Intend Suspension is a one man show run by Cornelius Kapfinger, who previously worked with Trickstuff, the German company best known for their powerful, high-end brakes. Kapfinger has been doing his own thing for a couple of years now, with a product line that includes stems, cranks, several USD forks, and the Hover, the new air sprung shock that we first saw on a bike at Sea Otter. Here's a little bit deeper look at what's going on inside.
You can access the negative chamber and really tune the beginning of the stroke to be ultra soft. The weight of the bike alone can actually engage the suspension, and it's claimed to have much less friction than a typical air shock.
Kapfinger has been working on developing the Hover for some time now and is finishing up the testing phase. According to Kapfinger, the design has a couple of advantages, including the fact that there's one less dynamic, or moving seal, and the existing seals are always in contact with oil. The other advantage is that the complete damper surface is able to radiate and dissipate heat. It doesn't insulate the shock as a standard air shock does, which keeps temperatures lower.
The aluminum piston rod may look diminutive, but it's 14mm thick and with a 3mm hole in the middle, and Kapfinger is confident that it's strong enough for everything from trail riding to downhill usage.
There is a fine tune dial on the shock that allows you to inflate the positive and negative chambers with one valve, then you close it and further inflate the negative chamber to tune the spring curve. The progressivity of the shock can be tuned via volume reducing tokens.
The shock can be bled to get air out of the oil chamber with a 2.5mm hex key. You simply open the valve, compress, and close. Air goes from the oil back to the negative side.
The damper doesn't have a lockout function or dedicated pedaling platform lever, but riders can just close off the LSC if they want to firm things up. Kapfinger says that the damper is suitable for whatever applications riders desire, from trail riding to World Cup DH.
The shock is still in development at this point, but if Kapfinger is happy with the next prototypes he has finished in a couple of weeks then he will start production.
The shock will be available in a variety metric and non-metric lengths, and it weighs a claimed 410g for the 205mm trunnion. The shock will sell for around €1,000 EUR.
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On a side note, what happened with the oleo Brew Nitro shock?!
@mikelevy: Can you use your magic to get updates on the Nitro development?
This would look rad on one of those UK handmade steel single pivot bikes, nothing would look big enough.
+ and - chaimber tuning ofc..
Anyway, that shock won't probably be the best choice for frame designs that rely on shock stiffness.
C'mon..
.
I wonder, why has this industry still not come with proper balljoint mounting at shock eyelets? Or, when those shocks still see torsion and bending, why they don't use large diameter shafts? Like, as large as possible.
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