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The problem with Being old Mountain biker It is that although my skills may improve slightly, the rocks do not get softer with each passing year. I’ve come to accept, for example, that I’ll never clear the Teacup Trail in Sedona when I drive from the west side of town to the fun, quiet trails like Adobe Jack around Soldier Pass. But I stupidly keep trying, broken bones be damned, because what’s also true: with each passing year, bike suspension continues to improve.
Garage mechanics have been tinkering with the bike’s suspension ever since 1888. Full suspension — bikes equipped with a front fork and a smaller rear shock — became mainstream in the 1990s when brands like Specialized, Trek, and Santa Cruz brought the results of their tinkering out of the garage and into the daylight.
I bought my first full-suspension mountain bike, a Santa Cruz Superlight, in 2000. With 100mm of travel (maximum suspension travel while absorbing shocks) in the rear shock and 120mm in the front, it gave me the confidence to ride lines through New Mexico rocks that I wouldn’t have dreamed of riding on my front-suspension-only Specialized Stumpjumper.
Today’s full suspension bikes have so much power that the world’s best downhill riders can safely crush events like the Red Bull Championship Hardcore Tasmaniana track that combines brutal technical features with huge jumps, because it has front shocks with a travel distance of 200 to 220 mm.
I have ridden a full suspension bike for the past three decades and have been Test bikes for WIRED since A poorly planned trip to the Mojave Desert in 2014. But there are far greater experts than me when it comes to explaining how suspension works, so I asked Vernon Feltonproduct manager at Canyon, and former editor at Pink Pikeand former editor-in-chief of bike magazineTo put it to us.
What is a comment?
“Mountain bikes are designed to take you up and over mountains…and all the rocks and roots that stand between you and your destination,” says Felton. Of course he adds one He can Ride a mountain bike over all sorts of obstacles without a suspension fork or rear shock, but “doing so, without the assistance of suspension, takes a lot of extreme English skill and takes a toll on your body and energy levels.”
How does it work?
“Suspension almost always consists of a spring (made of either a metal coil or a sealed air can) that compresses when your wheels encounter rocks, roots, ruts, etc., and some sort of ‘rebound damper’ that slows the spring as it bounces back to its unloaded shape,” says Felton. “Without a damper unit (or ‘shock absorber’), your bike will bounce uncontrollably like a pogo stick every time you hit a big enough bump.”
He adds that top bike brands work tirelessly with companies like Fox racing and rockshox “To custom adjust those pieces of foam so they work optimally with the bike company’s frame design. The bike’s weight, style, and the precise placement of its links affect how the suspension works; therefore, companies use specific ‘rhythms’ to optimize oil flow within the shock and change the feel of the suspension.”
Why is oil needed? When a bike hits a rock, stress is put on the suspension system, whether it’s a coil spring or an air spring. At this point, the piston pushes the oil upward through small or large holes and valves, depending on the speed of impact. This creates resistance, also known as damping, which controls how quickly the suspension system compresses. After the obstacle is removed, the shock “bounces” or returns to its original length. The “tune” of the shock essentially controls how quickly this process occurs and, to some extent, how much the shock affects you, not your arms, legs, back, neck, shoulders and every other part of the body.
How does suspension differ between a cross country, trail, enduro, and downhill mountain bike?
“Ultimately, the entire suspension system is designed to do the same thing, which is to help you ride over rough terrain with more ease, speed, comfort and control,” Felton says. But different styles of mountain biking, along with widely varying terrain, require different styles and amounts of suspension.
“The cross-country racer is looking for the lightest, most efficient bike,” Felton says. “They place great importance on how quickly a bike allows them to climb big mountains. As a result, cross-country suspension tends to have fewer inches of suspension travel, and the suspension may feel firm to a casual rider.”
