Fraser Britton has been logging the miles on his new Fox 40, and has put together this review. Inside you'll find all the goods and details on Fox's 2011 version, including a look at the new Kashima Coat.
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Words and Photos by Fraser Britton
Fox released their Fox 40 to much fanfare in early 2005. Since then, the fork has undergone many revisions, but none as big as the 2011 version.
For 2011, the most visible change to the championship winning 40 is the presence of the Kashima Coated uppers. This gold colored coating on the fork legs decreases friction, increases surface hardness and generally looks great. The other major change has been a redesign of the FIT cartridge that takes care of the fork’s damping duties.
I’ve been lucky enough to be riding the 2011 Fox 40 downhill for since late season 2010, and the changes made have been fantastic.
On previous models, the fork would last a few hard riding weeks until the bladder would inevitably blow, and need to be replaced. This was one of the major changes for 2011 that riders will notice.
When Fox inverted the new DH FIT cartridge, they also moved the bladder up to the top of the fork where it is allowed to expand fully and not pinch and tear. This alleviates one of the major technical issues riders used to have with the 40. Dependability will be greatly increased due to this.
Inverting the cartridge also moved the dual compression knobs from the bottom of the fork to the top, and the rebound knob to the bottom. This accomplishes a few things. First of all, it allows for more clearance at the bottom of the fork lowers, as the protective cap over the rebound knob is now half as long as it used to be. This will help keep riders from smashing it beyond recognition, and taking out the bottom of the cartridge with it. Secondly, rebound is usually set once, as a factor of spring rate and then left alone. By inverting things the 40 now has the compression knobs, which see a lot more action, at the top of the fork, making adjustments much quicker.
The most visible difference, even from afar, is the use of Kashima Coating on the fork uppers. Kashima is a proprietary treatment belonging to the Miyaki Coporation of Japan. Fox reps explained Kashima to us earlier this year. “In the revolutionary Kashima Coat process, lubricating molybdenum disulfide is deposited, via electrical induction, into the billions of micropores on the surface of hard-anodized aluminum.
The distinctive gold colored, Kashima coated stanchions maintain better lubrication characteristics, and the lightweight aluminum components treated with Kashima Coat attain a level of hardness and abrasion resistance four times tougher than standard hard-anodized aluminum.”
Basically, the Kashima Coat can lead to a longer lasting fork upper due to better lubrication properties and better wear and scratch resistance than standard fork uppers.
The Fox racers who were prototyping this treatment (The Athertons, Steve Smith, Jared Graves etc.) all saw a noticeable increase in suspension performance.
After some decent time on the product, at much lower speeds, I have to say that I agree. The small 1 or 2% reduction in friction is actually noticeable to small bump compliance. My hands are less tired after long rocky descents than they used to me, with no other changes being made to the fork.
I also usually end up with small nicks in my uppers pretty quickly, but the Kashima certainly does seem to have a harder surface, as even after a multitude of crashes and failed attempts at putting the bike on north shore racks that were way over my head, there are no scratches to be seen in the uppers.
In the months of hard riding the fork has seen, including the complete slop of the North Shore all winter long, there has been no reliability issues, save for one (see below). It’s about time for a rebuild, but until now things have been great.
We did run into one issue. During assembly, something may have been overtightend, as turning the compression knobs led to the entire lower rebound knob assembly unthreading from the fork lowers. In the process it completely locked out the rebound making the fork almost un-rideable until it was sorted out. It was a quick fix with an hex key and a 15mm wrench (and some fork oil) but it’s something worth keeping an eye on and seeing it if was a one off problem or not.
If you have a 2010 40 in good working order, the 2011 is probably not a worthwhile upgrade. But if you have been having problems with the bladder, smashing the compression knobs or it’s just time for a new fork, I would highly recommend the 2011 Fox 40.
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