Quote:
Originally Posted by rice rocket
No, that's just undamped.
Dampers slow the rebound speed of the wheel, unless you're guiding the wheel up and down with your hand while riding, that ain't it.
Not sure who this is for exactly. A weight weenie that is riding not-rough enough terrain to be concerned about traction, but not weight weenie enough to go with a cheaper stem system? The net savings over Fox 32 Tapercast is 100g, you can bet that damper is worth every single gram.
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I don’t have to bet the damper is worth 100 grams, because i’m a grown man, and I learned 30 years ago that 40mm of travel is not worth the hassle, for me.
Hear me out though, most of the “magic” in good suspension setups for something primitive like 40mm of travel is getting your spring rate right, and having your damping match the spring rate. Their is likely a little dimple on the shaft that seal head for the spring is mounted to. The metering of flow between the positive and negative chamber, when you have a the right spring force is pretty easy to control. You are looking at more than twice the air pressure as a fork with hydraulic damping.
A short travel drop bar bike by definition limits how much a rider can shift their weight around, fore/aft weight shifts are why we need mechanical low speed compression damping on our “fancy” forks that run less spring force.
Suspension and grip, ultimately are about balance. The marketing hyperbole that launched this thread isn’t too outlandish- even though this is a product space that the bike industry has been squatting in for mor than 30 years, most telescopic suspension product to date is a bit… overkill for riding around on dirt roads.