Fox 32 Float 26 120 Fit CTD

Price: £749
Specification: Weight: 1,485g / Contact: mojo.co.uk

At £750 the Fox 32 Float 26 120 fork is the most expensive fork here but it’s also the lightest, and with Fox’s new CTD technology it’s potentially one of the easiest to set up.

To save weight, Fox uses a dedicated chassis for this shorter-travel fork with extra machining on the lowers and material removed from the back of the fork brace. The lightweight butted aluminium stanchions feature the distinctive gold-coloured Kashima coating, which helps reduce stiction while improving sensitivity. The Shimano-made 15mm QR thru-axle is very solid and can be clocked to any position by re-setting the ratchet nut on the right-hand dropout, but we’ve noticed the anodising does tend to wear off the axle quite quickly, so it’s best to keep it well greased. You pay extra for a tapered steerer but a star nut is included in the box, although there’s no shock pump.

The Fox 32 Float is air sprung, has adjustable rebound damping and features Fox’s CTD presets. This initialism stands for Climb, Trail and Descend and it’s accessed via a three-position dial on the top of the right leg. The theory is that it allows you to easily match the fork’s compression damping to the terrain. Users can then fine-tune the Trail setting via the black dial on top of the fork. We’ve tested several CTD forks over the last year and the Fox 32 Float is the first where it seems to function as intended. On the longer-travel models the Descend setting is the opposite to what you’d want for riding downhill — there is very little support and the fork sinks into the travel on steep stuff — but on the 120mm fork there’s not such a jump between the settings.

On the compacted rock and stutter bumps at Afan, the Float was easily the most composed fork on test. It’s still supple on the smoother, groomed trails but it’s totally unfazed by rough terrain. For a product that is lighter than the RockShox SID, the chassis stiffness was equally impressive. The 32 Float is a class act — it’s light, stiff and inspires confidence. The only sticking point is the price, as it’s almost £100 more than everything else in its class, so we’ve pegged it back a point this time round.

MBR rating: 9

Slippery Kashima coat reduces stiction

Weight saving machining on back of the fork brace

This test appeared in the July 2013 issue of MBR, alongside the DT Swiss XMM 120 TS, Magura TS8 R120, Rockshox SID RCT3 and the X-Fusion Velvet RL2.