[Closed] Fork suspension definitions

overdamped fork

Slow to compress or rebound, caused by the damping system.

a ‘picky’ fork?

One that doesn't like the shade of red your frame is?

Imagine a spring with no damper, you compress it and let it go and it will spring back immediately. That is under-damped. Overdamped is the opposite, so if you had a spring with a very strong damper then you compress the spring and let go then the spring will spring back very slowly as the drag of the damper will be resisting its motion.

You clearly want a balance in suspension, You want the spring to spring back fast enough to provide support and return to a position ready for the next bump, but not so fast it feels harsh and just returns the impact straight back at you, or on the rear you get that buckaroo effect that tries to spit you over the bars.

Overdamped is not a terribly useful term as you have both compression and rebound damping and often high and low speed rebound. It would usually mean that the fork is slow to return when compressed I guess

Thanks v helpful. Noticed people use this expression when describing fork on my new Canyon Stoic 2. It’s a Suntour 34 Air Boost with 140mm travel. Feels fine to me but I’m not experienced so wondering what to look out for.

A fork with too much rebound damping (i.e. overdamped) may not have time to return to full extension when you are riding rocky terrain where the next hit comes before the fork has recovered from the first. This means that after a few repeated hits the fork will have packed down and not have as much (or any) travel available for the next impact and so will feel harsh.