Coil Shock Shootout

thegromit wrote:

Just reread your post here and then looked at the FF piston kit. I noticed that you said all tuning via the base valve, which I...

Just reread your post here and then looked at the FF piston kit. I noticed that you said all tuning via the base valve, which I wasn't sure if that was a joke. On their site on picture looks like they're using a belleville washer on the main piston. Is this correct? Is most of the valving changes at the base valve? I got a Ohlins tuned through them and they actually told me they removed the belleville washer in favor of a traditional shim stack. I know that architecture is different between the shocks but I was surprised to see they may have gone this direction but maybe its easier for at home tuners to only build a single stack and not have any issues balance between mid and base valves.

Skunk Works Suspension wrote:

No, definitely not just tuning via the base valve. But it is modified from stock for all the options being tested. The stock base valve setup on...

No, definitely not just tuning via the base valve. But it is modified from stock for all the options being tested. 

The stock base valve setup on the Bomber CR/Fox Van is quite stiff and uses belleville washers. All three tuning options (Avalanche Racing, Fluid Focus, and Shockcraft) remove the belleville washers and convert the base valve to a more traditional shim stack. All three use different base valve tunes, and Avalanche uses a different needle for the bleed (LSC clicker) as well.

Fluid Focus and Shockcraft both use a different main piston, while Avalanche uses the stock main piston. All three use different compression and rebound shim stacks that correspond to the base valve tune they spec. They all use standard shims, no belleville washers anywhere.

Just about ready to start testing shocks. The Vorsprung Telum was run to get a DAQ baseline and as a means of getting the fork setup dialed. This test bike is currently working quite well, the plan is to just swap in each of the three different shocks and keep the fork in it's current state. Also added a shorter track to the test procedure capable of 10+ runs/day. More data, more better!