In this article I’m going to cover enduro suspension forks. When creating this list I’ve taken the following things into consideration.
First off, I thought about what normally exemplifies an enduro front suspension. If you thought that’s a simple question requiring a simple answer, you’re wrong. Traditionally 180mm of travel is the maximum amount of travel you’ll put on an enduro rig, but as with any discipline the lines are blurred not sharp here, with many lower numbers popping up as well.
For instance, both flagship enduro products from Fox (38 Factory) and RockShox (ZEB Ultimate) are offered in multiple sizes, even starting at 150mm, which is a trail fork size. I was hesitant to also start to include long-travel (e.g 160mm) trail forks on this list to broaden its appeal, but in the end decided against it.
If you’re serious about enduro riding you will simply want a lot of travel to work with. The best forks on this list offer high-speed compression and rebound adjustment, which can be more distinctly set up with bigger intervals. And you’ll need more travel to do so. Bigger forks also offer a larger mid-stroke before ramping up, and more real estate to tinker with volume spacers to really dial in your air spring.
Even if you’re not into all the details of how to configure your fork (yet), you might still want to let your LBS mechanic do this for you, and they will also want to work as much travel as possible for your enduro ambitions. And if you’re willing to pay the kind of money you need to pay for the forks on display here, it’s a shame if you didn’t dive into the details on how to get the most out of it.
So let’s head over to my list of heavy-hitters and see what enduro suspension forks made it into my overview.
Fox 38 Factory
The Fox 38 Factory is a front suspension meant for enduro. Depending on the length of travel, which sits between 160 and 180mm, you can also use it as a very stiff trail riding fork, especially if you’re a bit heavier. The 160 and 170mm versions only come in black, with a single orange 180mm version available.
Between each fork there’s always overlap, and besides an increase in price, travel options and stanchion width, this fork is similar to the Fox 36 Factory. So a 160mm 36 comes with the same specifications as the 39.
They both have a tire clearance up to 2.8 inch, offer a standard 44mm fork offset (and 37 and 51mm), brake rotor compatibility up to 230mm, 15x110mm axle widths, and GRIP2 with FLOAT EVOL damper/air spring combos.
If you would ever be able to notice any flex in a Fox fork, it might be the difference between a 32 Step-Cast and standard 34, and then only if you ride them like a pro back to back. However, if you’re the type of person who’s not afraid to send it, the 38 might be the go-to choice, because you’re certain there’s less flex, thus less stiction because of the increased torsional stiffness. E.g. the stanchions don’t rub as much inside the bushings.
In terms of its climbing capacity the difference between a 36 and 38 has to do with bike geometry not with weight, even though the 38 is obviously heavier. Yet nobody’s going to convince me 250 grams, which is the weight difference between the two, can be noticed.
The fork fully supports both common enduro 27.5 and 29 inch wheel sizes, which makes this the ultimate Fox enduro and downhill front suspension or long-travel trail riding companion.
- Top-of-the-line enduro or long-travel trail riding front suspension. Used by heavier riders in the 160mm version
- None except for its very serious price
Fox 38 Performance Elite
Except for the lack of Kashima coat and the fact it’s only available with 170mm of travel and 44mm of rake, the Fox 38 Performance Elite is otherwise exactly the same as the more expensive Factory version.
The Kashima coating is a third party coating from Japanese firm Miyaki whereby the microscopic porous coating of the anodization film of the fork legs is filled up with molybdenum disulfide through electrolysis. In turn, it creates a smoother, harder, longer-lasting coating with a characteristic bronze color.
I add more value to increase a very expensive piece of equipment’s longevity than the possible reduction in stiction, yet for the difference in price you could buy a very nice set of premium pedals. So unless you really want a different travel length than 170mm the choice between this one and the Factory version is difficult indeed.
- Almost just as good as the amazing 38 Factory
- Only comes in in a 170mm travel version and 44mm rake
Fox 38 Performance
I’ve read somewhere that the Fox 38 Performance is actually a really good enduro fork for lighter riders, who don’t need to adjust as much as a person of average weight. The adjustment in this case refers to the different GRIP damper in this fork versus both the Factory and Performance Elite, which have the GRIP 2 damper.
The GRIP damper offers 3 on-the-fly settings equating Open (no damping), and Firm damping configurations with infinite adjustment in between 3 dedents. The settings can be configured with a single dial. The GRIP damper also offers a 10-click rebound adjuster knob at the bottom of the damper, which means you cannot independently adjust high- and low-speed rebound. This improves ease of setup at the cost of adjustability.
The biggest difference with the GRIP2 damper is that it offers high-speed compression as well. A lighter rider will need a bigger impact to achieve the same amount of travel, so it does make sense that high-speed compression adjustment is less of an issue for such a person. And the Performance fork is significantly more affordable while offering basically the same specifications.
So the Fox 38 Performance is a really good choice for both women and men of small stature in terms of weight. In general a lot of people only use a handful of clicks, both for compression and rebound, to get to the right setup, and it’s simply a waste of money to have something you’re not going to use. Also let’s not forget, the GRIP damper is easier to set up for those people who don’t really care anyway about constantly worrying about being dialed in correctly.
- Fantastic enduro fork, especially for lighter people. Cheaper, and less of a hassle to set up.
- None
RockShox ZEB Ultimate
The RockShox ZEB Ultimate is to the Lyrik Ultimate what the Fox 38 Factory is to the 36 Factory: basically a beefier model with 38mm stanchions and enduro-style travel options.
From 150mm all the way up to 180mm in 10mm increments, it means you can slap a shorter version of this heavy-duty fork on your long-travel trail bike, or choose this one over the 35mm stanchions of the Lyrik if you’re a heavier rider who’s looking for added stiffness on the roughest of trails.
Of all the brands offering front suspension, RockShox might feel the most controlled when going through its travel, gradually ramping up when needing to deal with the biggest hits. This ensures a smooth, controlled feeling while riding, with less need to throw your body around than you might be used to with earlier iterations of this fork, or other brands. Granted, the differences might only be noticeable when you’re riding different forks back to back and with a proper configuration, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless.
I feel the ZEB is less racey and performance-oriented, lacking the high-speed rebound adjustment of the Fox 38. And unlike certain reviews might claim, more force is needed to get it started in its travel, making it more poppy and a tad more harsh on relative smooth trail conditions.
The Fox 38 progresses more lineary in the last stretches of its travel, making full use of it and maximising control when pointing the bike straight down a rock garden. This is not everybody’s cup of tea though, and the Zeb feels a bit less harsh because of it, sacrificing a bit of control for comfort on the mid-stroke for more average non-pro riding styles.
Though less adjustability in terms of clicks than the Fox 38, with 5 and 18 clicks of high- and low-speed compression consecutively, the changes between them feel distinct, especially when dialing-in the high-speed compression.
It’s always difficult to compare forks, and it’s just as difficult here. Besides ride quality, there’s also serviceability to take into account, and obviously price. Rockshox is almost allways the clear winner in the latter department, especially in regions other than North America. So that’s a big plus for this fork, which is still one of the most expensive ones in RockShox’ lineup.
In terms of longevity, I’m someone who looks beyond using a fork for just 3 years before deciding to sell his bike, and Fox’s Factory forks are both easier to service and of higher quality. And as yet, I can’t say anything about prolonged use of the new ButterCups.
By looking at the price and the ride characteristics of the fork I feel this is more the working man’s enduro and long-travel trail fork.
- More suitable enduro and long-travel trail for the average rider, and cheaper
- Lower build quality and less performance-oriented than its biggest competitor, the Fox 38 Factory. Not as supple with respect to small-bump sensitivity
RockShox ZEB Select
For the Select version of the ZEB, RockShox uses a Charger RC damper without ButterCups (which can still be had as a separate upgrade kit). So if you’re looking for an excellent enduro fork, that’s just a bit cheaper, and missing the lower-leg bleeders, will the Charger RC still do the job for you?
The obvious answer is “of course”. Don’t get me wrong, but the average rider doesn’t know how to correctly set up his or her suspension anyway, so a change in dampers is only going to affect people who know what they’re doing. But if you’re one of those people I would argue this fork is basically just as good as the Ultimate.
Recently RockShox has started messing up their naming conventions for damper technology, which makes it really difficult to know what’s what through the years. The Charger RC is basically an older-style damper using bladder technology. This means a little bit less robust than the current Charger 3 damper, but is being offered for a much lower price.
Again, just as with the Fox 38 Performance, you lose high-speed compression adjustability, which might not really make a difference for women and lighter riders. There are still a ton of travel options available, all the fork offsets you ever want to choose from, and the ability to mount a massive rotor without an adapter with a very burly front tire.
It’s a great platform for the average rider, since if you do want to move up in terms of specifications, the chassis supports compatibility with the better damper. Yet the lack of ButterCups combined with the initial force to get the fork moving, makes for a poppy fork that’s a bit harsher than both its more expensive brethren and the competition. On the flipside, you do get a fork that handles rough terrain at high speed excellent, and you can preload the suspension on jumps and in corners.
With so many of the specifications being the same, you’d argue that the cheaper Select would be a great value for people wanting to save a bit of cash. However, the upgrade ability is nice, but in the end will be more expensive than buying an Ultimate from the start. So unless you already have the better damper laying around and know how to install it, the feature is an expensive one at best.
Also Fox’ GRIP damper versus the GRIP2 seems to cater to two different audiences instead of one being the inferior option to the other. That doesn’t really seem to be the case with the Charger RC damper, which introduces harshness to a ride, which used to feel more plush with a similar yet older suspension.
- Poppy and active enduro fork
- Harsher than its competition, in the same price category and earlier iterations. No high-speed compression adjustment. The Ultimate version is really better
RockShox Lyrik Ultimate
When you start comparing the big brands in front suspension, probably the most popular comparison is the one between RockShox Lyrik Ultimate and the Fox 36 Factory. Here’s my take on that comparison.
Although there are obvious similarities, there are a number of differences which might nudge you into the direction of one over the other. As for similarities, they both come with 140 to 160mm of travel, 15×110 axle width, 44mm rake, tapered 1.5 inch steerers and for both 27.5 and 29 wheel sizes.
The difference, besides the damper, is small as well. 35 versus 36 mm stanchions, 220 versus 230 max rotor size, 3.2 versus 2.6 inch max tire width, which you’re probably not going to need for normal trail riding, and a pretty similar weight and price as well. And you can leave your zip ties at home, since the Lyrik also features lower leg bleeders to remove pressure buildup caused by sucking air into them.
Then for a little bit of tech-talk about the damper. The RockShox Lyrik Ultimate features the Charger 3 damper, offering a 15-click dial for low-speed compression adjustment, within a 5-click dial for high-speed compression adjustment. This pretty extensive low- and high speed adjustment can be achieved without introducing additional harshness and loss of control.
The Charger 3 offers a 18-click rebound adjuster knob at the bottom of the damper, which means you cannot independently adjust high- and low-speed rebound. This improves ease of setup at the cost of adjustability. The damper does not use an expanding bladder (neither does Fox’ GRIP2), which is a more durable construction offering a lower risk of stiction and smoother fork action.
It also has more oil volume using a spring-backed floating piston to control oil flow, making it the plushest fork in RockShox’ catalog. Even more so, because both damper and air spring are offered with otherwise optional ButterCup suspension technology.
It reduces high-frequency vibrations otherwise known as “trail chatter”. This is the result of a fork not being responsive enough to handle small rocks and roots, directly translating the impacts to your body, causing fatigue, hand numbness, and even neck and shoulder issues on longer rides.
The buttercup on the damper side essentially holds two elastomers looking like small rubber pucks between a metal plate sitting within an aluminum housing, at the end of each shaft. The air spring side only has one of those pucks, with an o-ring sitting on the upper side. That’s because the air spring is much more effective on compression (downward stroke) not on the rebound (upward stroke).
They function as a suspension within a suspension, offering about 4mm of vertical compliance, taking out the smallest of trail irregularities, before the more advanced suspension technology is activated and reducing roughly (a claimed) 20% of trail chatter.
The first thing I thought as a guy having bikes with 30-year old suspension on it, was that it was nothing else than an elastomer with a fancy name slapped onto it. But it’s not, and it would be unfair to compare technologies decades apart. The only thing from a durability and financial perspective is that it definitely does add more components and complexity to the overall fork.
An air spring is made up of a shaft on which in this case a floating piston is installed, sitting between two seals. The Debonair+ air spring improves upon earlier models, by swapping out the plastic shaft for an aluminum one.
Larger volume negative air chambers for all three iterations is achieved by hollowing out the top hat of the piston. Just as with Fox’s Float EVOL air spring, the DebonAir+ larger negative air chamber offers a more linear spring curve and a reduced risk of bottoming out.
All skepticism aside, the suspension giant has outdone itself by creating the Lyrik Ultimate, which could indeed be the ultimate trail riding front suspension to dig deep into your wallet for.
- The best trail fork currently on the market
- None
Manitou Mezzer Pro
The Manitou Mezzer Pro deserves its place on this list, simply because it’s a fantastic brand making a fantastic-looking, hard-htting yet very versatile, 37mm stanchioned fork.
When talking front suspension, all the attention goes to Fox and RockShox, leaving all the other brands to work harder to get the same kind of recognition. So the big question is of course whether or not it measures up to the Fox 38 and Zeb Ultimate.
Simply looking at the specs, it does. Apart from the 37mm stanchions, the fork is offered with 140 up to 180mm of travel, so it can take plenty of abuse. It has all rake options you’d want, standard 15x110mm axle width, able to hold a 223mm rotor, and featuring the MC² damper and Dorado Air with IVA volume spacers.
I don’t usually care all that much about weight, especially not in the enduro and downhill category, but the weight of this fork at 2032 is markedly lighter than both the Zeb Ultimate and Fox 38 Factory.
A lot can be said about brands using proprietary marketing slang to denote ride characteristics of forks. Manitou coined the term IRT (Infinite Rate Tune) volume adjuster to be able to reduce air volume in the positive air chamber of the air spring with the need to open up the fork and add volume spacers. While maybe not a game changer, it’s incredibly user-friendly to finetune mid-stroke support with a higher degree of adjustability on the fly.
In less technical terms it means that for the majority of your ride (not to slow, not too hard) you can expertly dial in your ride preferences to get the most support possible from a fork within this category, with a smooth and supple ride as a result.
The Multi Compression Control (MC²) damper provides an independently adjustable high-speed compression circuit which combines with an independently adjustable low-speed circuit to offer an externally adjustable, on the fly high-speed blowoff threshold and tuning range. It offers 10 clicks of low-speed compression adjustment, and 4 clicks of high-speed compression adjustment.
Furthermore the fork has a 10-click rebound adjuster. And all MC² dampers include the hydraulic bottom out (HBO) system, which kicks in the final millimeters of travel. It’s not as nuanced and sophisticated as the most premium options out there, lacking sensitivity to smooth out the trail chatter.
The fork shines in its versatility with a starting travel of 140mm attainable without changing the air spring. With a relatively easy DIY job, you can add a number of travel spacers to get to the desired travel effectively. Maybe not as versatile for true enduro riding, the fork offers a wide application of riding styles with a user-friendly setup and incredible plushness for probably the far majority of riders.
- Incredible plush mid-stroke support with intuitive air spring tech. Versatile and beefy long-travel trail fork
- Not the best true enduro fork.
Specifications enduro suspension forks
Name | Price | Wheel size | Travel | Stanchion | Rake | Axle | Rotor size | Max tire width | Damper | Air spring | Steerer | Color | Buy at Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fox 38 Factory | 1249 USD | 27.5″, 29″ | 180mm (orange) 160mm, 170mm, 180mm (black) | 38mm 7000 series aluminum w. Kashima coating | 44mm (orange) 37mm, 44mm, 51mm (black) | 15x110mm QR | 180-230mm | 2.8″ | GRIP2 | FLOAT EVOL | 1.5T | gloss orange, gloss black | |
Fox 38 Performance Elite | 1149 USD | 27.5″, 29″ | 170mm | 38mm 7000 series aluminum | 44mm | 15x110mm QR | 180-230mm | 2.8″ | GRIP2 | FLOAT EVOL | 1.5T | matte black | |
Fox 38 Performance | 989 USD | 27.5″, 29″ | 170mm | 38mm 7000 series aluminum | 44mm | 15x110mm QR | 180-230mm | 2.8″ | GRIP | FLOAT EVOL | 1.5T | matte black | |
RockShox ZEB Ultimate | 1159 USD | 27.5″, 29″ | 150mm, 160mm, 170mm, 180mm, 190mm | 38mm aluminum | 38mm, 44mm (27.5″) 44mm, 51mm (29″) | 15x110mm Maxle Stealth | 200-220mm | 3.2″ | Charger 3 w. ButterCup | DebonAir+ w. ButterCup | 1.5T | gloss black, matte gray | |
RockShox ZEB Select | 896 USD | 27.5″, 29″ | 150mm, 160mm, 170mm, 180mm, 190mm | 38mm aluminum | 38mm, 44mm (27.5″) 44mm, 51mm (29″) | 15x110mm Maxle Stealth | 200-220mm | 3.2″ | Charger RC | DebonAir+ | 1.5T, 1.8T | gloss black, matte black | |
RockShox Lyrik Ultimate | 1107 USD | 27.5″, 29″ | 140mm, 150mm, 160mm | 35mm tapered wall aluminum | 37mm, 44mm (27.5″) 44mm (29″) | 15x110mm Maxle Stealth | 180-220mm | 3.2″ | Charger 3 w. ButterCup | DebonAir+ w. ButterCup | 1.5T | gloss black, meadow green | |
Manitou Mezzer Pro | 1100 USD | 27.5″, 29″ | 140-180mm | 37mm 7000 series aluminum | 37mm, 44mm (27.5″) 44mm, 51mm (29″) | 15x110mm Hexlock | 180-223mm | 2.9″ | MC² | Dorado Air w. IVA | 1.5T | gloss black |
Johan van Seijen
FoundeR Restoration.bike
Johan van Seijen is the founder of restoration.bike. His passion for cycling in general, and restoring older bikes turned into a website to share his knowledge with a broader audience. Starting out on his father’s road bike and riding classics as the Amstel Gold Race and Liege Bastogne Liege he has shifted his attention to trail, XC, and gravel riding since. No matter how much he loves writing about everything related to cycling, nothing beats actually using his ever-expanding bicycle collection.
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