Intrigued with the goings on inside shox. I have rebuilt a couple of coil shocks, one with a shim stack. But would like to know a bit more. Are there any books on this black magic ? Not interested in the comercial side of it, just like tinkering 😉

Nope there aren't as far as I know, just chassis tuning/design referencing ones for motorcycles, some of the same principles apply.
Look up
John Robinson
John Bradley
on amazon, would be interested if you do find any specific suspension books so let me know if you do, Ta.

Hi LoCo, not found any good books yet, but put a search in Google for 'Shim Stack' and that brought up quite a bit of interesting info.

was playing with the shim stack on a lefty (manitou) found this basic info http://manualer.happymtb.org/answer%20manitou/1999%20tuning%20manual.pdf

Tony Foale is worth a read on suspension design. Motorcycle.

S&W suspension engineering handbook is one place to start, as are the aforementioned Tony Foales books, or John Robinsons book on Motorcycle chassis design. Then there are any number of engineering text on vehicle dynamics/suspension etc. If you think you can out think fox/rockshock etc then you'll need a shock dyno to really make any improvements. I'm not saying you cant out think them, but you'll need to do some proper research..

http://www.moto-racing.co.uk/Guides/motorcycleSuspensionSetup.htm#What%20is%20“suspension”%20all%20about

There was an educational site with loads of animations on it – I'll see if I can find it.

you dont need to out think fox, RS etc. Just out think their marketing department.

Take the Marz TST system, essentialy its a great shim stack compression damper with a bypass.

Unfortunately they had to be seen to be cleverer and provide lock-outs and the like, so they replaced the shim stack with 2 big washers, leaving the fork with an orifice compression damper that spiked and no bypass. There's a thread on MTBR or BM I think that details how to convert it back to a shim stack. And as a result it also stops the whole damper from blowing up and brings back the reliability marzocchi should have had!

Check out the latest push DHX, essentialy they took a DHX, removed all the boost valve and pro pedal gubbins, replaced it with their own CNC'd (whats the name for the top bit of the shock with the eyelet and the main body and piggyback screw onto?) and a simple compression damper form avalanche.

Elka and Cane Creek just use twin tube dampers to great effect.

Mars ROCO is a similar design to the push DHX (deCarbon damper, shim stacks).

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thisisnotaspoon – Member

you dont need to out think fox, RS etc. Just out think their marketing department.

Take the Marz TST system, essentialy its a great shim stack compression damper with a bypass.

Unfortunately they had to be seen to be cleverer and provide lock-outs and the like, so they replaced the shim stack with 2 big washers, leaving the fork with an orifice compression damper that spiked and no bypass. There's a thread on MTBR or BM I think that details how to convert it back to a shim stack. And as a result it also stops the whole damper from blowing up and brings back the reliability marzocchi should have had!

Check out the latest push DHX, essentialy they took a DHX, removed all the boost valve and pro pedal gubbins, replaced it with their own CNC'd (whats the name for the top bit of the shock with the eyelet and the main body and piggyback screw onto?) and a simple compression damper form avalanche.

Elka and Cane Creek just use twin tube dampers to great effect.

Mars ROCO is a similar design to the push DHX (deCarbon damper, shim stacks).

Fair point I wasn't being facetious, I just assumed OP wanted to try and improve his shock. I agree that lots of "improvements" are just marketing b*llocks, personally I don't like, see the need for or want any type of pro pedal.

Thanx for the info so far guys. Keep it coming.

While I'm here, anybody got an old 5th Element coil shock going cheap 😕

Hi just ordered this,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Absorber-Handbook-Wiley-Professional-Engineering-Publishing/dp/047051020X/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268863920&sr=8-16

very good technical reference for the suspension anorak 😛

this may be of interest