1.436 seconds. That’s the average margin separating first and second place in World Cup downhill mountain bike racing these days.
To help its athletes eek more time out of every track, Fox Racing recently pulled a page from the book of marginal gains typically reserved for road riding: aerodynamics. Enter the SpeedSuit RS, the streamlined one-piece race kit you may have seen dawned by the likes of Jackson Goldstone and Asa Vermette last season.
Fox Racing
While the brand’s designers developed the SpeedSuit RS primarily to solve for aerodynamics, they knew it also had to meet the myriad other demands of a World Cup racer: It had to be extremely lightweight and durable, breathable and moisture-wicking, and it had to move as if it were an extension of the rider’s body.
So, how does this apply to your after-work lap or morning training session, you ask? That’s where the brand’s all new Flexair collection comes in. When the team set out to improve upon its highest-performance lineup, they looked to SpeedSuit RS for inspiration, borrowing many of the learnings and technologies proven on the World Cup circuit.
Flexair: the relentless pursuit of speed
Fox Racing’s competitive DNA comes through in every piece in its latest Flexair collection, which consists of two jerseys (short- and long-sleeve), riding shorts and pants, and gloves.
“We’re trying to create this for the rider who’s seeking the pinnacle performance,” says Keegan Rehfeldt, Senior Design Director. “If you’re going for big days in the saddle, and expect the most out of all your gear, Flexair is for you.”
Developed with heavy input from the brand’s elite athletes, Flexair aims to help riders push their boundaries not just on the descent, but also on the climbs, transfers, and the efforts in between.
Fox Racing
Fits that feel mapped, not tight
I began my mountain biking journey in enduro racing but have since gravitated toward marathon cross-country, so I tend to dress for the bike I’m riding: baggies for trail laps with friends and lycra for solo training rides.
After just a few rides in the new Flexair gear, though, I got the feeling that this might be a goldilocks kit I’d be happy to throw on for just about any kind of ride. The jerseys fit snugly but are not overly tight or form fitting. The shorts and pants are streamlined, lightweight and offer significant airflow via smartly placed, laser-cut ventilation panels.
Fox Racing
Fox Racing calls the fit “mapped,” a characterization that jives with my experience — each panel seems to be pre-formed to the shape of your body, creating a feeling that the jersey or short is floating with your body, rather than rubbing against it.
“We’ve really pushed jerseys to be as light as we can go while still draping and holding its structure in the right way,” says Rehfeldt. “Same with the pants. They’re our snuggest-fitting, slimmest pants but because they’re so light and flexible, they just kind of disappear on long trail rides.”
Fox Racing
Solving the waistband conundrum
I’ve worn a lot of mountain bike shorts and a handful of full-length riding pants over the years. Waistbands, in my experience, can make or break the experience. They tend to come in two varieties: static or stretchy. Both can work well, but when a waistband feels either too loose or too restrictive, it can cause at minimum a constant distraction or, at worst, genuine discomfort.
To solve for this, Rehfeldt and team designed the Flexair bottoms with a hybrid approach. “Through multiple layers of bonding and different layers of fabric we’ve been able to really control how much give it has,” he says.
Fox Racing
Most of that give comes from a stretchier ventilated panel that rests over the lower back. Around the hips and lower abdomen, the waistband transitions to a more supportive, static fabric joined at the fly by a ratcheting buckle.
The result is a waistband you can dial into a locked-in fit while relying on the controlled stretch to work its magic when you need it most. The higher cut of the waistband further cements its ability to stay where you want it when the going gets rough.
“The goal was to provide the most comfortable waistband that works across the widest range of people,” says Rehfeldt.
Details designed to disappear
Fox Racing
As Refeldt said, the Flexair pieces were designed to simply disappear while riding. The team achieved this through relentless innovation and obessing over seemingly small details. Some of those details might jump out at you on the first ride, as the fit did for me. Others may take more time to discover, like the almost invisible zippered pocket located toward the back of the left leg on both the pants and shorts. It’s perfectly sized to fit your phone or, if riding bike parks is your thing, perfectly located so your pass can be read by RFID scanners without removing it.
So, if you’re the type of rider who obsesses over line choice and is constantly looking for marginal gains on the trail, you’ll find a worthy kit in Fox Racing’s new Flexair collection.
Fox Racing
