Riders might be 100 per cent focused on the final round of the 2026 World Cup season, but sponsor brands are already thinking ahead to 2027. Canada’s Jenn Jackson is back on the circuit after nearly 100 days off due to injury and arrived at the final round in Lake Placid with a rather special fork.

The Orbea Factory Racing rider traded in the bright orange Fox Factory colours of her usual fork for a more subdued black with dark orange highlights of Fox’s “RAD” (Research And Development) program. There are a few key differences from her usual 34 Step-Cast fork.

Fox goes wireless?

The main difference, at least as far as we can tell from moving pictures released by Orbea, Fox and Jackson, is the large mass at the bottom of the drive-side fork leg. Where a SC fork is usually thinnest, the RAD fork expands into a large, uh, growth.

It’s hard to say exactly what it is, as Fox doesn’t label or tend to explain its RAD projects. But we can guess. Unlike RockShox, which has its electronic Flight Attendant fork, Fox doesn’t currently offer an electronic fork to go with its Neo electronic system. And the compartment at the bottom of Jackson’s RAD fork looks roughly the size that would be needed to accept one of Fox’s Neo batteries.

Fox vs RockShox: Divergent designs (-ish…)

When Fox does go wireless, it tends to do so slightly differently than RockShox, whether by design or due to patent constraints. With the Neo wireless dropper post, Fox put the battery at the seat collar where as RockShox’s original Reverb AXS wireless dropper post had the battery mounted near the seat clamp. RockShox soon followed suit, moving its AXS battery near the seat collar.

Fox’s Neo shocks and RockShox Flight Attendant shocks both use a similar mount position, but there really aren’t too many options in the space of a shock.

But it wouldn’t be a surprise if RockShox’s AXS dongle at the top of its Flight Attendant pushed Fox to try find a way to attach the Neo battery to the bottom of the fork.

Flight Attendant electronic and automatic lockout from the RockShox SID SL
Neo (if that’s what it is) vs. Flight Attendant

What are the advantages and disadvantages? Internally? I have no idea how the systems would compare. But it probably improves fork-frame clearance compared to the SID Flight Attendant. On the other hand, it leaves the Neo battery, if that’s what it is, and any associated electronics in a position more prone to rock strikes and prone to damage in crashes.

Then again, Fox’s cable-actuated lock-outs control compression from the top of its 32 and 34 forks. Since that what most of these electronic systems do, automatically adjust compression to adapt to terrain, it would make sense that any Neo system that replaces the cable-actuated remote lock-out would be in the same position. So maybe it’s a secret, completely different thing and we’re totally off base.

But, after years of RockShox having an electronic system with no response from Fox, something has to be coming. Even Fox’s own sponsored athletes are already, on occasion, running gravity shocks like the Float X Neo in cross country races to get the advantages it provides. Charlie Aldridge won the Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup XCO with a Neo shock as early as 2025.

I guess we’ll… have to wait and find out. Fox sure isn’t saying anything, yet. But if it’s showing the fork publicly at World Cup’s, it can’t be too far off production.