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The gravel bike is booming. No wonder, because it is a real all-rounder. These sporty bikes with racing handlebars can handle everything from long bike trips with luggage, the journey to work and road bike excursions to off-road excursions. The wide tyres offer significantly more comfort than thin road bike tyres, but with a rigid fork this is still limited. Fox wants to remedy this with the 32 Taper Cast and offer gravel bikers more comfort, especially on long tours. In addition, the 40 to 50 millimetres suspension travel for more fun on off-road excursions. For bikepackers and bad weather riders: the 32 mm gravel bike fork is prepared for a mudguard, with a maximum tyre width of 45 millimetres.
The previous version: 32 AX
Already In 2017, Fox tried its hand at a suspension fork for gravel bikes and cross bikes and presented the project at the Sea Otter Classic bike festival. However, the short-travel suspension fork - the Fox 32 AX fork offered 40 millimetres of travel - did not catch on. Only Niner installed the Fox fork in its gravel bike fullymajor manufacturers dispensed with the comfort booster on their off-road racing bikes. With the Gravelbike-boom and the newly developed 32 TC, this could now change.
The Fox 32 TC compared to the Rockshox Rudy
Rockshox also recently introduced the Rudy, a gravel bike fork with suspension. In the BIKE test lab, the new gravel suspension fork from Fox 1281 grammes only five grams more on the scales than the Rockshox Rudy with 40 millimetres of travel. In terms of weight, the two gravel forks have nothing in common; compared to 100 mm MTB suspension forks (e.g. Fox 32 SC or Rockshox SID SL), they are around 250-300 grams lighter. We also measured the new Fox Gravel suspension fork on our stiffness test rig. The Torsional rigidity of the 32 TC (18.5 Nm/°) is slightly higher than that of the Fox 32 Step-Cast (14.7 Nm/°). For comparison: Torsionally stiff, 100 mm MTB forks achieve values between 20 and 25 Nm/°. With the Brake rigidity Fox's new gravel bike fork with 177.6 Nm/° is on a par with the 32 mm Step-Cast MTB fork. This shows that the slimmed-down, slim casting should be stiff enough to deliver sufficient steering precision even in rough terrain.
The addition "Taper Cast" refers to the shape of the casting, which becomes thinner towards the bottom, clearly distinguishing the fork visually from the mountain bike models and emphasising the 32 Taper Cast identified as a gravel bike suspension fork. The proven Fit and Grip cartridges from the mountain bike models are used inside. As Factory, Performance Elite and Performance version the short-stroke fork is available and, depending on the version, costs between 1039 and 1259 Euro >> e.g. available here.
The facts about the Fox 32 TC gravel bike fork
- Suspension travel: 40-50 millimetres
- Weight: 1281 grams (incl. 12x100 mm thru-axle / BIKE measurement)
- Wheel size: 28 inch
- Max. tyre width Tyre width: 50 millimetres
- Brake caliper: Flatmount / 160 and 180 mm brake discs
- Shaft dimension: 1 1/2- 1 1/8 inch (tapered)
- Mudguard compatibility: yes (max. tyre width 700C x 45 millimetres)
- Price: 1039 to 1259 euros >> e.g. available here.
