2025 Fox Transfer Review

Currently, there aren’t many dropper posts I’d rely on for an extended bikepacking tour. I’ve had issues with droppers from five or six brands in the past, and at this point, there are only two that I haven’t had to service. One of them is the former FOX Transfer model. We took two on the Baja Divide, then to Oaxaca, and logged numerous miles on them before and after those trips. They’re both holding up, and I still use the model I reviewed in 2021. It continues to work even after some 3,000 miles of use, although I have to be pretty vigilant about lubing it with Slick Honey on a regular basis. Otherwise, it sticks and has to be “butt-bopped” to pop back up. It also seems to have lost some air pressure over the years and now lacks enough power to hoist a typical seat pack. I’ve read similar reports around various forums about both of these perils, and to service them, you have to send the post back to FOX. Today, the brand unveiled the 2025 FOX Transfer, a new rider-serviceable design with some major changes under the hood to remedy these issues. I’ve been testing one over a few rides for this review.

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It doesn’t seem like it, but consulting the compendium of articles on this site verified that it’s been nearly four years since FOX introduced the previous Transfer. That one was released in fall 2020, and I reviewed it in 2021 after quite a bit of use. The press release slogan for the latest 2025 FOX Transfer is “The Transfer Rises Again,” which I’m sure a lot of folks who’ve experienced the sticky post issue will get a chuckle out of. Others might wonder why they didn’t release it on Easter to get the most out of this jingle. Warning: there are a lot of “five”s in this write-up.

What’s Changed

The new 2025 Transfer shares a similar aesthetic to the previous version and the same 4cm (1.57″) stack height, but looking at it closer, it’s completely different. Here are the big changes and my impressions and findings after installing it and using it on several rides:

New Clamp and Long Nuts

Jumping into the nuts and bolts, one thing that stands out when looking at the 2025 and 2021 models side by side is the new clamp/head assembly. Instead of the large violin-scroll form factor, the head was slimmed down, and the clamp plates were totally retooled. As mentioned, it still has the same stack height, but it’s shorter in length, which is largely due to how the hardware attaches.

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Seat post clamps are one of my least favorite parts of all bike components. Most of them require you to remove the bolts entirely in order to swap saddles, often resulting in an explosion of parts that fly across the floor and inevitably disappear under the heaviest shelf in the room, never to be seen again. When it came out in 2020, the former Transfer almost solved this with a unique clamp assembly that was wildly different from most other dropper posts we’d seen. It had reverse-threaded hardware that could remain in the head and slotted plates that didn’t require the bolts to be fully removed for a saddle switcheroo. FOX decided to nix this for the 2025 model and return to something a little more traditional: standard M6 bolts that thread into loose nuts that nest in the recessed pockets within the top plate—a fairly conventional design.

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However, all is not lost. Most iterations of this style of clamp have relatively standard-sized nuts; FOX used an elongated design that seats deeper within the top plate and stays put when you’re removing the saddle as a result. I found this clamp configuration to be vastly easier to work with than most others I’ve used. The other benefit is that you only need to have a spare M6 on hand if catastrophe arises. For the record, I always carry a spare saddle clamp bolt on long tours as I’ve had them break twice.

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More Sizes, Fully Adjustable

The 2025 Transfer still comes in five lengths but with a lot more options. For one, it’s now offered in three diameters with a 34.9mm option in addition to the requisite 30.9 and 31.6mm diameters. And, instead of coming in 25mm travel increments from 100 to 200mm, each is offered in five ranges that can be dialed in at any travel length between 95-240mm in 5mm increments: 95-120mm, 125-150mm, 155-180mm, 185-210mm, and 215-240mm.

Each Transfer includes a set of five orange 5mm plastic spacers that can be installed or removed without any tools. The spacers are super easy to work with. You simply lower the post about 30mm, unthread the collar that separates the upper and lower post, and drop in as many spacers as you need. Once you reinstall the head and the O-ring, the spacers take up the stanchion spacing, and that’s all there is to it. They’re a little more tricky to remove, particularly the lower one that requires a pick or a safety pin to dislodge.

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Most competing droppers, such as my personal favorite, the OneUp V2/3, offer the ability to change the travel in 10mm increments. According to FOX, they do this because travel-adjust parts can deform over time, so the larger spacers extend their lifespan. The Transfer’s adjustment system is designed to avoid this and stand up to years of use. We shall see.

On a similar note, you’ll notice that FOX replaced the squared-off collar with a lovely knurled round collar. The only downside is that the new one is devoid of edges, so you can’t use an adjustable spanner to loosen it if overtightened.

Tunable Air Pressure

Perhaps the biggest and most welcome change is that there’s now a Schrader valve under the seat clamp plates that allows you to adjust or recharge the post’s air pressure. This is a game-changer, considering the previous model had to be sent to FOX for a rebuild if there was a loss of pressure. As mentioned, that issue finally occurred with my 2021 Transfer. It took a while, but it’s nice to know it’s now possible to recharge the air can yourself since altitude or air temperature might also affect internal air pressure at a much faster rate.

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The included owner’s manual recommends a range between 275 and 325 PSI. The post worked fine out of the box, popping up with plenty of power and a rewarding thwunk sound, but I decided to adjust it for the sake of this review. First, I grabbed my Topeak Mountain 2Stage Digital digital pump, removed the two clamp plates to reveal the Schrader valve, loosened the nice O-ringed metal cap (the same ones FOX uses on their suspension), and threaded the pump head onto the valve. The first thing I noticed is that the valve is recessed and a little tricky to access with that particular pump head, and I ended up draining 80% of the air pressure while trying to unthread it. It took three tries before I was able to unscrew it quickly enough to not lose half the air pressure.

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I pretty much gave up with the Topeak (above in middle) and switched the RockShox pump (above on right) I had on hand. It has a longer head—which actually matches the latest FOX pump, I later found out— that made it easier to attach and remove. However, that pump still maxes out at 300 PSI. Each time, I’d inflate the post to 300, unscrew the nozzle from the valve as quickly as possible, and still lose about 70 or 80 PSI. It ultimately took four tries to get a relatively clean break where I think I lost around 40 or so PSI. It’s probably still a little below the 275 PSI threshold, but it works just fine.

Reduction in Air Loss and Friction

To accomplish the former, FOX moved the air chamber to the top of the post and designed an entirely new sealing system, replacing two dynamic air shaft seals with static seals. This reduces overall friction, minimizing air loss potential. FOX claims that the new Transfer has a 62% reduction in air loss over its predecessor. That seems like an arbitrary number, but they clearly addressed this redesign with air loss prevention in mind.

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They also doubled the oil seals and added a wiper, which theoretically reduces overall air loss by minimizing air that’s dissolved within the oil. Another smooth move for the 2025 Transfer was the upgrade from IGUS bushings to metal-backed Ekonol bushings throughout Transfer’s internals. FOX states that Ekonol bushings achieve tight tolerances with the lowest possible friction, requiring less force to break stiction and drop the post.

In my limited experience with the new Transfer so far, I’ve been pretty impressed with how smooth it feels. It requires less thumb force to actuate than other posts I’ve used, and it responds quickly and fluidly. That said, I noticed that it requires a little more lever rotation to fully engage. This allows you to partially rotate the lever and feather it, slowing down the speed at which it pops up. Some folks may like this, and others might not. I initially installed it with my Wolf Tooth Remote Pro lever and then switched to the included FOX lever to see if there was any difference, but it seemed pretty consistent between the two.

As mentioned, the new Transfer is quite powerful. It was a little under the recommended 275-325 PSI range, and it still had plenty of oomph. For the sake of testing, I installed my trusty Ortlieb Seat Pack and filled it with what I’d typically carry in it on a weekend ride: spare layers, a down jacket, a (wide/long) sleeping pad, and my Dopp kit. It weighed a little over 4 pounds (1.87 kilograms) and the Transfer showed no hesitation when hoisting it up. I’m betting you could double that weight, and it would still work. And if I could figure out how to inflate it upwards of 325 PSI, it would undoubtedly have no problem.

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As for durability, the new Transfer claims to be much more reliable than its predecessor. FOX recommends a 300-hour full-service interval, which folks can do themselves without the need for any special tools or equipment. I’ll be sure to report back once I put many more miles on it.

• Model/Size Tested: 2025 Fox Transfer (Factory), 210mm, 31.6
• Weight: 667 grams
• Place of Manufacture: Taiwan
• Price: $339/$449 CAD/449 EURO
• Manufacturer’s Details: FoxRacing.com

Further Reading

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