Fox has entered the electronic dropper-post market with the Transfer Neo. Travis has one arriving any day now, and will publish a review in just a few weeks. That’s when we’ll indulge in philosophical musings about what this might mean for the shifting dominances of SRAM, RockShox, Shimano, and Fox. But for now, we’ll just cover the facts.
The Transfer Neo uses essentially the same chassis as the recently updated Transfer. And it was able to maintain the same familiar two-bolt saddle-clamp concept because, unlike electronic posts from KS, Tranz-X, and of course, RockShox, the battery is down near the wiper seal instead of up at the saddle. Interestingly, this is also where the battery is located in drawings from a SRAM patent application, but again, that’s a topic for the review.
This helps ease clearance concerns on small-sized, long-travel, and/or big-wheel bikes where the rear tire is most likely to impact a saddle-clamp-mounted battery at bottom-out. Fox claims that their battery configuration could offer riders faced with this issue room for up to 40 mm more drop than they could get with a Reverb AXS. The battery itself is a new design for Fox. It’s much smaller than the battery wired into the whole-bike Fox Live suspension-control system. Fox says this battery will be compatible with “future Neo products.” Will we theorize that this is the same battery Shimano will use when they release a wireless MTB derailleur? Certainly not, but Travis will.
The remote lever is actually a lever, not a button. It moves like a lever, but requires 1/6th the throw of a traditional dropper remote. That gives it the instant-action that makes electronic droppers such a pleasure to use, but keeps things feeling familiar and helps reduce accidental actuations. It’s also lower-profile than other electronic dropper levers, reducing the chance of top-tube impact or errant thumb bumps. And if that’s still not enough, there’s a “bike park mode” in the Transfer Neo app that allows you to turn off dropper actuation if you know it’ll be staying down for the whole run. And yes, of course there’s an app.
Aside from Bike Park Mode, the app also allows you to put the post in Travel Mode. One of the things you have to get used to when owning electronic components is removing the batteries before loading your bike up for long drives. The constant movement keeps the system “awake,” draining the battery. It’s really not a big deal, but Fox has made it less of a big deal by introducing Travel Mode, which prevents vibrations from waking up the post. Dropping the bike off the rack or removing and re-inserting the battery will disable Transport mode, so no need to open up the app at the trailhead. But it may be a good thing to keep track of, because instead of requiring you to count hours on the trail to know when the post needs service, the app keeps count of actuations. After 8,000 of them, you’ll get a notification to get under the hood. Only other reason for the app is firmware updates, but that’s boring stuff. You came here for the specs.
Fox Transfer Neo Quick Hits
- 125, 150, 175, or 200 mm drop lengths available in 30.9, 31.6, and 34.9 mm
- 100 mm drop length available in 30.9 or 31.6 diameters
- No travel-adjust feature
- 34.9 mm option features larger-diameter upper tube
- 47 mm stack height (11 mm taller than mechanical Transfer dropper)
- Post weights range from 528g (30.9 x 100) to 539g (31.6 x 150) to 800g (34.9 x 200)
- Included remote mounts to SRAM Matchmaker, Shimano I-Spec EV, or 22.2 bar
- 26 milliseconds (.026 seconds) from button press to post movement
- Remote uses CR2032 with estimated one-year expected battery life
- Post uses new “Neo” battery with estimated 30- to 40-hour ride time
- 1.25- to 1.5-hour charge time with included USB-C dock
- Adjustable pressure in return spring
- Dust wiper is user-serviceable, internals are serviced professionally
- Factory series price: $859.00 (non-Kashima Performance series OEM only)
- Replacement battery: $79
The Transfer Neo is available in 30.9, 31.6, or 34.9 mm diameters. That 34.9 option deserves a highlight, because Fox pairs it with a larger-diameter “upper” to take full advantage of this slowly growing standard. Most brands make a 34.9 option, but pair it with a normal 26-ish-mm upper, meaning they’re just thicker and heavier. Kudos to Fox for the commitment. All Transfer Neo posts are available with 125, 150, 175, and 200 mm of travel, while a 100 mm option is only available in the 30.9 and 31.6 diameters.
While we’re talking numbers, let’s talk stack height. That’s the amount of space “wasted” by the seal head, saddle clamp, and other hardware. Electronic posts tend to have higher stack heights because there’s got to be room for a battery. The leader in this space is OneUp, with just 20 mm of stack height. The Reverb AXS has 65mm of stack height. The Transfer Neo has 47mm, just 11 mm taller than the mechanically actuated Transfer. Begs the question why they couldn’t have offered a 225-ish mm Transfer NEO, but yet again, we’ll cover that in the first-ride review. Only other thing to talk about is the price. It’s $859. If that sounds like a lot, the RockShox Reverb AXS is (still) $800. And it was released almost five years ago, does not have a 200 mm option, and is not optimized for 34.8. Your move, SRAM!
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