First impressions: Fox Live Valve Neo simplified and elevated electronic suspension

Today, Fox releases Live Valve Neo, a wireless system that automatically adjusts your suspension to the terrain. Neo is the successor to Fox’s wired Live Valve system, but it is much more than just Live Valve without the wires. It adds a long list of new features that significantly elevate it over the wired system.

We’ve had about two months on the coil DHX Live Valve Neo at this point and, while it’s not quite perfect, it is a huge step forward from the original Live Valve system. We’ll get into a ton of details about how the system works, for those curious. Then we’ll get into our impressions of what makes Neo stand out, and where we think it could still be improved.

Fox Live Valve Neo: What is it ?

Neo is the new, wireless version of the Live Valve system Fox came out with in 2018. It electronically and automatically adjusts your suspension based off the information it receives from two tiny sensors that come with the system. For Neo, Fox is focusing on just the shock, so there’s no corresponding changes to the fork and you can run any fork with the system.

Neo will automatically set the compression circuit in the rear shock to “open” or “firm” in response to what is happening on the trail. The two sensors, one at each axle, that tell the controller in the shock when either wheel hits a bump. That opens the shock. It then automatically closes to “firm” when the trail smooths out so you get the most efficient platform possible while still getting the benefit of suspension.

Basically, it’s like having a tiny little elf on your bike with you automatically flipping the climb switch on/off based on what’s happening on the trail. Except Neo is fast. Really fast. Fox says it can react to bumps hit by the front wheel to open the compression in less than 1/70th of a second.

Fox is deep in the world of motorsport suspension, where this sort of system originated, so the brand has many years of experience with electronically controlled suspension. Still, developing the wireless version of Neo is something that has been the works for years. Apparently, Fox basically started working on making Neo wireless as they were soft-launching the updated version of Live Valve around 2020.

Neo network expands

Part of that delay was developing Neo, the wireless communication protocol that made its debut last month with the Transfer Neo wireless dropper post. Unsatisfied with Bluetooth or other open source wireless communication protocols, Fox developed a stripped down protocol that only has the features needed for the Neo system. Fox says this makes Neo faster, secure, and more reliable. Our testing on the Transfer Neo confirms the speed claim, and the Live Valve shock certainly feels as fast. It also reliably and quickly connected to the Fox Bike app.

How does Live Valve Neo Work?

Fox uses just two sensors and the Neo shock itself to “read” what’s happening on the trail. The controller in the shock then reacts by opening or closing the compression circuit. Unlike some of Fox’s three position shocks, there’s no “trail” mode. It’s just open or closed. Fox says the Neo system is fast enough that this made more sense than adding the complication of a middle setting. The compression circuit is physically opened and closed by a two-position magnetic latching solenoid with is both faster and quieter, virtually silent, compared to a motor (such as the motor used in the Transfer Neo post).

The two sensors determine pitch angle (whether you’re riding on level ground, climbing, descending or flying). They also, primarily through the front sensor, detect when the wheels hit obstacles on the trail like roots and rocks.

When the sensors don’t detect anything, the shock automatically closes the compression circuit to “firm.” A dial on the side of the shock lets you adjust how firm you want the shock to be when closed, but it stops short of a true lock-out.

Just the shock?

Those Familiar with wired Live Valve, or other electronic suspension systems out there, will have immediately noticed that Live Valve Neo only controls the shock. Fox explained this decision in two ways.

First, Neo isn’t really designed for cross country racing at this point. It’s targeted towards trail riding and gravity racing. Enduro riders, like Richie Rude, and the Frameworks downhill team have years racing on Neo at this point.

Second, there is arguably no system that can react fast enough to the front tire hitting a bump that the fork would actually be open when you need it to be. That’s fine for cross country, where efficiency can be valued above comfort. But for gravity racing and everyday riding, it’s better to have the fork open than closed.

To reflect this trail/gravity focus, Fox offers Live Valve Neo versions of just two shocks at this point: the coil DHX and the air-sprung Float X shock.

Neo’s three modes, and many tunes

Neo uses, as mentioned, the two sensors to determine whether you’re climbing, descending or riding on flat ground. The system adjusts how the shock works based on how Fox thinks the shock should work in each of those settings. The shock always defaults to firm, for the most efficiency, but Fox adjusts how the shock reacts for each of those three scenarios.

As Fox puts it: “While a Live Valve Neo shock will default to Firm mode in all riding scenarios, having specific states within each Tune means the system can bias towards support during climbs or traverses, but open more easily (and stay open) on longer descents.”

How long the shock stays open, how much bump force it takes to open it, and how what’s happening at each wheel all change for each of the three settings. If the system determines you’re wheels are in the air, in any of the settings, it automatically opens the shock so you don’t land with a locked out shock.

How firm the shock is when closed is set by a good, old fashioned external dial on the shock that you can adjust. There’s seven clicks of adjustment from very firm (but still not entirely locked out) to less firm.

Tunes: Making Neo work for you

Since every rider will have different preferences for how the system behaves, the Fox Bike app offers different tunes (Examples are Standard, Plush, Traction, Open, North Shore), that give the system different biases. You can easily move between different tunes using the app, even mid-ride. There’s also an optional bar-mounted remote that allows you to switch between tunes while riding.

The Fox Bike app, precision and custom tunes

All of these tunes and all the settings within each tune are customizable in the Ride Fox app, and in a really wide range of ways. For simplicity’s sake, Fox provides three default tunes. You can either tinker within those tunes or you can make, and share, your own custom tunes. Fox has a few extra tunes already and is planning on making more.

Within each tune you can set all kinds of details. You can set what angles the system will switch into climb and descend. You can set how long the system will stay open for, you can set bump sensitivity, and you can set these both independently for each of the three modes (climb/descent/flat)

There are explanations within the app of what each function does, and how changing it will impact the shocks function. If you get too far into the weeds messing around with any of these tunes and can’t find your way back, you can reset to the factory tuning settings.

The Fox Bike app also gives you detailed information system’s battery levels are and usage information that gives you a more accurate indication of what the shock service window is. It even lets you book service from within the app.

Set up: Making your bike Neo

Setting up a bike with the Live Valve Neo system is actually surprisingly easy. All you need is a few tools, the app, and level ground. The latter is to set a level baseline for the systems pitch angles. The sensors attach to the front and rear brake caliper. The shock operates like any other shock, once in place.

Connecting all three parts is easy enough that we were able to switch over our YT Jeffsy Core 2 to Live Valve on the side of a gravel road outside Whistler at the Fox launch camp.

In the woods: Riding Live Valve Neo

Riding the Jeffsy with the coil-sprung DHX LV Neo felt similar to riding it with the stock Float X, just better. Better on climbs. Better on descents. And quite a bit more engaging on rolling terrain. Fox has worked really hard to make Neo’s funcitoning as invisible, and silent, as possible. So you can feel the system is working but it is, with a couple exceptions, harder to feel when exactly the shock is opening and closing. It just feels firm when you want it to and squichy when you need it.

Jeffsy is a great bike but not the most efficient at climbing. While most other media at the test event showed up on already-fancy bikes, most of which have suspension that’s already quite efficient, I figured the combination of Jeffsy and the coil DHX would really test the Neo system’s capabilities.

After a few months, I’m honestly impressed. Neo turns-around the Jeffy’s okay climbing into engaging climbing. It gives that feeling of accelleration when you stomp on the pedals that encourages more effort, while still opening up the shock enough that climbing is comfortable, not punishing.

Not just for climbing

This was even more noticable on the sort of indecisive trails where chunky descnets are broken up by punchy climbs or, the opposite, trails that trend up with the ocasional, puckering rock roll or technical move back down before you start climbing again. I.e. the sort of trail where you’d never have time to hit the climb switch, but definitely have the need to. Neo made riding a coil shock on these sorts of trails way more fun. That, in turn, opened up more trails that I’d sometimes skip in favour of the pure sugar-rush fix of a continuous descent.

While Neo’s improvements are most obvious on climbs, it also really adds speed and fun to every trail scenario. Since Neo defaults to firm, you can pump, push and pedal while descending, especially on smoother flow trails, and get that lively feel while also still feeling the DHX settle into that cushy coil feel anytime it needed to go to work. As a result, the system takes out a lot of the compromise of coil shocks.

“North Shore” tune and Neo versus Live Valve wired

I tested a bike witth updated wired version of Live Valve and, to be honest, it wasn’t great. There were times when the system was nice but there were also times when I just didn’t know what it was going to do or when it did the opposite of what I wanted. Unpredictable suspension is no fun, so I ended up just letting the battery run out and rode the bike as a normal bike.

All that is to say I was curious, but wary when I hopped on Live Valve Neo for the first time in Whistler this summer. The improvements to the system, and to user control through the Bike Fox app, made Neo immediately and obviously better.

Live Valve Neo is much cleaner, sleeker and, most importantly, much easier to personalize. It is, out of the box, much better at adapting to any trail. But, for special circumstances, the option to switch between preset tunes is a huge advantage over the wired Live Valve. One of the places that system really struggled was in slow speed, technical climbing and descending.

Turns out the staff at Fox’s Burnaby office were having similar issues riding on the Shore. So one preset tune on Neo is the “North Shore” tune. This decouples the front and rear wheel. It does so so that when you, say, lift your front wheel to get up onto a ledge or shelf, the shock doesn’t open up just as you’re trying to put power down. The shock will still open when the rear wheel hits the obstacle, as you’d want, but then it will close again so you get support back when you want it.

Not just a North Shore feature

That kind of slow, technical riding is, admittedly, niche, but not specific to North Vancouver. Neo was great when we were climbing the slow, up/down tech of Comfortably Numb during the Whistler test event. It’s great in Victoria and on other slower parts of Vancouver Island and, I’m sure, many other places. It is less useful when trail speeds pick up at all, but, more importantly, it shows the ability of Neo to adapt to different needs super easily.

Personalizing Neo and initial issues

While I started out using the North Shore tune quite a bit I found that, even on slightly faster climbing trails, the Standard tune was more comfortable. My current lack of fitness, or maybe a still slightly slower trail speed did mean that Neo was opening the compression circuit then closing it just as my rear tire hit the same bump. That was one of the only times when the system was noticable, as you could feel that rapid close-bump-open sequence. It was also really easy to fix. I just changed the climb mode to set a longer timer between opening and closing the circuit and I’ve been riding happy since.

The only other time I could really feel, negatively, the Neo system working was during really steep climbing. That tends to push my weight back on the bike and really load the suspension. When the “firm mode” dial was in its firmest and I hit a bump, I could feel a slight clunk and drop as the system opened. This was worse when I’d set up the shock with too much sag. After fixing that, it was only noticable on the steepest climbs and with the firmness set in the firmest two to three settings. The rest of the time, it was hard to notice the system working at all. Still, feeling a “clunk” while riding is always disconcerting, even after I’d figured out what it was.

Neo: Complicated systems made simple

The beauty of Neo, to me, is in its simplicity. The shock, two small sensor and the app are all you need. The Transfer Neo seatpost shares a battery and app, but it doesn’t impact the way the shock works in any way. There are no other parts you need for the Neo shock to work to its full potential, though there is a remote you can add if you want. I’m a fan of this approach personally and I think it really works out for Neo. Fox could have gone for the whole AI/machine learning schtick. Instead, they’ve just made something that works well on its own. Fox doesn’t require additional purchases for full functionality or rule out running components from other brands.

After set up, you don’t even really need the app, unless you want tune the shock (or follow suspension intervals, though I think you can set a notification for that). As much as we all like to believe we’re each unique and beautiful snowflakes whose needs couldn’t be covered by a base tune, and firmness dial, that’s where I ended up most of the time. As mentioned, I did slightly change it to leave the suspension open longer to accommodate my trail speed, or lack thereof, while climbing. And, if I still lived in Victoria I’d be in the North Shore 99 per cent of the time, so I’m very glad Fox added the capability to customize Neo to your preferences. But the impressive part of Neo isn’t just that it works well, and I think will for a lot of different riders, it’s that it requires very little work to work so well. “Standard tune” undersells the default settings, really.

Simple is easy to enjoy

I came into this test not expecting to be impressed. I’m a happily committed techno-grouch that will grumble about any added batteries on a bike and, in the office Slack, I can reliably/annoyingly be counted on to whine about any shiny, new electronic systems. But I have to admit Neo really does deliver on the extensive list of promises Fox makes.

Neo is nearly silent and very stealthy in its operation. And it makes every part of the ride more engaging for very little cost. Or, at least, next to no funcitonal cost. Other than the hit to your wallet, there’s no part of the ride that adding Neo makes worse while the system makes nearly every part of a ride faster and more fun.

Wireless suspension is, of course, still very much in the want, not need category, espcially at the price of Neo. But Fox has created something impressive with Neo, for those looking to get the most out of their bike.

Fox Live Valve Neo: Pricing and availability

Fox is offering Live Valve Neo on two shocks out of the gates, both in the Factory livery only. Thay’re available from Fox now and you will already start seeing them on very select 2025 bikes. The Neo system requires the shock and the Neo Kit. That brings the total package to over $1,800 in Canada (USD 1,500).

The Neo kit, including fork and rear sensors, battery, charger and charging cable, is $534.65 in Canada (USD 400).

Live Valve Neo Float X Factory is $1,400 in Canada (USD 1,000), making the full meal deal 1,934.65. Live Valve Neo DHX, which we tested, is $1,269 in Canada (USD 949), for a total system price of 1,803.65. That is nearly twice the price of the non-Neo version of each shock, even before you add the Neo sensors. But, compared to other systems, at least that’s all you need for Neo to work as intended.

Spare parts, should you lose or break anything, are also available. An extra Neo battery is $106 in Canada while a charger/cable combe is $69. The sensors are a bit more dear, at $239 each for the front or rear sensor. Battery life using Neo with the shock is pretty solid, so you don’t necessarily need an extra battery. But I’d probably still want one, if not also running the Transfer Neo post. If your battery does die out on trail, Neo defaults to open, so you can ride it like a normal shock.

Bonus: Richie Rude rides Fox Live Valve Neo