New Trek, Penske rear shock.

Discussion in 'The Adrenaline Factory' started by Fearless Fly, Jun 11, 2014.

  1. Fearless Fly

    Fearless Fly anachronistic and impulsi

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    This is super disappointing. Specialized started this with the new Olhns shock which is pretty bad ass and has proven 2 wheel technology. Trek follows suit with a "magic damper" with no 2 wheeled backing. Really!

    http://www.pinkbike.com/news/trek-fox-penske-reaktiv-suspension-press-release.html


    Trek needs to either buy the same offerings everyone else has or step it up like the big evil S did.

    That is my rant for the day. Now some pics.
     

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  2. trailninja

    trailninja Going Slideways!!!!

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    Lol dude what heck is with the pix? Lol
     
  3. Dino Brown

    Dino Brown Sir Smack-Alot

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    Gabe being... Gabe. ;)

    With regard to the "new" technology, time will tell.
     
  4. scan

    scan Member

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    Are you a trek hater?!?!?
     
  5. trailninja

    trailninja Going Slideways!!!!

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    Gabe is a hard core Foes rider! I'm thinking this is why he disapproves of Trek reinventing the wheel per se. A similar shock was invented back in the days. I'm interested in knowing more about the benefits of an inertia valve. I thought Ohlins made only coil shocks.
     
  6. jasonmason

    jasonmason inebriate savant

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    Gabe, I'd give it time to play out and see how it actually performs. Penske does incredible, standard-setting work when it comes to shock development in the racing world. The budget and the resources that they have at their disposal would make any player in the mtb world pale in comparison.
     
  7. kaboomims

    kaboomims New Member

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    We use Penske when guys want to get serious about setup. Great stuff if you know how to tune it
     
  8. bing!

    bing! Active Member

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    The charts shows adjustable speed sensitive compression damping, a sort of propedal on steroids. Note that one of the axis int the chart is velocity and rather than travel. Amplified when in climb mode, in descend mode, the compression damping(?) goes back to almost a regular curve, with a just a small bump in the low speed shock speed that immediately blows off therafter.

    The chart actually reads like Avalanche's SSD blurb :) The proof is in the riding though.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. ManInAShed

    ManInAShed New Member

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    ehhh not so fast. Penskes first foray into MTB racing was 20 years ago, when the Yeti team showed up on the DH circuit with that totally bonkers MTB sci-fi project from the future. Penske's own massive super long travel (for the time) upside down forks, a couple-million dollar thermoplastic carbon composite version of the fastest DH bike on the circuit, thermo handlebars, carbon disc brakes that worked (though Grafton made those), and their own pilot, Paul Tracy. It all kicked plenty of ass in the Cup series, but no one could ever work out how to produce any of it for less than your average jetfighter, so only about 5 people ever got to ride the stuff. :)

    Here it is about to set the speed record.
    [​IMG]
    The fork:
    [​IMG]
    When the Penske guys do something, it's pretty kickass.
    & yeah that's history, but that's all I can really comment on.
     
  10. McG715

    McG715 Active Member

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    Gabe I never get tired of the disturbing pics! Classic
     
  11. Fearless Fly

    Fearless Fly anachronistic and impulsi

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    Let's be clear I am a specialized hater but this is the biggest let down from Trek since these two bikes.
     

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  12. F.A.D.

    F.A.D. POWERED BY MUSUBIS

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    It should be interesting to see what Penske will come up with. If they're going with the regressive/digressive valving as their platform, I have a hunch that it'll produce a "dead" feeling bike. I hope that I'm wrong on this.

    The fox/penske collaboration is an interesting one as they both have deep history of being competitors in the shock business for Indy cars. I surely hope that the QC system from penske will be followed instead of the fox qc system(or the lack there of....).
     
  13. skyungjae

    skyungjae Member

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    Despite what the results of their particular mtb damper, I think it'll be good for the industry in general.
     
  14. jlindy86

    jlindy86 New Member

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    You know what's awesome? When big bike companies use their money to R&D something new/cool.
    You know what's not awesome? Bashing something just because it isn't associated with a 2-wheel industry and then posting a bunch of dumb hipster photos
    Guess what though? If you do a little research you'd know that Penske has actually supplied shocks to a plethora of motorcycle teams (on- and off-road)
    Specialized/Ohlins TTX shock = twin tube damper design that's been done plenty of times before
    Trek/Penske/Fox RE:aktiv shock = regressive damper design that achieves what everyone else has been trying to do as far as providing an efficient yet active shock absorber.
    Pretty much any form of vehicle racing requires suspension to do basically the same thing – keep the chassis stable and provide adequate traction and feedback to the rider/driver during low-speed events like braking, cornering, and accelerating while still being able to respond to high-speed events like an F1 car hitting a curb, or a MTB hitting a rock. F1 is at the pinnacle of racing, so why not use a technology/design that works in that application?
    For transparencies sake I'll admit that I'm one of the Trek suspension engineers, so if anyone has any questions about this new shock technology ask away...
     
  15. F.A.D.

    F.A.D. POWERED BY MUSUBIS

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    Are you guys planning on using the same valving set up for the fork to match the rear damper? Also, how are you guys planning on dealing with the chassis dynamics to match the capabilities of the damper assembly? Very interested in hearing the TREK approach to suspension designs.
     
  16. MnMDan

    MnMDan Member

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    While we may not always agree with the Fearless Fly perspective, we can all agree that he brings something to the table that the rest of us can only strive to bring...and that we all look forward to the posts.

    I wouldn't call the pics hipster, and I would agree that the first trek pic was looser in the back than some of the more "creative" pics posted by Fearless Fly in the past.

    It is nice to see more trickle-through technology from higher $$ racing applications into the lower margins that exist with mountain bikes. It'd be interesting to see where this goes...marriage between the design and being able to on-the-fly tune to change between fire-road-style stutter and massive hits?
     
  17. jlindy86

    jlindy86 New Member

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    As far as other applications, I can't comment on anything specifically. I will say that the rear shock application is where we saw the greatest initial benefit and therefore the best way to introduce RE:aktiv damping.
    There are a lot of factors influencing chassis dynamics - in this case the damper was tuned to work well with the leverage curves of the Trek models it is intended for, specifically the damper is tuned for the shaft speeds generated by typical trail events on these platforms. One thing to note on chassis dynamics is that this damper allows you to run slightly lower air spring pressure since the shock tends to 'settle down' more quickly than previous damper options and it is less prone to squat under pedaling or cornering.
     
  18. duke777

    duke777 Active Member

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    Very cool stuff but not really a trek fan since the y11-22 days. Maybe one of these days I'll give it a try again. Hopefully fox can make it for all the other bikes as it is a very good idea. I think the initial damping should be adjustable for different rider weight or does the entire curve gets moved?

    as FAD stated a matching fork would be great!
     
  19. rojomas

    rojomas A.K.A The Oxx

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    Dude, take it with a grain of salt. I take it you must be new to criticism. You better get use to it. What he said is more than likely only the tip of the iceberg. You're dealing with suspension, which is subject to personal taste. I, myself am not too fond of Fox suspension. So even if this turns out to be the best thing since sliced bread, I probably wouldn't buy one because I don't like the fact that Fox makes it hard for people to do services themselves. They want you to either send it in to Fox or take it to a certified service center regardless of your mechanical ability. Where Rockshox has detailed instructions and parts readily available.

    And as for the pictures, Gabe puts them after many of his posts regardless of the subject. So don't take em personally.
     

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