DVO's Topaz ShockDVO was showing off their Topaz shock, with it tucked away out of sight behind the booth's counter at the Taipei Show. General Manager John 'JP' Pelino was tight-lipped, but I managed to squeeze some basic information from him. The main body is CNC machined and uses an air negative spring (
fed from the positive side) to ease it into its travel. Adjustment-wise, there's a three-position compression lever that a rider could flip while on the move, as well the usual dial to tune the low-speed rebound. The piggyback employs a bladder instead of an IFP (
internal floating piston) as a compensator, which should make for a very active feel because there's no friction from the IFP to overcome. The body also shares similar machined ribs as found on the Jade Coil to improve heat dissipation, and the piggyback has external air pressure adjustment to manipulate bottom out characteristics. The first production batch will arrive in 200mm x 50mm, 200mm x 56mm and 215mm x 63mm sizing, with more options at a later date.
DVO's goal is to have this on the shelves before the end of 2015, but they also say that they're not rushing it into production, so you may have to wait a little longer for this gem. No details were given regarding price, but expect similar quality and price-points to DVO's current forks and shock.
Plus I feel they are missing out by not having both Hi/Lo compression adjust in addition to the "CTD" switch. Any new Enduro/DH air shock should have both these days.
In the end, Cane Creek is still probably the go-to shock.
So were they showing it off or hiding it?
Product reps don't bring prototypes to TRADE SHOWS to not talk about them. But thank you for making me feel like I got the special inside skoop™ by reading pinkbike™
@Paul Aston ISWYDT....
How about Onyx, or Ebony, or Obsidian!!! Something dark in color like the shock.A name that has a nice ring that sounds bada$$. When your buddy goes hey what shock are you running? you don't have to reply with "Topaz" lol. I will say im being a bit dramatic, but come on have you seen Next come out with good bikes lately? No...that's because there name sucks.....Next! Quality components deserve a quality name.
I think, there are better options alreday there and if it works the Zocchi 053 is already a much better choice.
- 3 position URD (Up, Ride, Down)
- Low Speed Compression
- High Speed Compression
- Low Speed Rebound
- Gate Setting (blow-off)
plus its actually released unlike a lot of DVO stuff that just gets hype/kudos on pinkbike