IN BRIEF
Motion Engineering, an engineering firm based in Arnas in the Rhône, is opening pre-orders for the X-Elium, a cross-country fork that drops telescopic stanchions in favour of a single-arm carbon chassis and a linkage system. The brand claims 1.2 kg for 120 mm of travel, which it says is 200 to 300 g less than the benchmarks in world-level competition. Motion lists a retail price of €1,500 including VAT and a “launch offer: €1,050 incl. VAT (instead of €1,500) for the first 100 pre-orders”. The architecture is designed to eliminate brake dive — Motion claims 100% of travel remains available under braking — and, according to the brand, would allow a switch from 29 to 32 inches “with a simple hydraulic token in the shock”.
| Price | €1,500 incl. VAT (€1,050 incl. VAT for the first 100 pre-orders) |
| Weight | 1.2 kg (120 mm version) |
| Travel | 120 mm in 29″, 90 mm in 32″ |
| Chassis | Carbon fibre |
| Linkage parts | Anodised 7075-T6 aluminium, CNC-machined |
| Shock | Fox Float SL Factory 190 × 45 mm, MOTION tune |
| Axle-to-crown height | 530 mm |
| Offset | 44 mm |
| Steerer | Tapered 1.5″ |
| Hub | MOTION, 28 holes, straight-pull |
| Maximum tyre | 2,4″ |
| Brake | Minimum 180 mm, Post Mount |
Some objects you recognise before reading the name on the tube. The Motion X-Elium is one of them: where a mountain bike fork usually lines up two stanchion tubes and a brace, this one has a single arm, a large carbon plate angling down to a set of linkages and a shock housed inside. Motion Engineering, the company behind it, is no newcomer: based in Arnas, in the Rhône, it says it has spent more than ten years working on suspension for “the vehicles of tomorrow, from bicycles to lunar rovers by way of autonomous robotic platforms”. This time it is aiming at cross-country, a discipline obsessed with weight.
The Motion X-Elium weighs 1.2 kg and does away with stanchions
The figure Motion leads with is weight: 1.2 kg for the 120 mm travel version. The brand presents it as “200 to 300 g better than the benchmarks in world-level competition” — a comparison that remains its own, no rival fork being named. The name itself plays on that: “the ‘X’ for Cross-Country, ‘HELIUM’ for its incredible lightness”, the manufacturer writes.
To get there, the X-Elium does away with just about everything that makes up a conventional fork. Gone are the stanchion tubes and the connecting brace: the official spec sheet describes a carbon monocoque chassis, “connected to the axle / rocker assembly via a single oversized link”, and linkage parts in CNC-machined then anodised 7075-T6 aluminium. The shock stays on familiar ground — a Fox Float SL Factory in the standard 190 × 45 mm size with a Motion-specific tune, with a RockShox SID Luxe remaining an option.
Anti-dive, the central argument
The other promise concerns braking behaviour. On a telescopic fork, braking compresses the suspension and eats into the available travel: Motion argues that a conventional fork “can lose up to 80% of its travel under braking”. The X-Elium’s linkage is designed to cancel that transfer, and the manufacturer claims “100% of travel available under braking”. The reasoning extends to comfort: unsprung mass would fall to around 0.1 kg, against roughly 1 kg on a telescopic fork — Motion notes in passing that lowers, spring and damper account, by its own calculations, for 65% of the total mass of a conventional fork.
These figures are the manufacturer’s, and no independent test had confirmed them when pre-orders opened. Motion also claims “the first aerodynamic XC fork”, with frontal area cut by 25% and a teardrop profile: here too, the wording is the brand’s.
Ready for 32 inches
The absence of a brace has a concrete consequence, which Motion highlights: on a conventional fork, the brand writes, “this brace also rules out fitting a wheel of larger diameter”. The X-Elium is announced as compatible with 29 and 32 inches, with 120 mm of travel in 29″ and 90 mm in 32″. Switching from one diameter to the other is done “with a simple hydraulic token in the shock”, the brand promises — enough to follow the 32-inch standard without buying a new fork. The spec sheet gives 530 mm of axle-to-crown height, 44 mm of offset, a tapered 1.5″ steerer, tyre clearance up to 2.4″ and a 180 mm minimum brake in Post Mount format. The hub is in-house, 28 holes with straight-pull spokes; a “F1-type” Quick Release version, announced at 20 g more, is planned as an option.
€1,050 for the first hundred
The product page announces a “launch offer: €1,050 incl. VAT (instead of €1,500) for the first 100 pre-orders”. That price means reserving the fork by paying a deposit of €300 including VAT (€250 excluding VAT), with the €750 balance called up when production starts. Pre-orders run from 8 July to 31 December 2026, and all sums paid are refunded if production has not started by that date; once the statutory fourteen-day withdrawal period has passed, “the deposit remains the property of Motion Engineering”. The product page gives no delivery date, but the pre-order terms do set a timetable: the start of production is “scheduled between October and December 2026”, and the first X-Elium forks will be “delivered no later than six (6) months after the start of production”. On the adjustment side, the fork offers low-speed rebound, air preload and compression controlled by a three-position remote — not included. The manufacturer also mentions future linkage kits, anodised or carbon, intended to allow changes to the suspension ratio, progressivity, travel or level of anti-dive: the product page announces them as “future”, without offering them today.
