Fox "Lower Leg Bypass Channels"; Do They Work?

[Bigtuna00]

I serviced my 2021 Fox 36 at ~34 hours. The foam rings were bone dry. I'm not convinced the lower leg bypass channels to anything when riding.

I suppose if you stored the bike upside down (which has it's own downsides) they might help, except in that case the channels need to be on the front of the leg, not the back...so maybe hang the bike by the front wheel. But I can already do that with any fork.

What do you think, is it just a marketing gimmick? I was looking at the EXT bushing bypass video and theirs seems to be effective:

 

[ebsocalmtb]

I store my bikes on steady rack's so they are hung from the front wheel. The channels definitely work and the foam rings on my 2022 fox 36 look better then the foam rings on my 2019 fox 36 (i have both on different bikes, so i have a direct comparison). On the same note, it's not a terrible idea to stand your bike up on the rear wheel (vertically) for about 60 seconds to let the bath oil hit the top bushing and the wipers. Darren from push suggested this on a podcast some time ago, I forget which one. He suggested to do that when you're waiting for your buddies before a ride, or on a climb. He recommended doing that and then immediately compressing the fork a few times once you put it down. I started doing that a while ago after hearing that and it does have an impact on short term and long term performance. That was one of the things that motivated me to store my entire fleet vertically, hung from the front wheel.