FOX 2026 FACTORY PODIUM 29" FORK GRIP X2 58HT

FOX never stops innovating. We continue to push the potential of mountain bike suspension to give gravity riders and racers the edge whether on the World Cup course, the steepest and most technical local descent, and everything in between.
Podium is designed to be ridden like a downhill fork. No barriers. No hesitation. Complete confidence that your front wheel will hold the line, no matter how fast or how big you push it. All this while keeping your bike in a familiar range of travel and geometry in a single crown package.

We designed this inverted fork to get the absolute maximum performance out of our GRIP X2 damper, with every possible gain for smoothness in its travel and confi- dence-inducing fore-aft rigidity in the chassis.

Welcome to the Unfair Advantage. Welcome to Podium.

Technical:

OVERSIZED UPPERS OVERBUILT CROWN.

The biggest edge Podium has over every other single crown fork its incredible fore-aft rigidity. The combination of oversized 47mm upper tubes and a massive generative- ly-designed crown create the foundation for the stiffest pos- sible chassis-approaching that of a FOX 40-letting you power through the roughest and steepest trails with absolute confidence, even at Downhill race speed.

LARGE DIAMETER AXLE

Where inverted forks have fallen short in the past is with torsional (steering) stiffness because there's no arch joining the fork legs. This meant we had to build torsional stiffness into other parts of the fork. The oversized crown has the upper end covered, so the next logical place to add stiffness was where the fork legs join on the lower end.

ALL THE BUSHING OVERLAP

Bushings are Teflon-lined sleeves that interface be- tween the upper and lower legs of the fork. There are two bushings in each leg, for a total of four in a fork. “Bushing overlap" refers to the distance between upper and lower bushings in each leg. As the fork is loaded fore-aft (such as when running over an obstacle on the trail), that bend- ing force is transmitted through the bushings.

The inverted chassis configuration allowed us to design Podium with a massive 175mm of bushing overlap. That's 32% more overlap than the 38 and even 7% more than the 200mm-travel FOX 40 DH race fork. This overlap not only contributes to greater fore-aft rigidity, but also gives Podium an unfair advantage with the lowest possible chas- sis friction, especially when powering through the roughest terrain at high speed when bending loads on the fork are the greatest.

UNFAIR SMOOTHNESS - GLIDECORE AIR SPRING

When a fork is dynamically loaded, that bending force is transmitted to the air spring assembly inside the stanchion. A large enough force-such as hitting a large rock or root at high speed can cause the air spring to bind to the inside of the stanchion while the fork is compressing through its travel.

The GlideCore air spring is built with lateral compli- ance allowing it to flex with these bending loads, rather than resisting them. By decoupling the stanchion from the air shaft, the piston can move with the fork and remains axially aligned with the stanchion when subjected to a bending load from any direction.

Less strain in the air spring assembly means less re- action forces on the piston and shaft bushing. Less reaction forces means less friction at these interfaces. The result? Smoother suspension action overall, especially when the fork is experiencing high loads from speed or the weight of a rider.

The same Nitrile Butadiene material that gives GlideCore its lateral compliance also provides axial compli- ance by vertically compressing a small amount before the air spring itself begins to move.

CUSTOM TUNED GRIP X2 DAMPER

Podium's damping performance is powered by the award-winning GRIP X2 damper, tuned specifically for more compression support. Given the incredible rigidity and smoothness of Podium, we needed to add some additional compression damping to account for the reduced chassis friction. We also toned down the rebound damping slightly to account for the lower unsprung weight of the system.

Riders on GRIP X2 reap the benefits of sitting higher in the travel while their tires stay glued to the ground. They can corner with increased traction, giving them the con- fidence to push the limits of enduro racing and full power eMTB riding, all while reducing hand and arm fatigue signifi- cantly.

SHORTER BUSHING TO AXLE

Amongst early testers and FOX athletes, a consistent piece of feedback was "the harder I push it, the smoother it feels". A big part of this performance gain is due to the short- er distance from the lower fork bushing to the axle.

On a traditional fork, the bushing to axle distance is fixed. When an inverted fork compresses throughout its travel, the axle moves closer to the lower bushing and the bending leverage on that lower bushing is decreased, and as a result, the fork motion feels smoother the deeper the fork goes into its travel. When the trail conditions get tough, Podium rises to the occasion.

UNSPRING THE WEIGHT

Unsprung mass consists of everything on the bike that's below the suspension's spring and damper. On a stan- dard fork, this mass includes the wheel, tire, front brake and lower fork legs. On an inverted fork, the heavier fork "lowers" are now the upper tubes, reducing the unsprung weight significantly.

What's the benefit of lower unsprung mass? Inertia. Less mass requires less force to move it in either direction, meaning suspension is more sensitive and more active on both the compression and rebound strokes.

The full-coverage carbon fiber fork guards on Factory Series Podium not only keep unsprung weight to a minimum, but also protect the Kashima coated stanchions from exter- nal damage.