FOX Museum Opening Offers In-Depth Experience of FOX History
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A replica of Bob’s first motorcycle sat in the center of this first display of history, telling stories of his drag racing and college days. The story moved lyrically around the walls, combining photos of Bob’s first car, a 1951 Oldsmobile, with images of other work he did after college helping to design rocket fuel devices. There’s almost a magical quality in the large quote that frames this wall: “…but then something special happened. My brother introduced me to motorcycles.”

In 1970, FOX Factory Forx were introduced & in 1978 FOX creates an air shock for the Yamaha monoshock

The rest is history, so they say, and so rarely does one get a chance to see that history. The motocross bike Howerton won the AMA 500 cc championship on sat next to a replica of Smith’s bike. In between was Howerton’s jersey, in dazzling red and white. All around the bikes were magazines, press, photos and race memorabilia. But for those who love to get their hands dirty, the real beauty of this display were the cross sections of the AirShox, the spring rates and engineering work done by hand. It is one of Bob Fox’s favorite parts of the museum.

“I really like the old drawings and hand-written notebooks on display — the pre-personal computer stuff. The younger generation needs reminders of how much more difficult many things were back then — not just two or three times more difficult, but in some cases a hundred or a thousand times more difficult and time consuming. I’ve already heard comments indicating some of that awareness coming from young engineers after seeing the stuff displayed. I think that's good. I think they need to know that.”

In 2009, Bob Fox was inducted to the AMA Hall of Fame

The AirShox were just the beginning of the display. Folks moved on as FOX moved into superbike and IndyCar Racing, experiencing more race-winning excitement and all the behind-the-scenes stories that went with it.