SR Suntour Reveals New TriAir2 Shock - Taipei Cycle Online 2021

 I've had several of their high end forks and they were consistently awesome. I preferred them to Fox and, somewhat less, to RS. They were some of the smoothest, most consistent forks I owned and were very responsive. They are on the heavier side, but the fork chassis was always very stiff and had no reliability issues. Their customer support was also good for me, better than SRAM and Fox anyway.

The only problem I had was that below certain temps, they became very harsh, I think ~40f or so and they got pretty rough feeling. Any fork will do that, but for some reason theirs were considerably worse in colder temps. Not sure if it's a seal or oil issue, I'd venture it's the seals given that it felt like friction, but I am not certain.

So while not blind, I've tried a lot of forks and the Auron RC2 I had was in the top 3 easily.

They also have a demo program where you can 'rent' a fork or shock for 3 weeks to try, which is something I wish all suspension manufacturers would do.

 @shinook: I would guess you are right about the rubber seals. I do a lot of free diving/spearfishing, and we stay away from manufacturers that produce equipment and parts for blue water divers. Here in Norway you need those that use rubber that doesn’t loose elasticity when the temperature drops. But that type of rubber usually have a higher price point...

 another canadian site has a raving review of the triair.. partially because it was bolted to a banshee Titan ? haha... I just got a 230-65 thta I would also bolt to a banshee darkside (with some offset bushings).. looks promising...

 @shinook: Wow glad I read all the way through your comment. A demo opportunity would be fab. Just went through the SR Suntour site and I don't see mention of this program. (But holy cow do they make a lot of forks!) Can you share any more info about this? I wouldn't mind smashing on a Durolux for three weeks.

 If there’s a climb switch Levy will know, even if he’s blind

 I've had two Fox shocks come DOA without even one ride on them. Pinkbike has a boner for Fox and will never say anything bad about their stuff. Even in years where the performance was less than stellar, aka pre RS Pike years. Even now the Grip 2 is similar performance to my Pike with Vorsprung mod. I imagine once you get a few YouTubers on the suspension everyone will come around.

 @sngltrkmnd: Take a look at www.srsuntour.us/pages/dtyd

 Sr suntour got a bad rap for two reasons.
#1: they made alot of low end budget products that were never designed for high performance, and thus created an association with low end/poor quality.
#2: They are owned and operated by Tenneco, a major umbrella Corp that operates many other suspebtion brands in many other genres of applications.
One of those companies used to be Marzocchi.
Marzocchi has a long heritage in mountainbiking, dating back to the 90s.
My first ever "real" fork was a silver Marzocchi Z3, with open bath dampers which were a scaled down version of what they had used in motocross for many many years.
Marzocchi was one arguably the one name that stood above the rest when it came to the freeride movement. Even rockshox and Manitou were barely competition.
The Monster T reined supreme, and shortly after the installment of the shiver; the greatest inverted fork mountainbiking has ever seen was king of forks.
Ridden by the likes of Wade Simmons and Thomas Vanderham to name a few.
Eventually the release of the 888 spawned another success story for the seemingly unstoppable brand.
Tenneco eventually purchased Marzocchi in 2008.
Shortly after they moved production of Marzocchi from Italy to Taiwan.
Upon this move, Marzocchi was plagued by many manufacturers defects, which ultimatly led to the demise and pedigree the brand has built for well over a decade.
This left the market wide open, to which Fox (who had been in the game since 2004, and releasing the 40 in 2006) and rockshox who was arguably the major suspention brand in the sport, to gather up the market share.
In 2015 Tenneco announced its intention to discontinue the brand, laying off hundreds of people.
In 2016 Fox announced a deal with tenneco to purchase the brand and its intellectual property, thus revamping the brand and bringing the Marzocchi heritage back to the sport.
The series of unfortunate events however does not necisarily reflect upon tenneco and its abilities to be associated with top level products,
In 2018 Tenneco purchased Ohlins, surging the boutique brand with a very rich heritage in all things racing, with plenty of financial backing, and helping the company stake a foothold into not only the mountainbike industry, but also adding multiple downhill world cup wins to their resume.
So when people wanna hate on a brand because they think its shit, do some research, you may find there is more to meets the eye.
While I have never ridden any SR Suntour suspention myself, and I did grow up during the time where their products were less than desirable, I think you hit the nail on the head in requesting a "Pepsi challenge" of sorts.
After all, all of these companies are competing with one another, nobody is going to purposely make an inferior product.
That being said, there is more to a product that pure performance.
Quality, ease of service, availability of parts, warranty support, and of course individual rider preferences.

 @trigger: Automatically I wanted to invite you over for some spear fishing in the morning and some mtb action in the afternoon before I remembered that I moved to Switzerland (like 7, 8 years ago). Now I'm home sick

 Ive got a Suntour Auron RC2- works way better than a Lyrik RCT3/ Yaris etc. while costing less.

Dont know about how it stands up against a 2000€ fork- but I wouldnt feel the difference to be fair.

 @jomacba: Not to mention that some of those early 2010's Marz forks (the RC3 ti series) were amazing performers and super-reliable.
If we hadn't gone to bigger wheels, I might still be riding my 55 and 66 now.
I presume those were made by Suntour.

 @jomacba: Thanks for the history lesson! I've been on Suntour on and of since 2010 and well they have become more and more top notch in terms of performance. The relation with DVO (which is a sibling of SR Suntour) had a very positive influence and brought some better products with it.
In my years as a product manager I was able to ride what ever I wanted and I settled with the Durolux as it was the best ride for me.

Fox and RS are clearly the winner when it comes to weight and steeze when riding around town, but aren`t we all keen to ride coil shocks because of performance... So I would not hesitate to ride SR Suntour front and back.
Durolux and Topas will be with me in summer

 @sngltrkmnd: What @everyheroneedsavillain said:

www.srsuntour.us/pages/dtyd

I haven't done it in a while, but they send the whole thing to you in a large case with the tools needed to install it (spacers, etc). You get it for 3 weeks and they return your $100 deposit to you. It's a great program.

 @jomacba: hahahahahahaha Tenneco has nothing to do with SR Suntour! looks like you need to do some better research.

 @digitalsoul: It's because Fox is the ultimate bro manufacturer. They've been that way for decades. Moto, off road, etc. They have a good product but so does SRAM or even SunTour.

 @chakaping: still running 66 and works fine with 27.5 x 2.3 magic Mary. 1 1/8 looks a bit skinny minnie but it hasn't failed on me

 @jomacba: I remember my first 10-spd bike with cheap Suntour components. It ran great. Then, as I got into my late teens and into adulthood when I started getting into entry level road and mountain bikes - seeing how Suntour and Shimano competed with each other until all of a sudden, Suntour no longer existed. I still have one of their old front thumb shifter. It still works great, even better than the Shimano XT top-of-the-line left thumb shifter back in the day. Good to see that the name still exists with some history behind it and that it is thriving.

 @shinook: That's cool! Glad you got had a good experience. If they offered a boost Auron 29, I'd pop for it. I'll check back next month when my new Slash frame arrives - maybe one will be available then.

 @jomacba: Sounds like a possible case of the Kia of mountain bike products. What once was crap, may no longer be.

 @SuperHighBeam: Kia and Hyundai is still consider crap LOL. You can't beat a Toyota for reliability. I'd trust a Honda or even a Ford before going with a Kia or Hyundai.

Suntour wan't that bad in the days leading up to their bankruptcy. They had some pretty good innovations in regards to cassettes and friction shifters, which were ranked up there with Shimano and Campy groupos. Suntour did themselves in at the time because Shimano came out with the SIS index shifting and Suntour followed suit with faulty designs of their own. I'm sure the new owner have learned from their mistakes even after they bought Marzocchi and moved their plant from Italy to Taiwan.

 @CSharp: just because Kia’s catch on fire and doors fall off while driving doesn’t mean they’re crap lol they might have engineered it that way in purpose

 @shinook: a quick note regarding harshness at lower temperatures, I’ve run the last two versions of Durolux and on my current EQ version have been experimenting with running Fox 20wt Gold bath fluid in the lowers in place of the usual Slick Honey (Suntour usually only uses grease to lubricate lowers, good for keeping dirt from circulating everywhere, bad for maintaining consistent viscosity in different conditions). So far the fork seems far smoother in cooler temps and is even more supple under normal conditions. Time will tell if there are any issues that arise, but I can’t imagine there’d be anything other than needing more frequent maintenance.

 @nation: Thanks for the info! I don't have one of their forks currently, but if I do get another, I'll give that a shot.

 I would love to try them back to back, and see if any perceptible difference can be found. The design can be 95% identical, but the tune, QC level, assembly, finish, etc could still be dramatically different...

 @hamncheez: dvo will tune it however you like and show you how you can do it at home

 So a monarch Plus RC3?

 @DHhack:

So does and will Rockshox and Fox with the DPX2.

Ridefox.com/help

Fox has more tunes available to the public than anyone else. As well as super detailed service instructions.

 @z-man: street price of fox is like 2 to 3 more where I live. The first gen topaz blows the dpx2 out of the water in all respects

 @KalkhoffKiller:

I'll respectfully disagree. Fox just had a shock that was too tunable and the tunes were often so bad on new bikes that people hated them. Spend time with someone who knows how to tune it and it will perform far better than a topaz for much longer.

A DPX2 is far more tunable than a Topaz, internally that is.

 @z-man: tuning is different than setup. Fox will not teach you how to adjust a shim stack or an IFP

 @hamncheez: believe they are both made in the same factory, by the same company (SR SUNTOUR) so can't imagine a quality difference between the two...

 @eebsteez: quality control has more to do with the acceptable level of difference between the design and the product. For example, if company A's QC policy is that the mounting points need to be aligned within 0.5mm where as company B's QC policy is that the mounting points need to be aligned within 1 mm, company A will reject a higher proportion of the product, so the cost goes up. Additionally, Company A might check a higher percentage of the finished products, say 10% where as company B only checks 5%. Company A will have fewer failures, but the checking costs money too.

tldr; All manufacturing is imperfect, price differences sometimes* reflect defect tolerance and/or defect checking rates.

*it an be other things, like marketing, tariffs, distribution model etc.

 @oscarnielsen: that's a really good point. Though I think I remember hearing that the TriAir and DVO are similar enough to one another that some seals and spacers on Suntour shocks are DVO green on disassembly.

 @Mntneer: They might not "teach" you those things but the Fox website has massive amounts of information on different shim stacks and tunes. You can easily go to the parts/drawings page and pull up various shim stack configs for almost any shock.

 @greasecheese7: will fox give you a recommendation for your stacks based on your bikes kinematics and your weight/riding style? That is what I needed to be taught

 @z-man: Don't know about that. Mine blew through its travel and bottomed out harsh although I'm a lighter rider and even when I had the biggest allowed spacer installed. Then I talked to fox and they said that a firmer compression tune would result in the shock feelling harsher overall which I didn't like. The Fox guy said that there is not much to be done about that and he also was in between tunes on his dpx2. Plus spare parts are priced ridiculous by fox. They sell little screws for 20€.

 @KalkhoffKiller: I'm not a fan of the DPX2 either....

 There are more differences than just the IFP. Different piston head, chromed steel shaft for durability, longer glide ring / seal area to fight side torsion loads, tuned differently, and 2 external air can options (one straight the other with a bulge in the negative area).

www.pinkbike.com/photo/20228467

 @sprockets: Good info! ridden both? Thoughts on the two?

 @Mntneer: That's just plain wrong. You have obviously not spent any time whatsoever on their service site.

They provide for stacks and tunes than anyone else. They have more detailed diagrams and service instructions than anyone else.

 Live free or TriAir?

 TriAir 33 1/3

 user name checks out

 @flipoffthemonkeys: those in glass houses...

 TriAir Tokyo drift

 Agreed

 They do! In December I ordered an Auron, their top "trail/enduro" fork, for less than $700 Canadian Pesos all in, including shipping, taxes and duties. Delivered in 4 days from Suntour USA. Not installed yet so no idea how performance would compare to the much more expensive Pike that I was originally contemplating, or to the Revelation that I am currently running.

 They actually do sell directly to consumers

 @aireeek @aka-bigsteve: yep, just purchased a Suntour fork too
came in two days from Oregon to BC. Although 70% cost of the Fox equivalent, but not having to buy a CSU every year should make the Suntour even less expensive

 agreed.

 I bought direct. It was quick, efficient and inexpensive. I have two Durolux RC2 36 forks and rate them. I've had the Lyrik RC2 previously and don't miss it.

 Unless they can make a real case for why their product is just as good as the Fox or RockShox products (again a product test would establish this).

 @taprider: That's cool, but the discount needs to be more than 30% off a Fox equivalent. Most shops are willing to offer a 20% - 25% discount of MSRP with a little negotiation (okay, maybe not this year, but in normal times). And RS stuff tends to come in cheaper than Fox. If the difference only ends up being 5% - 10%, I'll go with RS or Fox at a local shop every time.

Come on Suntour step up. If you offer your stuff at a very aggressive price directly, I'd buy it.

 Go all the way with the Inanimate carbon tube. ruckuscomp.com/news/2016/04/01/ICT

 @JockoJones: I chuckled

 @hamncheez: they actually got orders for these.

 This so much. I feel the same way about X-Fusion. Made some decent products, but the graphics were always lame. Trying to sell an X-fusion forked bike to customers was a bit of a chore--"Cross Fusion", "Ex Fusion", even a few "Zai Fusion" were all guesses I had from customers. Ooof. The company did themself no favors in the marketing/branding dept.

SR Suntour would do well to split off with a performance line getting a new name and some decent graphics. With their manufacturing and resources they'd likely do quite well. Alternately, DVO can make a higher number of units and get prices down a hundred bucks and I'd be all over that as well, heh.

 @mikealive: 100% this. I would love to rebrand/update X-Fusion. I'm riding their H3C Coil and it is incredible shock for the price. I have an Öhlins TTX22M and it is nearly as good as that for a fraction of the price. Plus, it's pretty light for a coil. Unfortunately, they're so hard to get in the US.

 @mikealive: Hang on, if it's not "ex fusion" then how the flip do you say it?
I agree from a marketing perspective Suntour could just do a mild re-brand on their top-end stuff (like Tekro and TRP) and would likely reap the rewards

 @chakaping: Haha, oh it *is* "Ex Fusion", I just included that in the list of pronunciations because some people unfamiliar with the brand did actually get it right. But I'd say ~40% went with "Cross Fusion". It was so common that we started second guessing ourselves for a bit there.. Your Tektro/TRP example is perfect. I regard TRP as an almost unrelated brand because their kit is on such a different level than Tektro, and I think that is exactly what they want.

 @shapethings: When I was in bike shops I went so far as to breech that topic with someone at X-Fusion. I said heck, you could even just drop the "X" and you don't lose all brand recognition. Nothing. I offered to work up some graphics for them (before the bike industry I worked in corporate branding/marketing). Nada. I got a long list of excuses and was assured that it was more complicated than I understood. Basically dismissed. These days I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a bike with an X-Fusion fork on it, and it's not for lack of performance or price point so...??

 Like the ripmo af? DVO kit (rebranded suntour?) with deore drivetrain and meaty tires.

 I am always perplexed by people's rabid desire for bikes to come spec'd with "good tires". I mean, bikes over $2000 usually come with pretty servicable tires(maxxis dual compound EXO casing, for example). Beyond that, you buy a bike and the rear, followed closely by the front, is completely toast in a couple months! you're replacing it anyways. So why get all concerned? I would much rather bike brands started sending bikes out with a rideable f*cking saddle instead of the $7 WTB garbage that comes on bikes! give an option of widths when you buy and spec something decent.

 Or if they actually tried riding one. I mean one of the upper level forks or shocks.

 Exactly. Should be available never....

 Ahah, that's the worst think about SR Suntour. I love my Rux, would not change for a Fox 40, but she's not a looker, that's for sure xD

 @Xavier-dh25: Same, I have a Auron and a Tri-Air...wouldn't trade for anything but they arn't pretty.

 Seriously, odd to not have such a common size. Guessing they probably will eventually. That said, I've been looking for possible new shocks and 200x57 is practically sold out everywhere.

 I went to the virtual trade show booth to check the info, and it looks like Suntour is phasing out the Imperial sizes, as many other brands are. I guess they just kept the ones more frequently spec'd in OEM builds.

 @DylanH93: Shh...Don't tell anyone, but the trick is to look for 7.875x2.25. Here are some in stock, but PB has some for sale.

www.probikesupply.com/collections/shocks/eye-200+stroke-557

 They did in the Tri-Air 1, I have one in that size....so maybe it's a typo.

 Looks like a nutsack hanging off the side of that thing

 I was just going to say that too.....I could do with a half decent 165X45 for my old Trek Y-33 for shits and giggles.

 @Lololmalol same machining/tooling for majority of the shell. Internals, seal quality, valving, etc. different. Take them apart and have a look. As you note, SR makes lowers or has for MANY fork company's bike and Moto. The know what they are doing. The have the house brand. They also can tool up/quality up for a brand depending on what they want.

Yes, this looks similar and may share a casing or lever. However, isn't the same shock.

 @hayden4x:
They sure don’t.

 www.probikeshop.fr/amortisseur-sr-suntour-triair-3cr/155438.html

 DVO is 95% rebranded suntour shocks with some fancy features to distinguish them.

 @andr3wman: don't forget green because green is the color of performance

 @andr3wman: is it rebranded? or is manufacturing outsourced? outsourcing manufacturing is pretty common amongst the largest of brands

 @andr3wman: Is it rebranding or is it DVO engineering the internals and taking advantage of the cost advantages of shared castings and other components with their manufacturer where advantageous to both parties?

I legitimately don't know, but suspect it is the latter.

 @pdb18: They'd tell you that it's the later I'm sure haha.

 @Rhojax: Suntour manufactures DVO's stuff. so if there's any internal difference (which I doubt beyond the bladder vs. IFP) know that there have been engineering changes for the suntour model intent on making it worse than the DVO.

 @tkrug: You nailed it.

 Your 95% wrong. @andr3wman:

 They are very very different. I’m not sure why your making this up. I highly encourage your to take both apart. @OpeSorryAbootThat:

 @andr3wman:

That’s so far from correct it’s not even funny, having been to both factories I can tell you all that is shared is machine time and raw material cost

 @freeridejerk888: I'm curious to know what the differences are, the only thing I can't find a picture of is the Triair rebound adjuster but everything else is the same apart from the piggyback.

 @andr3wman: DVO designs all their own products regardless of what you think or read on the forums. Cheers!

 I've owned the V1 topaz and V1 triair. They are pretty much the same besides bladder vs IFP. I have ordered parts from DVO to put in my Triair. And you know what: Both were much better than the RS shocks they replaced lol!

 @andr3wman: Whatever the Topaz T3 is, it f*cking works.

 Ever heard of Manitou Junit forks?

 Find me a bike specced out of the box with a Durolux and Triair V1.

 @Ajorda: Touche', most bikes that are spec'd with SR Suntour products have their lower tier options giving the company a low-quality image. If I never see the good stuff they make how am I supposed to know that they have good stuff worth considering? If bikes did come spec'd with things like the Durolux or the Triair V1 the mountain biking community may have an overall different perception of SR Suntour. Sounds like the SR Suntour marketing staff needs to step up their game and get on some attractive builds in the $3000-$5000 price range. That would greatly alter the brands image. Otherwise they are THE brand for forks and shocks on bikes under $1500 or even under $500.