Richie Rude-approved inverted enduro fork gets the official release. Oh so desirable! Oh so expensive!
Fox Podium technical specifications
- SERIES: Factory
- CHASSIS: Inverted
- CROWN DIAMETER: 58mm and 68mm Options
- WHEEL SIZE: 29in
- TRAVEL: 170mm and 160mm Options
- DAMPER: GRIP X2
- DAMPER CONTROLS: HSC – LSC – HSR – LSR
- AXLE: 20 x 110mm Boost
- RAKE: 44mm
- STEERER: 1.5 Tapered
- LOWER TUBE FINISH: Kashima
- BYPASS CHANNELS: No (unnecessary due to inverted design)
- BLEEDERS: Yes
- FLOATING AXLE: Yes
- ROTOR SIZE: 200mm direct Post Mount, 230mm max
- MUD GUARD MOUNT: FOX Mud Guard available Fall 2025
- AIR SPRING: FLOAT EVOL GlideCore
- STARTING WEIGHT: 2695g
- SRP: £2,199
Fox press release:
FOX Launches the All-New Podium Inverted Fork: Unleash Your Unfair Advantage
Engineered for unforgiving descents, technical race lines, and the world’s most demanding riders, FOX introduces Podium, a new benchmark in single crown fork performance. Delivering exceptional fore-aft rigidity, ultra-smooth travel, and DH-style confidence, Podium brings an unfair advantage to enduro racers and all-mountain riders alike.
Podium is designed to be ridden like a downhill fork. No barriers. No hesitation. Complete confidence that your front wheel will hold the line, no matter how fast—or how big—you push it. All this while keeping your bike in a familiar range of travel and geometry in a single crown package.
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Fox designed this inverted fork to get the absolute maximum performance out of the industry leading GRIP X2 damper, with every possible gain for smoothness in its travel and confidence-inducing fore-aft rigidity in the chassis.
Welcome to the Unfair Advantage. Welcome to Podium.
The Pinnacle Of Performance
To take full advantage of a damper’s capabilities, FOX engineers pursued the optimal design to provide ultra-low friction under load. The solution was to turn traditional fork design on its head with an inverted chassis, providing unmatched damping sensitivity when combined with our award-winning Grip X2 damper.
At the core of Podium is uncompromising fore-aft stiffness made possible by oversized 47mm upper tubes and a generatively-designed crown structure. This setup delivers stiffness approaching that of the dual-crown FOX 40, allowing riders to hold precise lines with total confidence—even at downhill speeds.
To further increase torsional stiffness, FOX replaced the standard 15mm axle with a steel 20 x 110mm Boost DH axle, distributing forces more evenly across the lower leg interface. Combined with 175mm of bushing overlap—32% more than the 38 and even 7% more than the FOX 40—Podium delivers an unbeatable chassis stiffness and reduced friction under heavy loads.
The Harder You Push, The Smoother The Ride
Podium’s GlideCore air spring delivers next-level smoothness. Designed with built-in lateral and axial compliance, it allows the spring to flex with the fork under high loads, reducing binding and stiction. The result? A smoother ride feel, improved small bump sensitivity, and better control when the terrain gets wild.
The inverted design also shortens the distance from the lower fork bushing to the axle as the fork compresses. This reduces leverage on the bushing, minimizing friction just when riders need it most—charging hard into deep travel on technical terrain.
Custom-Tuned GRIP X2 Damper
Podium is equipped with a specially tuned GRIP X2 damper, known for its four-way adjustability and race-proven control. With enhanced compression damping to match the fork’s reduced friction and slightly softened rebound to balance lower unsprung mass, Podium’s damping curve is designed for aggressive descending, enduro competition, and eMTB domination.
Unfair Smoothness by Design
- Every aspect of Podium is engineered for reduced friction and increased sensitivity:
- Full oil immersion keeps seals constantly lubricated while gravity helps shed contamination.
- Reduced unsprung mass—thanks to the inverted design—improves suspension responsiveness.
- Custom tuned GRIP X2 Damper
Built Like a DH Fork, Rides Like a Podium
Podium isn’t just a new fork—it’s a new category. Designed to feel like a DH fork in a single crown chassis, Podium erases hesitation, boosts confidence, and delivers world-class control at high speed.
From full-power eMTBs to enduro race bikes, Podium gives riders everything they need to go faster, harder, and deeper into technical terrain.
Some choice quotes from the tech PDF:
“Podium’s damping performance is powered by the award-winning GRIP X2 damper, tuned specifically for more compression support. Given the incredible rigidity and smoothness of Podium, we needed to add some additional compression damping to account for the reduced chassis friction. We also toned down the rebound damping slightly to account for the lower unsprung weight of the system.
“Riders on GRIP X2 reap the benefits of sitting higher in the travel while their tires stay glued to the ground. They can corner with increased traction, giving them the confidence to push the limits of enduro racing and full power eMTB riding, all while reducing hand and arm fatigue significantly.”
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“Amongst early testers and FOX athletes, a consistent piece of feedback was “the harder I push it, the smoother it feels”. A big part of this performance gain is due to the shorter distance from the lower fork bushing to the axle.
“On a traditional fork, the bushing to axle distance is fixed. When an inverted fork compresses throughout its travel, the axle moves closer to the lower bushing and the bending leverage on that lower bushing is decreased, and as a result, the fork motion feels smoother the deeper the fork goes into its travel. When the trail conditions get tough,
Podium rises to the occasion.”
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“Unsprung mass consists of everything on the bike that’s below the suspension’s spring and damper. On a standard fork, this mass includes the wheel, tire, front brake and lower fork legs. On an inverted fork, the heavier fork “lowers” are now the upper tubes, reducing the unsprung weight significantly.
“What’s the benefit of lower unsprung mass? Inertia. Less mass requires less force to move it in either direction, meaning suspension is more sensitive and more active on both the compression and rebound strokes.”
Am I really the first on this? I just clicked on to look at the price, and Fox… you didn’t disappoint!
I thought that some one hear was going to have ridden one
I remember the first time round that the suspension manufacturers tried to sell an upside down fork. It was as noodly as a massive bowl of noodles.
*Ouch!
Just saw the price!
It’s amazing. I have ridden loads of forks over the years and this one really is something special. I would like to compare it to an Intend to see how they compare. That way I could see if most of the special sauce comes from the inverted chassis. It’s got me questioning if 38mm stanchioned forks are just too stiff.
This really has got to the best ever “HOW F@#%#&£%£G MUCH" to end all “how f@£%#*£g much?"s.
At least until they being out a ‘special edition’ endorsed by someone I’ve never heard of version.
Don’t look at Intends USD fork offering.
Aren’t the Intend forks a little cheaper?
Although the Intend with the one piece upper will make the Fox look cheap, the Push is more than the Fix as well but given both are produced in relatively small numbers, it does make the Fox look expensive.
Be interesting to see what the new carbon 38 Intend forks are going to cost.
The one piece is more expensive, the moto V2 is a lot more expensive (€4,334, inc VAT but comes with a shock, the suspension kind, not the price…)
And yet there’s people on the other thread who think they need them! Boys n their toys eh? 😛
£2200, I’d expect them to be perfect out of the box….
Diaz Suspension Design | We got a sweet new test fork in the shop 🙄… Followed directions / torque specs from the manual to check alignment…. Both tubes slide… | Instagram
I’m not at all surprised by the price. Plenty of forks have hit the 2k mark before.
I’ve already heard about excessive grease, blocked ports, stiff bushes etc.
Fox can double the price but they won’t improve their build quality or QC.
They do look pretty cool though.
That is hilarious and somewhat off putting. Intend by contrast post videos of the burnishing each set of busing individually as they hand assemble forks in-house.
Edit- does that mean the podium doesn’t have the floating axle to avoid exactly this?
They do look cool but how much is novelty value? If upside down was industry standard I can’t help thinking that people would be clamouring for right way up forks because they’re light and stiffer.
I’d still like a set of USD dual crowns but only on a DH bike. Happy with regular forks on everything else.
It seems to have a floating axle.
However if the uppers or axle clamps are not square/straight that’d make little difference and you’d still get binding like that.
…and cheaper. Keith Bontrager would have a meltdown. All three being true can’t be possible.
Couple of interesting instas he has
When I’ve had forks with pinch bolts both sides before (remember the old days?) it was key to tighten them all together, not do one side up tight, and then the other.
When RockShox launched the Judy DHO in the late 90’s / early 00’s, that cost £1250.
Looking back on it, it’s insane – a triple clamp fork with 6″ of elastomer travel. 😳
The shop I was working in at the time had a pair in, on display chained to the wall. Every customer that saw them said exactly the same: “how f**king much?!"
We eventually sold them for about £300 a couple of years later.
How does it compare to a nice coil fork, would you say?
Obviously I’ve not ridden the Podium, but the benefits described by most of the reviewers sound quite similar to what you get from a coil (as well as the disadvantage of more weight).