Fox DHX Live Valve Neo Electronic Shock
Blister’s Measured Weight:
- DHX Live Valve Neo, 230 x 60: 629 g (w/ battery)
- 450 lb x 2.65’’ mm SLS spring: 310 g
- Bump sensors: 27 g (each, w/ battery)
- Total: 993 g
MSRP:
- DHX Live Valve Neo: $949 USD (shock only)
- Live Valve Neo Kit: $399 USD (includes bump sensors, battery, and charger)
- SLS spring: $130 USD
- Total: $1,478 USD
Bolted To: Rocky Mountain Altitude
Test Locations: Washington, British Columbia
Reviewer: 6’, 165 lbs / 183 cm, 74.9 kg
Test Duration: 4 months
Intro
Fox isn’t new to offering electronically controlled bike suspension, but their new Live Valve Neo implementation is a whole lot more streamlined and user-friendly than the wired, fork-and-shock-based Live Valve systems of old. But how well does it work, and what are the tradeoffs? Here’s what we’ve found:
[For a whole lot more on the design and features of the DHX Live Valve Neo, check out our First Look on it and its air-sprung sibling, the Float X Live Valve Neo.]
On-Trail Performance
We’ll start with the electronics-related part of the DHX Live Valve Neo’s performance since it’s by far the most novel thing about the shock. Fox says that the actual suspension performance (when the shock is opened up) is essentially the same as the standard DHX, and, as we’ll get into in a bit, that has aligned with our impressions.
Electronics & Pedaling Efficiency
First things first: installing and configuring the DHX Live Valve Neo requires a couple of extra steps compared to a conventional shock, but it’s quite straightforward. Besides installing the shock itself (and that part isn’t any different from a standard one) you just need to install the bump sensors by removing the upper / forward brake mount bolt at both ends of the bike and reinstalling it with the sensor mounting bracket sandwiched between the head of the bolt and the brake caliper. (Make sure you put the right sensor at the right end of the bike — the two look the same but are different internally. The sensors have “fork” or “rear” embossed on the outer face of the sensors to let you know which is which.)
From there you just need to pair the sensors to the shock and do a quick calibration procedure through the phone app. Check out Fox’s documentation for step-by-step instructions, but it’s straightforward and only takes a few minutes.
The calibration done, you can just go ride using the default “tune” (which, again, refers to the combination of settings for the Live Valve Neo system, not a damper tune in the conventional sense), or you can start tinkering with your own. I started with the “Standard” tune that the system defaults to, but quickly found it to be more eager to open the shock up while climbing than I wanted. I didn’t mind the occasional momentary loss of efficiency much, but I didn’t care for the tendency of the shock to abruptly unlock as I was starting a technical move and upset my balance on the bike a little as the shock suddenly settled deeper into its travel.
I’d initially set the “Firm Mode Adjust” knob to a fairly stiff setting, so before I went back in and started changing the tune for the electronics, I just backed the Firm Mode Adjust knob off a bit. That took care of the unsettling sensation of the shock opening unexpectedly, by simply making for a less stark difference between the Open and Firm modes, but I liked the firmer Firm Mode Adjust setting on a lot of smoother climbs in particular — I wanted to see if I could have my cake and eat it too.
My first move of switching to Fox’s built-in “Firm” tune was an overcorrection, though. I liked being able to run the Firm Mode Adjust knob in a fairly stiff position for climbing, but (especially given that firm pedaling platform) I found the shock to be too eager to engage the firm mode on smoother, flowier trails in particular. So from there, I decided it was time to dive into a custom tune. I won’t rehash all the different combinations I tried, but I fairly quickly got to a place I was happy with by essentially copying the “Firm” tune and then dialing back the bump thresholds and increasing the open timers for when the bike is flat and (especially) when descending.
So while it took a little tinkering on my part to get the behavior I wanted out of Live Valve Neo, I think there are some very real upsides to Fox’s decision to offer so much fine-tuning capability. I’ve been running the DHX Live Valve Neo on a pretty burly Enduro bike (the Rocky Mountain Altitude) and live in a place where a lot of my rides (especially on this class of bike) involve long, sustained climbs to get to steep, sustained descents — hence my preference for making the pedaling platform quite firm when climbing, and mostly staying disengaged the rest of the time.
But despite setting up the system to mostly act as an (automatic) climb switch, rather than opening and closing more frequently, I think there’s still value to Live Valve Neo. For one thing, the automatic nature is genuinely helpful. There’s no risk of forgetting to turn the climb switch off before starting a descent and no need to engage it manually (which is particularly helpful on the Altitude, since its low-slung shock position makes reaching a climb switch on the go tricky).
The other big advantage of the DHX Live Valve Neo for that use case is just that you can run a much, much firmer pedaling platform than most conventional rear shocks offer out of the box. The fact that the threshold is externally adjustable is quite useful, and between that adjuster and the automatic nature of Live Valve Neo, Fox felt comfortable offering a way firmer (at the firm end of the range) platform than they do on the standard DHX (to say nothing of the Float X2 and DHX2, which generally get lighter ones still).
That’s also just how I chose to set up the DHX Live Valve Neo for the Altitude and the sort of riding I tend to do on that bike. The flexibility offered by the combination of custom tunes and the external Firm Mode Adjust knob gives a ton of leeway to set things up very differently for folks with different preferences and needs. For example, using a more aggressive tune that firms the shock up more regularly in situations beyond just climbing and dialing back the Firm Mode Adjust as desired can offer a big boost in efficiency on punchy, rolling terrain where you wouldn’t be inclined to toggle a manual climb switch back and forth all the time, while still letting the suspension do its job when it needs to. Setting a mellower electronic tune and whatever Open Mode Adjust setting feels appropriate can do a really good job of offering an effective pedaling platform when the climb smooths out while reliably opening up for more technical bits to help with traction and comfort, and so on. There are a ton of possibilities — and it’s easy to swap between a few of them, too, depending on where and how you’re riding on a given day.
The tradeoff is that Live Valve Neo definitely takes some more tinkering to get the most out of the system, particularly as compared to RockShox’s competitor, Flight Attendant (much more on that comparison below). But for folks who are inclined to tinker a little, that flexibility opens up some interesting possibilities for precisely tailored behavior of the system — and with the setup dialed in, Live Valve Neo works very well.
Suspension Performance
As for the suspension performance side of things, the DHX Live Valve Neo feels just like the standard version of the DHX once it’s opened up. For the most part, that’s quite good. The DHX damper architecture works well and can be configured to suit a wide range of bikes and riders nicely.
I say “can be configured” because the DHX’s range of external adjustment isn’t huge, especially given that high-speed compression isn’t externally adjustable. That means that it’s more critical to get the base tune on the DHX (both the Live Valve Neo and standard versions) right for the bike and rider combo than it is on some more highly adjustable shocks (such as Fox’s Float X2 and DHX2). That’s not to say that the base tune doesn’t matter on those shocks — far from it — but they open up a bit more wiggle room than the DHX offers.
We originally received the DHX Live Valve Neo in the default aftermarket tune — the one you’d get if you bought an off-the-shelf version that hadn’t been specifically tuned for any particular bike — and unfortunately that wasn’t a great fit for the Rocky Mountain Altitude that I used as the test platform.
That said, I don’t really see that as being the shock’s fault. The Altitude is both very progressive and has a moderately high overall leverage ratio, both things that are likely to give a middle-of-the-road tune some trouble. And indeed, I found the default tune to struggle with rebound control, either feeling sluggish to rebound from deeper compressions, or too lively and undamped under smaller chatter, or some combination of both. I’d attribute that mostly to the notably progressive leverage curve, and the fact that the relationship between the shock’s shaft speed and the movement of the rear wheel changes so dramatically through the stroke. I also would have liked a bit more high-speed compression damping than the default tune offered, which I’d put down to a combination of the Altitude’s somewhat high overall leverage ratio, and the fact that I just tend to prefer a bit more high-speed compression damping than average.
So I had Fox re-valve the DHX to better suit the Altitude and my preferences, and the end result was much improved. The limitations I found in the aftermarket tune were just that — the tune wasn’t well matched to me and the Altitude, but my complaints weren’t down to anything inherent to the shock itself. And, to reiterate, the Altitude is a bike that’s unlikely to be all that well suited to any sort of middle-of-the-road aftermarket tune, irrespective of the specific shock in question.
I bring all this up not to bag on the stock tune of the DHX — which seems pretty reasonable as a middle-of-the-road option for middle-of-the-bell-curve riders on bikes with more conventional kinematics than the Altitude — but to illustrate the value of a more specifically tailored shock tune, especially on shocks that don’t have the biggest array of external adjustments like the DHX. The rebound and low-speed compression adjusters are effective and have a reasonable range of adjustment, but those two can only take you so far. (The rebound knob is also pretty low profile and not the easiest to turn, though the tight packaging of the new Altitude frame did it no favors there.)
Anyway, with that long-winded aside out of the way, the re-valved DHX Live Valve Neo works very well. It’s consistent and predictable, with good small bump sensitivity, solid damper support on sharp, square-edged impacts without feeling harsh or spike-y, and a nicely usable range of rebound adjustment with good control across a range of bump types. It’s not doing anything revolutionary from a suspension performance standpoint once it’s opened up, but it works really well.
Live Valve Neo vs. RockShox Flight Attendant
So how does Live Valve Neo stack up against RockShox’s take on electronically-controlled suspension, Flight Attendant?
Like Live Valve Neo, Flight Attendant is meant to improve pedaling efficiency rather than fundamentally change how the suspension performs when it’s acting as suspension. Big picture, both work well and make a noticeable difference in pedaling efficiency, but there are some notable differences in how they go about it, with corresponding pros and cons.
Live Valve Neo scores the first points, with a real advantage in cost, compatibility with other parts, and the overall simplicity of the system. Flight Attendant requires, at a minimum, a Flight Attendant fork and shock, plus a SRAM crankset into which you can install the necessary pedal sensor (or a version with a built-in power meter, which takes the place of a standalone pedal sensor). Depending on the exact version you go with, you’re looking at ~$2,850 for the full upgrade kit, including a fork and shock, the pedal sensor, a charger, and two batteries. Live Valve Neo isn’t cheap, either, but it’s roughly half the price of upgrading to Flight Attendant.
Of course, that pricing includes a fork for the Flight Attendant setup, and does not for Live Valve Neo; depending on whether or not you’d be buying a fork anyway, the price gap might actually be quite a bit smaller. But in any case, Live Valve Neo can be run with whatever fork and crank you want, which is both convenient and likely still a little cheaper even if you factor in buying a fork to go with it.
On the flip side, Live Valve Neo won’t work with every brake out there due to clearance issues with the bump sensors. Fox says all “modern” brakes from SRAM, Shimano, TRP, and Magura work; older versions of some Shimano brakes that place the hose fitting on the outside of the caliper (rather than the inboard side) don’t work, and the placement of bleed nipple rules out most of Hope’s offerings including the E4 and V4. I can also confirm that Hayes Dominion A4s work fine, despite not being on Fox’s list of supported options.
I also think Fox is right that just having the electronically-actuated shock and not worrying about the fork delivers the overwhelming majority of the total system benefit when it comes to efficiency — at least for the sort of Trail / Enduro bikes that the Float X and DHX are meant for anyway. I might feel a bit differently for a true XC race application (but I haven’t been on the SID/SIDLuxe version of Flight Attendant meant for that task). Either way, the shock-only option works great for the use cases that Fox has in mind for the current version of Live Valve Neo.
Their respective approaches for tuning the system are also very different. RockShox keeps things a lot simpler (but less fine-tunable) by simply having five “Bias Adjustment” settings to control how readily the system firms itself up. Between that and the fact that Flight Attendant defaults to being open and selectively firms the suspension when it decides it can, instead of defaulting to firm and opening up when the bike encounters a bump as Live Valve Neo does, there are some notable differences in their overall behavior.
If you want to optimize your setup to the Nth degree so that it’s firmed up as much of the time as possible without overshooting and being locked out when you don’t want it to be, Live Valve Neo offers more flexibility to make slight adjustments in the pursuit of that goal. If you’re okay with the suspension sometimes being open just a tiny bit longer than it strictly needs to be, but firming up the vast majority of the time when you would want it to, and consistently open when that’s what you want, Flight Attendant takes a lot less (essentially zero, really) fine-tuning and fiddling to get there. You can absolutely get Live Valve Neo to do the same, but it’ll take a bit more work with a custom tune to fully dial things in.
On the other hand, I occasionally had the DHX Live Valve Neo remain locked out for a moment longer than I wanted it to be on a few occasions before I got a bit more off in the weeds with a custom tune. It’s easier to get Flight Attendant to be open when you want it to be 100% of the time while still adding some pedaling platform almost all of the time you’d want it to — provided that you are willing to accept a few brief instances of it being open when it would be fine for it to be firmed up.
So it’s honestly hard to say that one system has a clear advantage over the other across the board — both generally work very well but have their respective tradeoffs, and which one (if either) is the better option for you depends a lot on your preferences, your interest (or lack thereof) in tinkering with custom tunes to really dial in the system’s performance, and the other parts you are running (or would like to run) in conjunction with the system. That last part feels particularly true if you’re already running other SRAM/RockShox AXS parts (i.e., a derailleur and/or seatpost). I don’t love keeping track of battery status on bikes in the first place; having two separate battery systems to deal with makes doing so feel considerably more onerous, at least for me.
(I will grant that it’s probably a bigger deal for me than it is for most folks since I’m rotating through so many bikes as a reviewer, and often have a bunch of different battery systems to keep track of at any one time.)
I’ve also found Flight Attendant’s battery life to be a bit better than Live Valve Neo’s, but not by enough that I think it’s likely to be a big deal for most folks. You’re looking at recharging the main shock (and fork, in the case of Flight Attendant) battery/batteries every few rides either way. Fox’s claimed 15-20 hours of battery life seems about right; RockShox’s stated 20-30 (fork) and 30-40 (shock) are probably a little optimistic on the high end, but not that far off in my experience. Especially since I’m more inclined to charge up regularly rather than milk every last second of battery life that I can out of such things, it makes little difference to my experience using either system, but your mileage may vary.
Who’s It For?
The short version is that Live Valve Neo is for folks who are willing to pay a bit extra and keep a battery charged to gain very real gains in pedaling efficiency, without needing to think about using a manual climb switch.
But that’s also true for RockShox’s Flight Attendant, so a decision between the two systems is a little trickier. If you’re truly on the fence, you should really read the whole section on the tradeoffs, above, but the short version is as follows: Live Valve Neo is for folks who (1) don’t want to get sucked into the more expansive ecosystem that Flight Attendant requires, (2) aren’t willing to forgo the high-speed compression adjustment on their fork that Flight Attendant removes, (3) want to be able to fine-tune the exact performance of the electronics, (4) just prefer the performance of a Fox Float X / DHX over RockShox’s offerings, or some combination of the above. Live Valve Neo offers a distinctly different take on the concept than Flight Attendant, and one that’s going to be a clear improvement for the right folks.
Bottom Line
I’m not strictly opposed to electronic stuff on bikes, but if two products offer about the same performance, I’d take the more basic manual one every time. Live Valve Neo easily clears that bar, though. By automating the engagement of what is, at the end of the day, essentially a climb switch, Fox has felt comfortable giving it a much firmer climb mode than the standard DHX (optionally — it’s adjustable, with a big range), and I’m happy leaving the system engaged and selectively firming up the shock in a lot of situations where I’d leave a manual climb switch open. The DHX Live Valve Neo offers appreciably more efficient pedaling in a lot of real-world situations than the standard DHX (or the vast majority of non-electronically-controlled shocks for that matter) while disengaging automatically when you need it to, and that’s going to be worth paying for to plenty of folks.
Live Valve Neo takes a little more care to set up than RockShox’s competitor, Flight Attendant, but Live Valve Neo has some real advantages in its compatibility with other parts, upfront cost (especially if you’re upgrading an existing bike rather than starting from scratch), and a whole lot more fine-tunability than you get with Flight Attendant. The wired nature of earlier Live Valve systems was limiting, but Live Valve Neo takes care of that and is a very worthy option for the right folks.