The PDS Shock: Nearly 40 Years of Link-less Rear Suspension
PDS. Progressive Damping System. No linkage, no rising-rate geometry, just a shock mounted directly between the frame and the swinging arm, doing all the progressive work itself, internally. It's one of those pieces of engineering that riders either swear by or
Emulators
Do Racetech Cartridge Emulators Really Work? We Put Them on the Dyno to Find Out If you've ever ridden a bike with damper rod forks and wished it handled better, you've probably come across the Racetech cartridge emulator as a potential
Shimming the Adjuster Piston: A Closer Look at Refill Damping
I’ve seen after-market shock compression adjusters advertised where instead of having a check-plate to refill the shock on the rebound stroke, a shim stack has been added to generate damping on the rebound stroke. Fortunately, the school's shock collection includes one
Load Cell Range and Accuracy
What "Accuracy" Actually Means on a Load Cell Datasheet Here's the thing that trips people up. When a load cell manufacturer lists accuracy as a percentage, say ±0.011%, that percentage is not of the reading. It is a percentage of the
Why Knowledge Matters More Than Advice
The suspension world is full of quick fixes, unfortunately, they tend to be simple answers that ignore most of the question. There is no shortage of suspension advice available. Forums, YouTube channels, social media pages, and online courses all offer settings,
Is Cavitation Killing Your Shock?
How cavitation destroys shock absorbers. How Cavitation Destroys Shock Absorbers When most riders think about suspension failure, they picture bent shafts, blown seals, or oil leaks. But some of the most destructive forces inside a shock absorber are invisible, microscopic bubbles that
You can’t tune what you can’t see.
What a shock dyno actually tells you. A customer brought a shock in saying he'd recently bought a bike with an upgraded standard shock. His complaint was that it was far too hard, his assumption was it must be broken somehow. The
Springs in Series and Parallel
Top-Out & Main Springs: The Common Mistake We See. The Importance of Understanding Spring Interaction Before making spring changes, consider whether your interpretation of how the springs function together is accurate. Misconceptions about spring dynamics can result in an ineffective set-up. A
Shock Absorber Temperature
Where Does Shock Absorber Heat Actually Come From? We Ran the Tests So You Don't Have to Argue About It. Shock fade is a common complaint. When damping drops off, most people start looking at the reservoir. The data says they're
Shock Bladders
There are some laws of physics that just can't be ignored when looking at bladders. When Erich Konrad and Eduard Tschunkur first copolymerised acrylonitrile and butadiene, I doubt they envisaged that, a hundred years later, middle-aged men would be sat in