First Look: Fast Suspension - Eurobike 2015
Fast Suspension have their new, 100% handmade shock on display at Eurobike this week. The tuning and servicing brand from Brittany, France have been around for a few years and are well respected for their work. This shock is made entirely in-house and should be available this autumn for €699. Each shock will be built to order and tuned to rider weight, style and bike and colour preference. If you don't like the set-up, you can keep sending it back until you do. Fast Suspension say they don't want it to be a disposable shock, and can rebuild or re-tune the shock if and when you change bikes. They want this to be a long term investment.
The shock uses a 12mm chrome shaft instead of alloy for improved friction properties, as well as a 'DLC' (diamond-like carbon) coating. There are three adjustments; high and low speed compression as well as rebound. There's also a handlebar mounted lockout in the works. Initially, the shock will be offered in 267mm, 242mm, 222mm and 216mm lengths and delivery time from order should be under 10 days when they start selling this November.
The shock body starts life as a 500 gram billet block, after 45 minutes in the machine you're left with a 66 grams of shock body.
Three way adjustment, custom tune and colour options
 | We explored two approaches, first twin tube, then single tube technology. We wasted two years working on twin tubes for off road, racing cars, but now in my opinion this cannot work for off-road applications. FOX and Cane Creek do make very good products which I cannot say are bad, but it is not our philosophy. The idea from the beginning was to make the best shock with the best materials and best coatings. We don't want to make new technologies because a shock is still a shock, if you compare it with car racing where they have been the same for 50 or so years - why? Because they've found nothing better. We focus a lot of attention on coatings, the pistons and internals of the piggy back, we use a coating with PTFE so it's not a normal hard coat. I have spent two years on the piston design which we call a twin stage piston, we separate the shim stack for high speed, low speed, but I can't say any more than that because it's patent pending. With a normal single tube, when you adjust the rebound you also change the compression. With our piston there no effect between the two. Our philosophies are taken from car racing so we always use data acquisition tools because human feeling changes every day, but a machine can't lie. A number is a number, so we know if something is wrong inside we can see this with the machine. We adapt the valving to match the spring rate because with the rebound you are always fighting against the spring, so a stiffer spring needs stronger rebound valving. - Fabian Glatre, Fast Suspension |
Fast Suspension already market these dampers that can be retro-fitted into RockShox BoXXer and Pike forks.
| We are also working on a fork with a coil spring, and an air spring for a progressive end stroke and our own cartridge which is already available to retro-fit into RockShox Pikes and BoXXers. Three way adjustment, no floating piston because it creates friction and it might also use a closed, cellular foam sourced from the a UK company. These are a Suntour chassis but we a considering making a high level fork - perhaps with a carbon fibre casting. Even if it cost thousands all I want to do is make the best performance products! - Fabian Glatre, Fast Suspension |
www.fast-suspension.com
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with that said, I LOVE the spiral fluting.
Anyways, finish passing would be nice, for looks, cleaning and it will be lighter. And stronger considering there would be less stress risers.
www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/2016-Mountain-Bike-Components-at-Eurobike-2015,9336/2016-Marzocchi-at-Eurobike,96093/bturman,109
What the hell is this guy talking about?
Oil dampers, emulsion dampers, dividing piston, remote reservoirs, monotube, twin-tube, through shaft dampers, shim valves, poppet valves, spool valves, blow-off valves, inerter dampers, progressive piston, regressive pistons, digressive pistons.
Yep, they've all been the same for 50 years.
BTW...last time I checked DLC coating was black?? Just saying.
@game Twin tube dampers utilising poppet-valve LSR/HSR adjustment have a substantial flaw when it comes to off road vehicles like mountain bikes. Shocks like the CCDB and now X2 are not really ideal, even though they look great on paper due to the quantity of adjustments. It's actually impressive that FAST picked up on this because a lot of bigger brands haven't, evident by the highest end options today.
The problem is that the rear of an MTB or motocross bike needs to rebound slower than the front to prevent pitching the rider over the bars. This means that the rear has a tendency to be rebounding slower than ideal for the best bump absorption and response when tuned to match the fork, since it always has to compensate for pitch. The twin-tube layout with HSR adjustment in every implementation thus far uses a spring-preloaded valve which gives a digressive rebound curve similar to LSC/HSC dampers with HS (shimstack or poppet) preload adjustment - which is great in compression, but on a rear shock on an MTB / motocross bike, you don't want a digressive curve. You ideally want a rebound curve (w.r.t shaft speed) that is linear or progressive.
The reason for this is that spring forces are higher deeper in the stroke and thus pitching issues are greater from deep stroke events, eg. hitting a kicker and then bouncing off it. A progressive (w.r.t shaft speed) rebound curve means that the rebound damping can be set fast to respond to bumps but then more controlled in the deeper stroke to control pitching. While a twin tube poppet-valve may CLAIM to do this, if you analyse the valve geometry and test it on a dyno you'll realise that that's not what it does at all. The digressive rebound IS potentially beneficial on a fork, just not on a shock, which is something only a very skilled and holistic tuner will pick up on (eg. Vorsprung, and possibly FAST if my reasoning matches theirs).
The simpler monotube design for a rear shock on the other hand does EXACTLY what we need already in this sense. The rebound stack is not preloaded, thus the shimstack will control how much linearity you 'gain' over a simple ported damper, essentially giving you control over how progressive the rebound curve is. Unfortunately this is only adjustable internally, but what the CCDB and X2 offer don't actually externalise this adjustment in the way that is required.
On the other hand, I'm not sure what this shock offers over existing good monotube designs like the small-shaft Fox RC4 (now superseded) and I think FAST may have to explain some of their technology to get the sales. I think they should also publish weights (for each size please @FASTSUSPENSION ) if possible, since coil shocks need to compete with air options in this domain.
with the twin tube, the shaft oil volume is going thru the rebound adjuster during the compression phase. In this case compression and rebound are not independant. To make a short test, fully close your rebound circuit and you will see the compression range is wide. Open your rebound LSC and check your compression range and get your own opinion.
Enjoy you ride
Fabien
I like Kainerm's comment. I love Hope's "bad finish". Gives them a no nonsense industrial look.
I applaud them for producing a shock and service that could actually be a long term investment. I think people are already fed up by these changing standards. If I have to replace my trailbike frame for a new one, I'll probably end up with one that requires me to replace so much that I'd be better buying a new complete bike. And replacing perfectly functional stuff feels bad. So yeah, it is great that they produce a shock that will always match you and your bike. That's definitely a safe investment.