Fox E-MTB Suspension - Does It Make A Difference?

What Makes An E-Bike Fork Different? 

When it comes to the world of bicycle parts, some seem to be pure marketing hype and others are engineered to be better. The E-Bike niche of the mountain bike world often falls into the latter category. In other words, some E-Bike parts are actually better for E-Bikes and others are just branded “E-Bike”. Fox Suspension has put lots of time and effort into making suspension forks for E-Bikes and it’s not just for the sake of marketing, but in fact specifically made to make your E-Bike better. Fox has two types of E-Bike forks: E-Tuned and E-Optimized. We will get into both of them in just a bit. 

To make my point that this E-Bike suspension is not just marketing, one of our customers really loved the way his Fox 38 felt on his new Santa Cruz Bullit, and wanted to make his Fox 38 Factory on his second bike feel the same. Well, it turns out we couldn't quite make them match because the Fox 38 on his Bullit was “E-Tuned”, therefore wouldn't be able to fully match the Fox 38 Factory. 

E-Tuned:

E-Tuned forks are, as you guessed, specifically tuned for an E-Bike. The weight, added forces, and style of riding that a typical E-bike will be put through all require something a little different than what your regular bike suspension would need. By tuning the damper and air spring to have a better feel and performance for an E-Bike, you will get the same great performance from Fox but slightly tweaked to make your E-Bike handle that much better. The E-Tuned forks run on the same chassis as the standard Performance Elite or Factory versions of the fork and are available in 34, 36, and 38 Fox models. 

The custom compression tune you find in the damper helps keep the wheel on the ground, the traction level up, and the confidence high. A similar tune has been made to the air spring as well, giving it a more sensitive beginning stroke, while adding a more progressive end stroke to help maintain traction but not blow through the travel. Both of these add up to a great feeling fork that, as we found out, might even be good for a normal bike. Our customer liked it so much he wanted to try to match his fork to the E-Tuned fork on his Bullit. 

E-Optimized:

The E-Optimized forks get the same treatment on the internals as the E-Tuned, but also get a beefed up chassis, for those wanting to get every bit of performance out of their E-Bikes. Mainly the CSU gets added stiffness to meet the requirements that modern E-Bikes are putting on forks, especially the longer travel bikes that are being ridden as hard as enduro and downhill bikes. Meeting or exceeding all the testing requirements for E-MTB use, the E-Optimized forks are ready to be ridden, and ridden hard. One thing to note is that the E-Optimized forks are only available in Fox 34 and 36 models. Fox knows the stock 38 chassis is already strong enough to meet and exceed these testing requirements. 

Difference Between E-Tuned and E-Optimized:

To compare the E-Tuned and E-Optimized, the E-Tuned forks get internal tuning improvements to help the fork perform better on E-Bikes, while the E-Optimized not only gets the internal tuning but also a stronger and stiffer CSU (Crown, Steerer, and Upper tubes) to help improve the riding performance as much as possible. 

What is Worldwide’s Take?

With modern E-Bikes getting better and better every year, it was only a matter of time before they needed some of their own specific parts. While some might be pure marketing, we found in real world riding and customer requests, the Fox E-Tuned and E-Optimized models are not just marketing hype but made for the needs of E-Bikes. E-Tuned for Fox 34, 36 and 38 model forks, and E-Optimized for Fox 34 and 36 forks, the choice is yours. Don't let your E-bike be undergunned with a fork that isn't the best it can be.