Millyard Racing shows off Hyper Ride 2 rear shock – 1950’s parts 2020 tech

Millyard Racing, the same chaps behind one of the most iconic UK downhill bikes, have released details of a Hyper Ride 2 rear shock made from 1950’s parts to 2020 specs.

What do you do when you have a couple of 1950’s engine parts, a 1970’s lathe and a block of alloy sitting about in your shed? Well if you’re family name is Millyard you might put your inventive brain to good use and build a cutting edge shock for your son’s mountain bike.

Allen Millyard is no stranger to creating some amazing homemade engineering feats, but his latest took just a week of work and used a few scraps leftover from other projects.

The Hyper Ride 2 rear shock started life as a leftover alloy block from the original 2006 Mk1 Millyard downhill race bike, a 1950’s BSA Gold Star valve guide, and a Land Rover steering damper. Obviously, there has been a huge amount of reengineering and machining to turn that motley collection of parts into a functioning rear shock, but we don’t expect anything less from the man who plonked a Dodge Viper engine into a motorbike!

As we can see from these photos, the Millyard Hyper Ride 2 rear shock isn’t like a conventional rear shock. The body is more compact than an air shock and actually looks a lot more like a coil shock body without the coil. The body features a unibody construction with ports for filling the system with gas and oil.

Cooling fins ensure the oil viscosity and gas pressure remain constant even in extreme use, and the damper doesn’t use any shim or valves for adjustment. In fact, as far as we can tell, this 2nd gen shock doesn’t feature any external adjustments at all.

Speaking of pressures, a warning on the shock states that it is running at 4200psi, that more than 10x that of a standard rear shock’s max air pressure, which has us wondering about small bump compliance with seals designed to handle that type of pressure.

We had a chat with Stephen Millyard about the shock to get a few questions answered.

Andi: What makes this shock different to what is already on the market? 

Stephen Millyard: It can deal with big hits without compromising high speed, small bump response. You can remove the shock, fully disassemble, replace all seals and components and reassemble using only a 5mm Allen key. Performance doesn’t deteriorate on long descents. Its got cooling fins. 

Andi: Is the protruding part of the shock a valve or an adjustment?

Stephen Millyard: Its a mid entry gas filling port

Andi: Is there any adjustment on the shock?

Stephen Millyard: We have no adjustments in the shock. It’s infinitely exponential on the spring rate so all you need to do is charge it to achieve the correct sag and ride. 

Andi: Do the high pressures mean the seals have such high tolerances that it can affect small bump performance?

Stephen Millyard: The shaft is so small that stiction hasn’t been a problem for us. 

Andi: 4200PSI? I’m guessing the shock is charged using a special tool. Is it air or nitrogen? 

Stephen Millyard: 4200psi the maximum charging capacity. We are no longer using nitrogen. Our new gas is less reactive and has a higher density. 

Andi: Do you plan to go into production? 

Stephen Millyard: We have no plans to put them into production.