[Rivers2648]

Wondering if the Kashima coat on the Fox factory models is more scratch resistant than the standard black ones on the Performance Elite?

 

[Dougal]

Probably. But when it does damage it flakes.

 

[Christopher Robin]

It's not at all. It's just a color they charge more for.

 

[mtnbkrmike]

As I stated in another thread, I was recently advised by a well known suspension tuning shop that while I can get either a custom tuned 36 Kashima or black ano fork from them (I wanted the Performance Elite), they have seen severe wear problems with the black ano often within a year, that they do not see with the Kashima. I had never heard this comment before. In the other thread, some subsequent posters agreed with this comment.

https://forums.mtbr.com/29er-components/beat-dead-horse-fox-kashima-black-stachion-1029036.html

 

[Velodonata]

Probably. But when it does damage it flakes.

And sometimes it just flakes for fun.

 

[Lone Rager]

It's been pretty robust in my experience. On some of the scratched stanchions I've seen it's like it's slightly chipped along the scratch. I haven't ever seen it continue beyond that afterward, and I've seen a lot of riders run with scratched stanchions, Kashima or not, without further issue. It's good to remove any raised edges.

A thick build of hard anodizing will also chip similar to Kashima. IDK the build thickness used by FOX on their black stanchions. We used a lot of various thicknesses of hard anodizing at work, up to 0.003" IIRC. It's very tough and scratch resistant as the hard coating is essentially sapphire.

 

[trailbildr]

I would avoid the Kashima but I wouldn't give up Fit4 to do it.

mk