The very first thing I ever owned with the now iconic Fox Head logo on, was a set of the original Push pants in bright yellow. This was 1997 and a long time before Fox were a high street name and the average kid knew the difference between an ‘indian air’ and ‘superman seat-grab’. Times have changed and bikes are big now, but when this kit popped up in the 2012 Fox catalogue, nostalgia took over, but so did the respect for a leading brand to actually bring something pretty unique and also very cool to market.

Mountain Biking is the real melting pot of action sports and it’s no surprise that the sports leading apparel and protection manufacturers are from our nearest and dearest petrol drinking relation, Motocross. It’s also been the norm over the last few years for apparel brands to re-market existing product from their MX lines directly into their MTB lines. Although there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, you are ultimately buying into product designed for one sport, but in a round about way, can be used for another. Brands do this for several reasons, mostly cost, but for 2012 Fox Head have looked directly at the specific needs of today’s gravity rider and produced something which we were very excited about…

Words: Olly Forster | Photos: Eyesdown Films

Push Pants.

Full length race pants were all the rage back in 1997 thanks to Shaun Palmer, who at the time was stirring the sport up and sporting Fox’s gear while doing it. Fox looking to capitalise on Palmer and indeed MTB’s popularity at the time, released a ‘push-bike’ specific race pant and aptly called it the ‘Push Pant’. It was a successful product and based around their popular 360 MX pant, but this was before MX kit became the heavy duty, feature riddled pieces of art we have today and using them on a bicycle was not that much of a stretch. Roll on to today and MX kit is beyond specific to what it is designed for and never has it been so obvious than now, with Fox’s re-entry into the bicycle specific race pant market with the all new Push Pant.

Just like their MX pants, the Push Pants are designed around you being on the bike: specifically tailored for pedaling and using knee pads and utilising an “articulated, pre-curved design for comfort & performance while in the ride position“. These are so light and so comfy you’ll be astounded at how you ever wore MX pants for Downhill. The materials are tough and the construction looks more than robust for the job, but you really need to pick these up and feel them.

The Orange/ White colour way offers up a unique look with a blend of logos and detailing combined with the almost neon orange accents against the black and white 600D polyester, which looks pretty cool to say the least and definitely an original colour-way.

Weighing in at only an iPhone over a regular pair of lightweight riding shorts, let alone almost on a par with some of the markets more heavy duty ‘race specific’ shorts, the Push Pants at 550grams are the lightest bicycle specific race pants currently on the market.

A Pocket! Yup, they’ve even got a pocket – how rad is that? And there’s more… Fox have also used a large amount of ‘mesh zones’ in the front and rear of the pants to control any build up of moisture and maximise airflow in and out while incorporating a mesh liner to help prevent things from getting sticky on the inside. This photo shoot was done on a hellishly humid day and I think I would have died wearing MX pants and most certainly would have chosen shorts had it been a regular days riding.

Covert 3/4 Jersey.

The Covert jersey is a full on MTB specific riding jersey featuring a 3/4 length sleeve design, made from 100% quick dry polyester and featuring a much closer cut than a traditional MX jersey making it far more suitable for the job at hand, especially when most of us end up rolling our sleeves up anyway. MX jerseys generally have a much looser cut and although popular with the DH crowd, can flap about quite a bit due to all the extra material.

The Covert Jersey also features integrated side mesh paneling to help with airflow and cooling, an interior wipe for your goggles on the inside of the hem and a drop tail design for rear coverage while in the ride position – this isn’t as pronounced as you’d get on an MX jersey so you won’t have to tuck it in, which also helps air flow through the jersey and keeping you cool

The Covert Jersey is a versatile bit of kit that’s equally at home racing DH, 4X and Enduro as it is shredding the back country or exploring epic singletrack. It also looks pretty rad with the Ultimatum Shorts we reviewed earlier this season!

Following on from a popular design that was rolled out throughout Fox’s range that was also called Covert (can be confusing), this design is accompanied by two other colour-ways should you not want to go white and orange including a Black Camo option for all you commandos out there and a plainer White and Black offering with a kind of grafitti style logo on them – check them out here!

The Covert jersey is full of neat little features that are quite ‘covertly’ hidden. This is my favourite – a small and discreet pocket designed for your compact MP3 player featuring an ‘audio interface’. This is this small grey hole in the photo below and is designed for your head phones to thread through and neatly make their way to your ears for long lifts back to the top where some musical inspiration is called for. Check the detailing with the Fox logo!

Push Gloves.

I pretty much live in Fox gloves and love their fit and feel, but I have noticed that either my thumbs are shrinking or the Push Gloves have a funny fit around the thumb, with a little bit of excess material at the end? I’ve since tried others on and they’ve all got big thumbs? Moving on from their only downside, which in all honesty I always forget about on the hill, the Push Gloves are essentially the glove that the majority of us use for most of the riding we do, regardless of discipline. They’re slimmed down, minimalistic and all about the feel.

The Push Gloves feature an absorbent, micro-suede thumb wiping surface and a low profile wrist tab closure to keep things nice and secure. The wrist enclosure is taken care of with a really neat velcro tab and as you see from the photo below, they fit and fit really well – I hate baggy gloves!

The palms feature a double layer of ‘Ax Suede Fit’ which offers a good level of grip without sacrificing feel or durability and after a few months of use, the silicone fingertip prints are still on there. The best thing is the feel through the palm, which like most Fox gloves is pretty top.

The Push Gloves are a great summer glove – just check all the mesh venting down each finger.

Conclusion.

The Fox Push kit was something I was slightly giddy about getting in and testing, but at the same time I didn’t want any preconceived notions dashed upon getting it to the trails. I love mountain bikes and indeed downhill riding, so I get stoked when the big brands make cool stuff specifically for us. MTB is big, bigger even than MX, but downhill is tiny and that’s where the problem lies with brands offering us niche products; it’s all about the numbers!

But times are changing and DH riding is quickly becoming ‘gravity riding’ and this is what’s getting the big guys attention. DH bike sales are buoyant, races sell out and the queues for uplift trucks and chairlifts is a common sight as is the rise of the non-racing practice track rider.

But back to the heart of the matter and Fox’s first bicycle specific race pant in over ten years. They’re good, really bloody good. Fox have looked at MTB and the need we have for things to be as light as possible without sacrificing strength and durability. The Push Pants are so light you really have to pick them up to get what I’m on about, but they also feel nice to touch and very much the specialist sports product they need to be.

Weight aside, these are tough too. I liked these so much I bought a second set in the back and green colour-way for mud plugging and nearly ended my season with a big OTB in deepest darkest Wales. The crash spat me over the bars (which bent when the bike hit the deck!) and twisted me and the bike over a tree stump and down a rocky bank on my side. My Push Pants were brown already from the mud, but due to their lightweight construction I was expecting some serious collateral damage. Nothing, not even a graze? Maybe it was how I fell, but I’ve still got the scars?

So they’re light and tough, but the biggest and most important thing about these is pants is the fit. Put them on, walk around the pits, hike up a hill, smash runs, play on the jumps or go racing – what ever scenario you find you and your bike in, these work and work really well. It’s almost like someone asked a bunch of world class downhillers what they’d like from a full length bicycle specific race, to then go and make it…

The Covert Jersey is a highly capable and well thought out bit of kit and has performed faultlessly in both a DH application and also on stints shredding singletrack on the enduro bike. This is a versatile jersey if ever there was one and don’t be put off by the 3/4 sleeves, their there for a reason. I do however think the hardcore DH racer will still end up opting for the matching MX jersey and rocking a Tee for practice. If you can see past all the sheep, give it a go and at £45 is great value for money when you consider the tech employed.

The Push gloves, aside from their overly large thumb, represent a highly versatile (there’s that word again…) glove that would be suitable for any kind of MTB riding. With more gravity riders opting for a minimalistic approach to their gloves where feel is key, these are right on the money and for £25, they’re exactly that.

Back to the Push Pants. Are they that good? In a word, yes. Do they have any flaws? Of course, but you’ll laugh when I tell you. As a full length pant designed for cycling, Fox have incorporated a great deal of mesh material, mostly around the crotch area. This is mesh is there to keep you cool when things get hot and lets face it, your hot no matter what season of the years it is when your pedal powered. This venting is great and works really well, but if it rains and things gets muddy, just don’t wear light coloured boxers as it might look like you’ve had an accident. Putting that aside, for £100 you are buying into a piece of kit designed to meet the very needs of both Danny Hart and the average shredder riding their bicycle – we all demand well designed and delivered product and settling for anything else shouldn’t be an option. With decent ‘race ready’ shorts coming in at around £80 anyway and pants well in excess of £100, your also getting some great value for money here as well. So what you waiting for? Get down a dealer and try some on!

Highly recommended stuff from the team at Fox. Get involved and tap that head for more!

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