SPOTTED: Öhlins Air Shock
The Swedes Lose The Coil
![Ohlins air shock]()
![Robin WALLNER races down the prologue during the first stop of the European Enduro Series in Punta Ala Itali on April 25 2015. Free image for editorial usage only Photo by Antonio Lopez Ordonez]()
It's not a exactly a big surprise that Öhlins are working on an air-sprung version of their much lauded TTX shock, especially given that we've seen Robin Wallner (pictured above) racing on what looks to be a single crown Öhlins fork earlier this year at the European Enduro Series in Punta Ala, Italy, and that there's surely a larger market for mid-travel suspension than there is for downhill forks and shocks. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that the fork on the front of Benedict's Enduro, which is just out of view in his Instagram photo, is a single crown Öhlins as well.
Specialized Development Rider Brad Benedict has been testing with Öhlins over the past few years as the suspension brand works its way into the mountain bike arena. Benedict's bikes have served as rolling testbeds for all sorts of Swedish goodies, and the American rider just uploaded a photo of an air-sprung version of the TTX shock to his Instagram account. Some digging revealed that Specialized will be spec'ing the shock on their 2016 Enduro models, at least according to their German website, and that the air-sprung TTX is obviously well into production at this point.
What's most obvious is that it clearly employs the same stubby, dual piggyback layout as the standard TTX, which means that it likely uses a similar set of nitrogen-filled bladders in each one. And while the blurry photo does make it difficult to be sure, there looks to be a similar two-way, concentric dial layout to adjust low- and high-speed compression, although it wouldn't be far fetched to assume that the low-speed range could be adjusted on the go by way of a larger and easier to reach lever on the shock body.
What's most obvious is that it clearly employs the same stubby, dual piggyback layout as the standard TTX, which means that it likely uses a similar set of nitrogen-filled bladders in each one. And while the blurry photo does make it difficult to be sure, there looks to be a similar two-way, concentric dial layout to adjust low- and high-speed compression, although it wouldn't be far fetched to assume that the low-speed range could be adjusted on the go by way of a larger and easier to reach lever on the shock body.
It's not a exactly a big surprise that Öhlins are working on an air-sprung version of their much lauded TTX shock, especially given that we've seen Robin Wallner (pictured above) racing on what looks to be a single crown Öhlins fork earlier this year at the European Enduro Series in Punta Ala, Italy, and that there's surely a larger market for mid-travel suspension than there is for downhill forks and shocks. In fact, there's a pretty good chance that the fork on the front of Benedict's Enduro, which is just out of view in his Instagram photo, is a single crown Öhlins as well.
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Seeing as we may not get the chance to enjoy Marzocchi much longer, It is good to see more options are appearing out there.
"Der custom Öhlins Öl-Luft-Dämpfer mit 165mm Federweg lässt sich einfach über High- und Lowspeed-Druckstufe sowie Low-Speed-Zugstufe auf deine Bedürfnisse abstimmen; das spezielle Reservoir erlaubt optimierten Ölfluss unter starken Beanspruchungen, was Kontrolle und Dämpfung auf hohem Niveau hält."
Can anyone translate?
For most brands the XL is kind of an afterthought, really a longer option for the L rider and don't do much for anyone over 6'5". The new push towards long and low means most companies are doing even their XLs with tiny head tubes, as if tall riders are having trouble getting their bars low enough. Specialized has always been really good about scaling up the head tubes.
For the record though, the Yeti SB6C is absolutely massive in XL. Can't wait to see if they do a replacement for the SB95.
Ps I didn't mean to neg prop you, I just need to order a fat finger phone!
I have a friend that has replaced his cane creek 3 times.
Absolute crapp
The custom Öhlins oil air damper with 165mm suspension travel is easily tune to your needs High and Low speed compression and low-speed rebound damping ; the special reservoir allows optimized oil flow under high stresses , which keeps control and damping at a high level .
And maybe the second air port is for the negative spring? Instead of self-adjusting, they let you tune it separately? If so, it could be super helpful on other bikes like the SC Bronson (where the CCDBACS needed an extra mechanical negative spring).
Still... Specialized should stop with this custom BS. Special shock attachment, PF30, 142+... If they would be standard, I'd buy frame and move all my components from by Bronson to the Enduro 2016. But I'll never go back to PF30, threaded bottom bracket means my cranks are on the bike from 2013 with no maintenance and no problem:-)!
And also their stupid proprietary cranks... My shape and my mountains mean I need a 28T ring. But on the 104BCD the minimum is 30T right? Well if I'd bring my standard XX1 cranks on the Enduro it'll be OK but wait... No because I need them different for PF30.
This said... The Enduro is a wonderful bike in its 2015-2016 iterations.
www.specialized.com/li/de/ddb/www/#products/B/mountain/enduro/enduro-expert-evo-650b
36mm stanchion, 180mm travel but 6.1 lbs
That's HORRIBLY ugly!
And why would an American company debut their next-gen bike(s) in a MUCH smaller market?
Admittedly that link does appear to be a German version of a Specialized website, but if someone showed me that pic outta the blue, I'd instantly call it a photo-shop mixture of a '13 Lime Expert Enduro and the same vintage S-works.
The graphics on the wheels even look like they're from '13(IIRC).
I'll believe Specialized has gone over the bend when I see THAT bike on their U.S. website.
I don't know if the bikes are actually meant to be visible to the public on the german site, seems like it might be an accident as they usually unveil them at a press camp or at least an official press release.
@dingus - debuting new products in smaller markets is actually a fairly common practice by businesses. However, this is nothing new or revolutionary so i doubt they are only debuting it in Germany as your post suggests.
On a note unrelated to the article, I like that new color scheme with the lime green, but to each their own.
I just personally think Lime and red as a combination is vomitous-new word-.
I'm still leary of that 'photo'. The more I think of it, the more my [feable] brain comes up with reasons why it's a photo-shop.
The latest is that there would be green in/on the wheel graphics as well. Plus,historically, when Specialized has used a trim color on the inside of the frame spars, they've not mixed in a third color. The last one I remember was the yellow they used on the (IIRC) '14 S-works frame-black frame, yellow trim. The '15 is/was yellow and red, with no third color either.
Lemme me be the first to admit that I could be totally full of shit however.
Who's to say that the person with the final say on colors at Specialized didn't have a dream where a talking watermelon told him to use green and red heavily on a black frame, or else!
www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/First-Ride-Specialized-Turbo-Levo-The-X-Factor,9143/Slideshow,0/iceman2058,94