New suspension changing app from FORIA – APRIL FOOL!

German tech company FORIA has teamed up with suspension gurus Magura to produce a prototype smartphone app it hopes will revolutionise the mountain bike world.

Called the POLL (ProjektOberstLeutnantLeben, whatever than means) the app cunningly uses the auto-focus ability of your iPhone to determine the trail in front of you, and actively alter your suspension to suit, AS YOU GET TO IT…

Not merely content with altering your damping  or spring settings though, the app will eventually be so sensitive that you could effectively meet a bump on the trail, and the suspension components would ACTIVELY MOVE to accommodate it, essentially creating a ‘magic carpet-like’ feel where the bump all but disappears (allegedly).

So how does it work?

When you take a photo, or shoot a movie, an iPhone (apparently an Android app is in development) emits beams of infra-red light, which bounce back to the camera to determine how far away whatever’s in front it actually is.

The POLL app essentially does the same thing, creating an internal representation of the trail as you ride it. The GPS and the camera come together to monitor your speed, and determine precisely when you’ll be hitting whatever bump the app has sensed. This is then relayed with nanosecond lag via Bluetooth (they’ve overcome latency issues with A2DP using some proprietary software) to the fork and the shock, which contain a series of servomotors which are apparently ‘mechanical versions of muscle spindles’ to actually move the fork for you. So they start to move at the instant you approach the bump.

FORIA Technical Director Klaus Schwartzkopf said: “A lot of other companies have talked about ‘active suspension’ – well ours is the real deal. Our system moves your bike as you get to the bump; other designs merely wait for the bump to move the fork. So ours is the ultimate in smoothness and control”. The claim is for uncanny smoothness and unparalleled control.

We understand that there are a couple of wrinkles to iron out – phone battery life for one, and at the moment the fork and shock needs a power source roughly the size and weight of a housebrick, but this is an intriguing development (they’re working on a solar powered version). I can’t say we’re entirely convinced – this seems to be the sort of technology which would actually take control away from the rider (and what about sudden direction changes?) but colour us extremely intrigued…

Details here

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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