/once they hit the market.
