Aldridge won in Les Gets with an electronic Fox shock absorber

Charlie Aldridge took the victory in the Les Gets Short Track after a display of power and strategy. The surprise came afterwards, on the podium, when his Cannondale Scalpel revealed a new detail: it was equipped with a Fox Live Valve Neo electronic shock absorber adapted to XCO.

Charlie Aldridge mounted a Fox Live Valve Neo shock absorber on his Cannondale Scalpel

The Live Valve Neo is the evolution presented by Fox in 2024 of its electronic suspension system. It emerged as a response to SRAM's Flight Attendant ecosystem, but with a different philosophy. An independent system that only acts on the rear shock absorber, without requiring compatible fork or electronic transmission.

Its reaction speed is so high that it does not require an intermediate "Pedal" mode. It analyzes the terrain 400 times per second and switches between open and locked in just 14 milliseconds. Until now, its availability was limited to Trail and All Mountain bikes, only in the Float X (air) and DHX (coil) models.

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The novelty in Les Gets was seeing this shock absorber adapted for XCO on Aldridge's Scalpel, accompanied by the two sensors, located on the front and rear brake, which send the terrain information to the control unit located in the shock absorber itself.

For now, we only have what the images show and we do not know if it is only an adaptation of the system to Aldridge's Scalpel or if it is a model in development specifically for the discipline. For now, we can only wait to see if other official Fox riders start configuring it on their bikes.