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2009 Fox
Racing Shox ATV / UTV Shock Ride Test Review
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Bob
Fox first started producing the Fox Airshox
in 1974 for Dirt Bikes |
(Buellton, California) - Fox Racing
Shox has become a familiar name among ATV racers
& enthusiast over the last five years after
the release of their Float & Podium line of
shocks for the Sport ATV market, and John Natalie
jr debuted the highly popular Float X Evol Airshox
in 2004, and in 2005, Natalie won the AMA Pro ATV
Motocross Championship, which boosted Fox Racing
Shox into the ATV racing spotlight, and they have
been gaining steam ever since in the ATV market,
and now many of the factory ATV race teams have
made the switch to Fox.
Fox has long been a pioneer in shock absorber
technology and was the first company to produce
the now popular lightweight air shocks and their
new products surely depict the amount of effort
and dedication the company has for the powersports
industry.
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| The
orginal fox Airshox was designed for the
Maico Dirtbike & it forever changed
racing shock standards when Kent Howerton
won the 500cc Championship in 1976 for Husqvarna |
Back in the early 1970’s the technology
put into powersports suspension components was
minimal compared to what is on the market today.
Bob Fox, founder of Fox Racing, was an avid and
very competitive motocross racer back then and
it was that competitiveness that spurred Fox’s
quest for better racing suspension over the archaic
components that were in use at the time. Fox realized
that if he wanted to win, he needed to go bigger
and faster than the rest of the riders out there,
but the one thing holding him back from doing
just that, was his suspension. “At the time,
the shock absorbers just weren’t up to the
task and I thought I could design a better one,
so that’s what I did,” stated Fox.
Fox Racing Shox began with just dirt bikes, but
soon expanded to Indy Car Racing in the early
80's, and by 1987 Fox began producing shocks for
snowmobiles and eventually mountain bikes, off-road
trucks, ATVs, and UTVs.
Fox Racing Shox recently invited ATVriders.com
to the premiere of the 2009 product line up and
test ride at Zaca Station in southern California.
There were lots of dirtbikes, sport quads, utility
quads, and UTV’s for us to check out and
take out on the track and trails for a spin. The
varied terrain of the facility was perfect for
us to put the machines through a full spectrum
of riding conditions that allowed us to really
put the suspension set ups to the test.
One thing we were really anticipating getting
to try was the new Podium X rear ATV shock with
the position sensitive damping control, which
is similar to the Fox’s proprietary adjustable
bottom-out-control found on the dirt bikes, but
on the ATV models, it is not externally adjustable.
This new device is designed to provide progressive
increase in bottoming resistance as the shock
reaches the end of its stroke to eliminate the
harsh impact of a bottoming out the shock. “It
provided a softer ride, but it was impossible
to bottom out,” stated ATVRiders.com test
rider, Roy Bloodworth.
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Fox Racing
Shox's position sensitive damping control
unit is currently available for the KTM
Models, and more models to be released
soon along with pricing
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Roy
Bloodworth tested a pro-type version of
the Podium X Rear shock with the position
sensitive damping control at the test ride
& he was impressed with it performance |
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