Fox 36 Float Rhythm vs Fox Factory 36 Forks Grip 2

[eldereldo]

Is the Factory a significant upgrade? thinking of picking one up on sale and replacing the Float on my Trance X, slightly more travel at 160 vs 150 as well.

[El Chupacabra]

IMHO the "performance elite" is the fork option to go for - same as "factory" but without the kashima color. Function is identical. So unless you found a killer deal on the factory version for less money than the performance elite, or you really like that color, no reason for the factory version.

There's a significant difference in the damping and adjustability in the Fox forks above the Grip 1 dampers (the "Rhythm" and "Performance" forks - note that "Performance Elite" is different from "Performance"). The Grip 1 isn't bad, certainly much better than RockShox Motion Control and lower RS forks, but the Grip 2 and Fit4 dampers are much more adjustable.

[eldereldo]

Local shop is selling off 2022 model, one color, one travel, one offset, one wheel size, all of which happens to be matched to my need. Cheaper than anything I can find on line, and cheaper than the performance series. $900 Canuck bucks, so about 675 US

[toast2266]

If I had $675 to spend, I'd rather buy a used factory / performance elite than a new rhythm. For the reasons el chup stated.

[El Chupacabra]

I think he's saying that he can get a new Factory fork for $675. Which is a good price.

[toast2266]

I think he's saying that he can get a new Factory fork for $675. Which is a good price.

Ah, right. Then yeah, he should buy that.

[MarcusBrody]

How do you feel about your current fork? What's it coming up short in that you want to improve? And is it set up as well as possible?

I'm on my first Factory and first Fox fork in general, so I can't really give a comparative review. I really like my Factory 38, but there are lots of things to fiddle with. Had I been speccing the bike myself, I'd probably just have gone for a RockShox forks as I'm more a set it and forget it guy, so the extreme adjustability of the Factory fork isn't a big deal for me. I set it at the suggested settings, I think went 1 click less in low speed compression after a few rides, and haven' touched it since.

[eldereldo]

Yeh its the factory version I can (did) get.
Current fork is fine at low speeds, when I start to go faster, it just isn’t responsive to small bumps, if I soften the compression enough to smooth it out, it dives under braking, I can increase air pressure to control that but that screws up the sag. previous bike had both high and low speed compression and rebound and I didn't have this issue. so hopefully I can now get it riding the way I want as it was so uncomfortable I actually had to slow down.

[MarcusBrody]

Well being able to separate high/low speed compression is definitely one of the advantages of the Factory fork. But you can also just buy the GRIP2 damper and drop it in your current fork. The damper alone is $360 and at least some places are running promotions where they're on sale. So basically half as expensive as getting a new fork.

[One (+) Sentence]

Rhythm and Performance share the same damper, but have different chassis’.

Performance shares the same chassis as Performance Elite and Factory, but different dampers.

Performance Elite and Factory are functionally the same, but Factory has Kashima stanchions.

[eldereldo]

Hopefully I can sell the original fork and recover some of the cost that way. Upgrade is 485 in Canada, In any case trigger was pulled and shiny new fork waiting to be installed.

[MarcusBrody]

Hopefully I can sell the original fork and recover some of the cost that way. Upgrade is 485 in Canada, In any case trigger was pulled and shiny new fork waiting to be installed.

Enjoy! I hope it gets you what you are looking for!

Also, I don't have personal experience with this, but i've read a lot about Fox forks seeming harsher than expected and HSC/LSC not helping as expected. Most of the problems seemed to be that the forks were overpacked with grease. So if your new one isn't operating as it should, you might want to check that/get the shop you bought it to check that.

[smmokan]

Enjoy! I hope it gets you what you are looking for!

Also, I don't have personal experience with this, but i've read a lot about Fox forks seeming harsher than expected and HSC/LSC not helping as expected. Most of the problems seemed to be that the forks were overpacked with grease. So if your new one isn't operating as it should, you might want to check that/get the shop you bought it to check that.

It’s crazy, it seems like that’s been an issue with new Fox forks for years now.

[MarcusBrody]

It’s crazy, it seems like that’s been an issue with new Fox forks for years now.

Yeah, it's weird as it seems so simple to address. Then you read that it's been done and a few months later read another review where it turned out to be an issue again.

For what it's worth, my 38 seemed totally fine.