I am fairly sure there was a fork or maybe a rear shock for sale a few moons ago that had electronic controls. I'm also fairly sure it dissappeared soon after. Can anyone remember the name?
Wasn't it an incarnation of the 'dale Lefty? ELO or something ...
Girvin/Noleen/Proflex/K2 flirted with electronic shocks.
Didn't catch on.
That's the one.
Hmm interesting, wonder why it never caught on, seems to me that it could / would provide significant improvements if executed correctly.
hmm, good but pointless, something like manitou's TPC+ (and SPV if could have ever worked as well as it should) give position and speed sensitivity in the damping. And in a more crude way you could just up the progression and get a similar effect. Its only advantage over those systems is it would have the adjustability of both speed and position, without dismantling the shock.
Ohh but if manufacturers linked it to a GPS you could get a downhill bike setup for rocky/pedaly/corners depending on how far down the hill it was!
What would be good if either more usefull in the real world is if manufactueres used USE SUB style linkages, or the low speed fork compession was linked to the front brake lever. And low speed compression out back was linked to powertap cranks?
Cannondale (and more recently showa with honda) used electronic lockouts.
What would be MOST useful would be people who read suspension manuals 🙂
Or, given human nature, shops that set up your suspension before you take the bike from the shop, or offer a cheap aftermarket setting up service based on weight, riding preferences etc.
thisisnotaspoon, sounds similar to the systems employed on some motorbikes in the 80's and known as 'anti-dive'. No separate high and low speed compression damping then, so might just be an idea who's time has come.
Never worked properly then if I remember, a lot of people used to bypass or disconnect it.
the motorbike system was kinda what i was thinking of, how did they work? Would need some testing as i suspect the decreaced suspension performance could theoreticaly increace braking ditance as the wheel looses grip.
In theory the electronic system is actualy quite awesome, imagine the possibilities for data aquisition then write a computer program to compute the exact suspension setting you need for that course just by using that data and a few questions (should the bike be riding higher or lower, pedaling performance etc).
In reality the CCDB with a position sensitive compression damper would be my inner geeks wet dream 🙂
I found this:
http://www.carbibles.com/suspension_bible_bikes.html ]
after a quick googling.
Gives more info than I remember.
Off out now, but will try and dig out some more info over the next day or so.
i did some work with reactive suspension,, it worked by passing the fluid through a magnetic field,, whic varied the viscocity of the fluid,,
originaly the all the fluids viscocity was changed but this needed a lot of power ,, but later just the fluid passing through the needle valve and shim stack was altered,
to make the system work at least a sensor reading damper movement was required, then you needed a magic "black box" and a battery to power the whole lot,
but if you wanted an on the fly adjustable damper it was the way to go,, you could set up a number of damper curves then select them via a multi postion switch
one of the biggest current uses is in tractor seats
sorry must have hit the ramble button
I'd go with what Rusty Spanner said ^^. The number of riders I've seen who have their suspension set up wrong/no idea of how it works or what settings to adjust etc is just amazing! They've gone and bought a bike worth thousands of ££ (or an aftermarket fork worth hundreds) yet never bother to move the damping or adjust the pressure or even get them serviced!
Cannondale used to have an Electronic LockOut (ELO) on some of their Lefty forks, it used to die if it got wet cos the sealing wasn't perfect...