The Nixon, in brief, has these main features:
°single crown
°1 1/8th inch steerer
°Air sprung
°Claimed weight of 4.1lbs
°SPV damping system (like on the Minute)
°QR models or hex through-axles
°Six inch travel
°Infinitely adjustable travel with bar mounted switch
What makes the Nixon particularly suited to bigger travel XC bikes is the "IT" Switch - the Infinite Travel adjuster switch... By pressing the bar mounted lever, you can push the fork down to any position in its six inch travel. When you release the switch, the fork will remain in that position. This is kind of what the Marzocchi ETA travel thing does - except, the Answer IT leaves the fork working perfectly in its new shorter travel. Due to air being moved from one chamber to another, the new shorter travel is left well damped and suitably sprung. A press on the lever will allow air to transfer from one air chamber to another and lower the fork"s travel without affecting spring rate. This allows you to shorten the fork for tight trails or steep climbs.
At the top of the hill, you can either stop and flick the switch to extend the fork or simply wheelie or lean back and have the fork extend before the descent.
There are two versions of lowers - one with a thru-axle and one with a QR. Both seemed pretty stiff, despite the length and Answer have refined the reverse arch castings so that there"s nothing fancy about them, just a stiff structure. The fork rode very well - the combination of SPV damping and the height adjust made it very well behaved on the climbs.
The infinite travel was very interesting as you could choose, say a four-inch setting and feel the geometry change as you did it. Lowering the travel while riding was a little haphazard, but very easy while stopped. And nearly every rider we know stops at the top of every climb, so fine tuning of the travel and extending it for descents is actually pretty easy.
Here"s a closeup of the switch and where it enters the top of the fork (there will be a version without the switch, but where"s the fun in that?) It"s a simple, sprung paddle. Easy to use, as long as you don"t confuse it with the front shifter. A press on the lever will allow air to transfer from one air chamber to another and lower the fork"s travel without affecting spring rate. This allows you to shorten the fork for tight trails or particularly for steep climbs. This will allow the bike to be more stable for climbing and less likely to wheelie.
We only had a couple of days riding on the Nixon, but can confirm that it"s a great riding fork. And out of 15 test bikes out, not one had any problems with air loss or trouble with the IT-Adjuster. The only downside we can see is that Answer reckon the Nixon will be more expensive than the, already expensive, Minute forks...
::) :P :"( 
