Enduro suspension forks in comparison: Gamechamger? Fox Podium against the established competition
Peter Nilges
· 20.09.2025
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It was probably the worst-kept secret in the bike industry: Fox is working on an upside-down suspension fork. At the beginning of this year, a massive enduro fork with an inverted design was spotted on the bikes of various athletes. At the Sea Otter Festival in April, a prototype USD fork was presented at the Fox stand, which looked ready for series production and with which several well-known riders competed in gravity races. Now the promisingly named Podium is officially on the market and, according to Fox, is set to be the new benchmark and outshine everything that has gone before. A full-bodied promise, in our opinion.
Really heavy and expensive
The key data for the new Superforke sounds sobering at first: weighing in at 2767 grams and with a price tag of a hefty 2400 euros, the Podium little applause. The USD fork weighs around 400 grams more than a Rockshox Zeb and is still 300 grams heavier than the 38 from our own company. In terms of price, the difference to the competition is even greater. 1150 euros separate the Rockshox Zeb in the Ultimate version of the new Podium - or to put it more drastically: the new Fox costs almost twice as much as the top fork from Rockshox. The surcharge for a Fox 38 Factory is still a good 700 euros. By the way: The Podium will initially only be available in the Factory version and will also be approved for E-MTBs. The new Podium already left a lasting impression at the presentation in Leogang. On around 4500 metres of descents with varying bike park trails, the massive USD fork proved its ability to swallow. The Podium took the bombed-out passages with massive braking bumps and the blocked steep descents of the Enduro Worldup in its stride. But: To get a really meaningful assessment of the new USD fork, only a direct comparison will help. How do other top forks feel under the same conditions on exactly the same trails? With the Rockshox Zeb Ultimate and the Fox 38 Factory X2, we brought the strongest competition and thus the spearhead of the last Enduro fork test into the house. We put three identical Mondraker Foxy Carbon forks with identical setups to the test for a day in the Bischofsmais bike park. In addition to three experienced testers, we were supported by 110-kilo man Philipp, who works in the bike shop at Geisskopf. We wanted to find out from him whether the Podium might feel too undefined or even spongy for riders in his weight class due to its inverted design.
A real eye-opener
There are test fields where the subjective opinions of the testers differ widely. Personal preferences, riding style and even expectations can fuel such differing impressions. In the case of our suspension fork shootout, however, there was unanimity at the end of the day. Even after various setup changes and numerous runs, all testers noted the same order in the log: Fox Podium ahead of Rockshox Zeb and Fox 38. So the new upside-down fork can look more than just different and puts the established competition in the shade. But first things first.
We were initially surprised by the unusually large difference between the Fox 38 with the Grip X2 damper and the Rockshox Zeb Ultimate with the Charger 3.1 update. In the previous fork test in BIKE 11/23, the two manufacturers were still in a neck-and-neck race, which the Zeb only won by a hair's breadth. Now the difference is much clearer in favour of the Zeb. With the cartridge update, in which the low-speed compression has been reduced and the high-speed compression increased, the Rockshox offers noticeably more comfort and absorption capacity than the Fox 38. Compared to the previous Zeb, we had to increase the air pressure by a good ten per cent.
We also missed some support in the middle compression setting, which is why we ended up riding both compression adjusters quite wide open at the end of the day. In comparison, the Fox 38 is higher in its travel, but also lacks comfort. This didn't change even with the compression damping wide open and well below the air pressure recommendation. In comparison, fast, hard impacts in particular reached the rider's hands quite unfiltered. This costs traction and is unnecessarily tiring. It is difficult to utilise the suspension travel.
Switching to the Fox Podium is a real eye-opener. Why? For one thing, it utilises the entire suspension travel, but still doesn't bottom out or bottom out hard. The fork and damping work consistently and with definition. This provides a lot of comfort and maximum absorption capacity. In this respect, the Rockshox Zeb can keep up to some extent, but feels less defined even with a lot of compression. On the other hand, when jumping into rough sections, the Podium doesn't just sit up like a sedan and inhale the impact as if it wasn't there, but literally sucks itself into the ground. The traction is insane. Especially in the lower part of our test track with root-covered, open corners, the difference in grip is immense. Where with the Fox 38 and the Zeb you already slow down because the front wheel keeps dancing towards the edge of the bend, with the Podium you leave the brakes on and simply follow the intended line.
Also surprising: In particularly slippery conditions, the lower torsional rigidity seems to smooth out the steering impulses, which is also noticeable in the more consistent grip. Compared to the Zeb and 38, the torsional rigidity of the Podium is significantly lower, which is noticeable when riding. The stiffness in the direction of travel, on the other hand, is higher, which should ensure very low friction even under high loads. Even our 110-kilo man Philipp was unable to notice anything negative during the test. Nevertheless, the data from our test lab is surprising: the torsional stiffness of the Podium is only half as high as that of the 38 or the Zeb. Even a Fox 36 is 30 per cent stiffer in comparison. Nevertheless, the Podium is the stiffest USD fork that we have ever measured in our test lab. The bottom line is that the upside-down concept seems to work perfectly. Stiff in the direction of travel for precise work under load and yet soft enough when twisting for maximum traction. We are curious to see whether this development will have a lasting impact on the suspension fork market.
Stiffness and weight
In contrast to conventional forks, USD forks are usually stiffer in the direction of travel, but significantly softer when twisting. Fox itself claims that the torsional stiffness of the Podium is on a par with a Fox 36, but we cannot confirm this with our measurements. The Podium is even around 30 per cent lower, which is definitely a positive factor in practice. This reopens the debate as to how stiff a fork needs to be to work perfectly off-road. When it comes to weight, the new Podium is clearly at a disadvantage.
How BIKE tests
All suspension forks have to show their colours in our own test laboratory. Objective and reproducible values in terms of stiffness and weight provide a clear categorisation and debunk marketing claims. In the practical test, we were able to ride the three suspension forks against each other on three identical bikes. This allowed us to quickly swap the test candidates with each other in order to detect both minor and major differences. In the Geisskopf bike park, we were able to test the capabilities of the forks optimally on different trails
The opinion of our testers
Peter Nilges, BIKE Test Manager
In direct comparison with the Rockshox Zeb and the Fox 38, the Podium is in a league of its own and even raises the question of whether this performance is even possible with a conventional fork design. The price, on the other hand, is an absolute cheek. - Peter Nilges
Max Fuchs, BIKE test editor
For racers who want to pull out all the stops, the new Fox Podium is the measure of all things. The low torsional stiffness provides brutal traction and ensures that the front wheel literally sticks to the ground. This increases speed and self-confidence, especially when the going gets really rough. - Max Fuchs
Laurin Lehner, BIKE test editor
If I had to spend my hard-earned money on an Enduro fork, the Zeb my clear favourite. It can do everything at a very high level. The Fox Podium does go one better in terms of function, but it doesn't justify the immense extra cost. - Laurin Lehner
