2027 Fox 38 | The Benchmark Elevated

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Starting on the outside, the most obvious change is that the lowers have the same windows in the arch that we saw on the 36 last year, as well as the 2027 40 that came out last week. AI must be taking some jobs over at Fox, because this is an AI-generated design that's supposedly the optimal arch, perfectly balancing weight and stiffness. Besides the new arch, this new 38 looks pretty much the same as the last one. The stickers are slightly updated, the Kashima coating is the same, and almost none of my riding buddies have even noticed that I've been using this unreleased 38 for the last little while.

If you don't look that closely, it just looks like the current 36, and those two forks actually use the same direct-mount fender. You can choose between the Short fender and the Long fender, and I've been opting for the Long fender, given how muddy it's been. The full Kashima head to toe look from 2025 is not making a comeback for 2027, and in fact there is no limited edition color with the launch of the new 38.

I've heard of some folks concerned about mud flying through those windows in the arch and getting on your seals, and while I suppose that could happen theoretically, I haven't noticed more dirt on the fork seals than usual. But if you rode fakie through a mud puddle and did your best to fling mud up at your fork, then you may run into some increased dirt distribution issues.

Glidecore Air Spring

As the little sticker on the crown indicates, the 38 now has a Glidecore air spring. They’ve ditched the tube-in-tube air spring design, which frees up more space for air in the stanchion, meaning the positive air chamber now has increased air volume. The overall design also increases the negative air volume in the lower leg, and there’s an updated bottom-out bumper as well. The Glidecore air spring’s party trick is an elastomer sitting near the top of the air spring. That elastomer gives the air spring a bit of compliance and separates it just slightly from the chassis. 

While we’re riding and smashing the 38 into rocks and holes and berms, all those forces cause your fork to flex. It’s not getting folded up like origami, but forks are pretty much always flexing a bit while you’re riding. An air spring is very sensitive to that flex, and if it’s getting sideloaded at all, then it won’t be as sensitive or responsive when you hit something. So by introducing a few millimeters of compliance with Glidecore, the air spring can stay completely straight while the fork is flexing, and work exactly as designed. That means more consistent performance and less binding when you’re going through the rough stuff, and you really need your fork to work well. 

A side effect of that larger volume air spring is a 1 millimeter taller air spring top cap, and you’re probably wondering why I’m even mentioning a 1 mil difference, but hear me out. That extra millimeter means you can get away with using a standard 32mm socket to change your volume spacers instead of needing to use a chamferless socket. If you didn’t use the chamferless socket before, you were pretty much guaranteed to scratch up your air spring top cap, and that 1 millimeter change makes this expensive fork just a little more affordable to wrench on. I was a little surprised to see that Fox isn’t using a cassette tool interface as they do with the 36 and the 40, so I put on my journalist hat and asked Fox why they made that choice. They wanted to use the cassette tool, but it would reduce the overall volume of the air spring, and Fox preferred the air spring curve with the larger volume and standard socket interface. 

Updated GRIP X2 Damper

As for the damper, it’s still GRIP X2, but it’s got some updates for 2027. There’s no Glidecore in the damper; that’s only in the air spring, and the overall GRIP X2 damper architecture is still the same. What’s different is that the main piston has been revised for a more direct oil path, and the valves are now cut on the sides, rather than being complete discs. These updates are aiming to make the damper more sensitive and were actually taken directly from the GRIP X2 damper in the Podium fork. The Podium really impressed me last year, and if the new 38 can harness some of that performance, then this old 38 has some stiff competition. The new 38 is 8.8% stiffer fore/aft, to be exact, and it’s actually 6.8% less stiff torsionally. That means it’s a little stiffer front to back, and a little more compliant in a twisting direction. That should make the new 38 act more like a dual crown fork when pointed in a straight line, but also not harshly deflect off of things and be a little more forgiving when you’re looking for grip.

Some of that increased fore/aft stiffness comes from another twenty mil of increased bushing overlap, which means the bushings in the lower leg are twenty mil further apart from each other. What I want to know is how these fork engineers keep finding ways to add bushing overlap every generation without making the fork physically larger? The axle to crown of the new 38 hasn’t changed, so where did they find almost another inch of bushing overlap? I should probably go to engineering school to figure that out, but more bushing overlap is always better, and should make the new 38 chassis feel more sensitive and more consistent.

Overview Finally, let’s cover the basic specs of the new 38. It obviously has 38mm stanchions, and it comes in 160, 170, and 180mm of travel. The 29er version has a 44mm offset and a 200mm rotor post mount, which is something people have been wanting for a long time. So now you can run a 200mm front rotor without needing any brake adapter. The 27.5 version has 37mm offset and still uses a 180mm post mount. All aftermarket Factory and Performance Elite 38s will come with the GRIP X2 damper. You can purchase and install the GRIP X Damper separately, but I think the GRIP X2 suits the 38 much better. There will be some 38 equipped bikes that come specced with GRIP X damper, and all Performance 38s will use the GRIP damper, and can be upgraded to the GRIP X2. The lower leg bleeder valves are slightly revised but still function the same, and the oil bypass channels in the lower legs were moved from the back to the inside. Last, and least important, the weight. Before you cut the steerer tube, the 29” 170mm GRIP X2 Factory 38 with the axle weighs 2450 grams straight out of the box, 250 grams more than Fox’s claimed weight. I believe the claimed weight is based on a GRIP X damper, which is a bit misleading considering all of the aftermarket 38s will come with the GRIP X2 damper. I weighed the 38 that I’ve been riding for the last month, and it comes in at 2440 grams. That’s a real world weight with a 190mm steerer tube, a 170mm air spring, two volume spacers, a starnut, and a crown race installed. The previous generation GRIP 2 Fox 38 with all the same specs weighs 110 grams less, coming in at 2330 grams. Setup Like all forks I’ve ridden recently, the Fox 38 has recommended settings printed right on the lower leg, and I strongly recommend that you use that as a starting point. Getting the fork up to pressure was no big deal, and it equalized after a few cycles through the travel. The 38 came with one volume spacer installed, and there were three extra volume spacers supplied in the box. Surprisingly, the 38 uses the same volume spacers as the previous generation despite using a completely redesigned air spring. A welcome design choice. There's also a new 5cc volume spacer for even more air spring tuning! Recommended rebound settings were about spot on, and while there weren’t any compression recommendations, I chucked them right in the middle to start.

Ride impressions

The feel of the new 38 is distinctly Fox, and is a refinement of the previous generation rather than a complete reinvention. All of the changes Fox has made do have direct impacts on the performance, and the best comparison I could think of was directly comparing the new 38 against the old 38. Considering how many people have ridden the previous generation at this point, comparing the new 38 to a known quantity for most riders seems like good context. We gave the old 38 a full service, including a damper rebuild, air spring rebuild, and dust wiper replacement to make the comparison as fair as possible before riding the two forks back to back during a day of shuttling.

Fox claims that the new 38 has slightly less torsional stiffness than the old 38, but honestly, that wasn’t very noticeable. I tried to feel it while holding grip in off cambers, or jumping into off cambers, but the two 38s felt pretty much the same in that department. The Podium is super standout in the “finding grip when it’s off camber” category, and an inverted chassis just has an advantage in being able to conform to the ground a little bit better than an upside-down fork.

Starting with the chassis, the updated 38 is slightly stiffer and more confidence-inspiring than the old 38. It’s not a huge difference, but I can feel that the chassis and entire fork can hold their shape a bit better through braking bumps and repetitive compressions that really test a fork’s flex. During super rough sections, the old 38 can get a little wound up, and the flex in the chassis can give super quick moments of binding that I hadn’t noticed before riding the new 38. It feels like the old 38 has a force threshold where once it has that amount of force going through the fork, it kind of stutters for just a moment before getting going again. I could make it happen repeatedly when I was hard on the front brake through a section of braking bumps going into a corner, while the new 38 was able to keep moving more freely through the same section of trail. I hadn’t even noticed that little hiccup before doing back-to-back testing, and it’s hard to say exactly where that extra little bit of smoothness is coming from in the new 38. It might be a product of the Glidecore air spring, or the increased bushing overlap, or a combination of factors, but it was one of the standout differences between the forks.

Air spring

Holding the two air springs next to each other, the Glidecore air spring looks incredibly different from the old tube-in-tube NA2 air spring, but their performance is more similar than it is different. I run a slightly lower air pressure in the new 38, about 10-15 psi, which makes sense given that it’s a larger volume than the old air spring. Both build a similar amount of progression through their stroke, and I found that two volume spacers were my preference in both forks. Neither air spring has any strange quirks or irregularities while riding, and they offer incredibly consistent performance throughout the stroke. But they’re not identical, and the first 25% of travel in the new 38 is noticeably more linear before finding the support in the mid stroke. Both air springs rely heavily on the support of the mid stroke, but it feels like you get there just a little bit quicker with the new 38, with that more linear initial stroke.

The middle of the travel is where you spend the majority of your time on any fork, and in that 30 to 80% range, the two air springs honestly feel really similar. They’re both dead silent, incredibly smooth, and build progression through the mid stroke at a similar rate. The new 38 does begin to ramp up just a little bit faster and manages to keep a little extra travel on tap, ready for bigger impacts. When you do use all of your travel, both forks have a definite bottom out. These forks aren’t “bottomless” feeling, and if you use all of your travel, you will definitely know it. I feel like both of these forks could use a slightly stiffer bottom-out bumper, or maybe I just need more volume spacers, but the point is that they feel very similar when you bottom them out.

Damper

The GRIP 2 damper and the GRIP X2 damper have the same adjustments, a very similar number of clicks, and a hard-to-remove rebound knob cover. They’re also designed by the same manufacturer to tackle the same task, and while they have very similar ride feel out on trail, the GRIP X2 feels much more refined than the GRIP 2. My biggest takeaway between the two dampers is how much more fatigue I feel when I add a bunch of high-speed compression damping to the GRIP 2 damper. They actually have a pretty similar feel when they’ve got a lot of compression damping, but I get more arm pump and more upper body fatigue when riding the GRIP 2. It’s kind of hard to put my finger on, because the actual on-trail feel is pretty similar with a similar amount of compression damping between two forks, but the old 38 just wears me out a little more quickly than the new 38. Because of that, I can add more high-speed compression on the new 38 without wearing myself out, and get all the benefits of having more compression damping at the same time. Fox tells us that this difference comes from using way more valves in the GRIP X2 damper, and I’m no suspension engineer, but I can tell you that all those extra valves do add up to a big difference in how forces make it back to the rider out in the real world.

The GRIP X2 also has a noticeably wider range of compression adjustability, with each click making a bigger difference in how the damper behaves. It feels like every click of compression on the GRIP X2 damper equals one and a half to two clicks of compression on the GRIP 2 damper to get a similar change in ride feel. That makes tuning the fork a little more intuitive, and each click is easier to feel than before. Plus, riders who find themselves on the edges of adjustability, preferring either a lot of compression or very little compression, will have a better chance of finding a setting that they like with the GRIP X2.

The rebound circuits of the two forks feel like they might not have been changed at all. They’ve got a very similar range of adjustability, and they change the characteristics of the forks in very similar ways. I ended up preferring only one click of difference in rebound between them, and while I really tried my best to parse out some differences here, they really do feel about the same. 

Overall

Our original Fox 38 has delivered a lot of smiles over the years, and it’ll continue to do that even though it’s no longer the latest and greatest. Part of why it still feels so dang good is that we’ve taken very good care of it. We’re a suspension servicing shop here at The Lost Co, and this particular 38 has probably been serviced more than just about any other 38 out there. Keeping on top of your service intervals is the number one way to prolong the life and performance of your suspension, and that’s what’s kept this fork feeling amazing for so long. But if you’ve skipped a service here and there, and your 38 doesn’t feel quite as good as it used to after a full service, then this new 38 will absolutely transform how your bike feels. More grip, more control, and more consistency are what everyone will get out of the new 38. But if you’ve kept your old 38 in great shape as we have, then this new 38 is more of a marginal gain. It’s still a better fork, with noticeable improvements, but it won’t completely transform your ride like this 38 did back in 2020.

I know some of you original 38 owners will be interested in upgrading the internals to get some of that performance without getting a whole new fork, but Fox is telling us that the 2027 air spring and damper will only work with the 2027 chassis. So there’s no way to get the Glidecore air spring in the older 38, but you can still get a GRIP X2 damper that’s compatible with the older fork. It’s not quite the same as the damper in the new 38, but it’s very similar, and will get you some of that extra comfort and control.

Comparison against the competition

The previous 38 isn’t the only enduro fork out there, and it’s also worth comparing the new 38 against the ZEB A3 and the Ohlins RXF38 m.3. All three of these forks are the latest and greatest from their respective manufacturers, and I’ve had the pleasure of riding all three of them at some point on my Transition Sentinel. There’s not a bad fork between them, but the 38 and the ZEB have more similarities than they do differences. A similar range of damping and very comparable sensitivity off the top has me wondering who copied whose homework, but they’re both fantastic forks. The 38 would be my pick between the two, as it feels slightly more sensitive, and I prefer the feel of the GRIP X2 damper over the Charger 3.1 when loaded with compression damping.

Ohlins has always approached forks a bit differently compared to Fox and RockShox, with a healthy dose of compression damping dolloped on top of their dampers, and that three-chamber air spring opens up quite a bit of tuning potential. That extra compression damping works wonders when the hits are big, but it does come at the cost of comfort when not pushing hard. For racers looking to push the limits between the tape, I would recommend the increased damping of the RXF38 m.3, but for those of us looking to enjoy their rides more than crush the competition, the Fox 38 is a better option. Luckily, all three of these 38mm stanchion enduro forks are fantastic pieces of equipment, and can be set up to suit just about any rider out there.

Conclusion

Fox took their time with redesigning the new 2027 Fox 38, and they’ve delivered a fantastic next-generation fork that picks up right where the previous version left off. Increased sensitivity, a more capable damper, and consistent performance are all welcome changes to an already incredibly impressive platform. Fox’s original 38 changed the game when it came out in 2020, and while this latest version isn’t as revolutionary, the result is still the 38mm single crown fork that I would recommend to the majority of riders. With incredible sensitivity and comfort that can still be turned up to 11 on race day, the new Fox 38 is seriously impressive.