Fox Fork Bushing Installation Tool
Fox Fork Bushing Installation Tool Parts
The Fox 40 has been around for 13 years now. Over those years Fox has taken an incremental approach to improvement—each year it evolves and gets a little better. With that much evolution it has developed into something quite special. On the World Cup circuit it has become the dominant fork in recent years and this year it will be far and away the most popular fork among the front runners. Fox have tentatively admitted that it has reached the point where a number of teams are even buying the fork, rather than run some of the alternatives—a situation almost unheard of in World Cup racing.
This winter we visited Fox's German HQ to catch up with Kolja Schmitt, one of their top world cup technicians, to find out more about how they prepare one of these forks to go racing and to get a few tips on how you can make your fork sing a little sweeter. : yep, but as some point is it all down to the small parts that makes the stiction less eg. A sealhead, a damper shaft or a diffrent tuning.The stuff that RAD riders test does not always make production, but they get paied to test the stuff that might make it to the publicEg. I had a 2015 Fox 36, it had a horrible tuning - So I had a custom tune made. Then 2016 came and the cartridge was 'updated' or improved etcetc. They changed the tuning to one that a pro rider used, prolly Jared Graves, because they mad the limited models that year Reply. : As an engineer, you should be aware that honing uses abrasives, not forming dies (which is essentially what those dies are), to remove material, not form it over similar to ballizing or burnishing.
As an aerospace manufacturing engineer, former certified tool and die maker, I have extensive experience in both processes chasing very high tolerance assemblies for landing gear, or formerly bushings for die assemblies so there's some experience behind my perspective. The material being formed does not change the process, it is forming the shape via pressure vs removal of material from the bushing via abrasive or cutting edge (honing, reaming, boring, lapping, etc), which is by definition burnishing when it pertains to this process (rolling and pressure action vs abrasive action). The material is simply being smeared over, vs cut/removed by abrasives or cutting tools.
Burnishing/ballizing is the closest process this relates to. I get that they're not gonna tell us what they do to/with the piston and shim stack, but the very least they could mention the fact that both get worked over. I get Fox(and every other manufacturer) not wanting to let the details out, but if PB could release the suction between their collective lips and Fox's A$$ for just a second, and not BS us into thinking that the only 'mod' done to WC forks is basically a strip-and-check(apart from boring out the bushings, although my particular 40's came that way from the factory and cost me $80 to replace at my first rebuilt).They're supposed to give us the impression that their job is to report the 'facts', as opposed to being nothing more than a PR channel for the bike industry.
I recall from a (very old) interview with Chris Porter from Mojo that he actually reams the bushings to perfectly suit the stanchions for that particular fork. Apparently there is always some variation in bushing dimensions as well as in stanchion diameters through production. It seems well worth it. Only means more frequent cleaning and lubing of the fork lowers, but that's easy for a non open bath fork.
The coating on your stanchions might even last longer if the bushings are more round. Avalanche is amazing. Beat on their stuff year after year with no loss of feel and with the exception of leaky seals after several seasons, nearly no maintenance.My OCD machinists side says that if the goal is to get perfectly round, centered, and square bores in the brand new bushings, then you shouldn't be doing it by hand. Square everything up in a jig, center on the stanchion, and use mechanical means to keep even pressure & rotation. Or that tool should have a sliding guide to keep it straight & centered in the stanchion.
Of course, that extra work would probably make them last a lot longer, and these guys just need their forks to last a few runs if not a few minutes.