SRAM buys ShockWiz

http://www.shockwiz.com

ShockWiz is an automated suspension tuning system for air-sprung mountain bikes. It is small, lightweight and unobtrusive, attaching to either your fork or shock. While you ride, it performs thousands of calculations to analyse your riding and finds anything undesirable with your set-up. It will then tell you how to change your set-up via Bluetooth 4.0 to your Apple or Android phone, so that your bike can be optimally tuned for you, and you can get on with enjoying the ride.

After a few months of secrecy, I am very pleased to announce that Dusty Dynamics are partnered with SRAM to bring ShockWiz to our backers.

The press release below is going out in a couple of days but we wanted the original backers to be the first to hear the announcement.
Working with the teams in Spearfish, Colorado, Chicago, Perth and Taiwan has been invaluable for developing the best possible ShockWiz product for the mountain bike world and I am excited about creating a device that exceeds my original vision.
Cheers

Nigel

Engineers behind Quarq and RockShox will bring ShockWiz to life. Dusty Dynamics’ Nigel Wade continues to work full-time on the project.
ShockWiz is a tuning assistant for air-sprung mountain bike forks and rear shocks. It combines hardware, software and finely tuned algorithms to improve suspension set-up for different terrain and riding styles. ShockWiz is compatible with most air-sprung suspension forks and rear shocks, from many different manufacturers.
SRAM Category Manager for Digital Integration, Jim Meyer, saw the potential of ShockWiz early: “ShockWiz combines high-tech mechanical sensing with a smartphone app and automated tuning recommendations. For suspension, there is simply nothing else like it.”
“The intersection of bicycles and technology is nearly infinite, but we really want to make bicycles better to ride,” said Meyer. “We are looking for creations that take away the thinking and leave the thrill. ShockWiz does that.”
404 Kickstarter backers helped make ShockWiz a reality and their pledges will be honored this August in a combined effort from Dusty Dynamics’ Nigel Wade and SRAM.
“Quarq and RockShox are world leaders in bicycle electronics and suspension,” said ShockWiz inventor, Nigel Wade. “With the backing of SRAM I can deliver performance and support that would take Dusty Dynamics many years to match.”
ShockWiz will be manufactured at SRAM’s factory in Spearfish, SD (USA). The factory is ISO 9001-certified and produces Quarq bicycle power meters and data systems. SRAM’s Colorado Springs Development Center, 450 miles away, is home to RockShox, another vital part of the collaboration.
“I have spent time in Spearfish and Colorado Springs, in the R&D labs and on the trails. The wisdom and experience of the SRAM team has been and will continue to be invaluable. Backers will be rewarded with a first-rate tuning system.”
The devices shipped to Kickstarter backers will be badged Quarq – SRAM’s data and digital technology brand – but future commercialization is unknown. “The technology shows great promise and we are excited to explore other applications,” said Meyer.
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About Quarq:
Athletes around the world rely on Quarq to deliver the information they need to achieve their dreams. Every Quarq power meter embodies 10 years of experience, the brainpower of 400 engineers and more rigorous testing than any other power meter on the market. Quarq Race Intelligence uses GPS, ANT+™ and cellular data to let broadcasters, fans, race officials and teams follow the story of a race as it unfolds – in real time. Based in Spearfish, SD, Quarq is part of the SRAM family.

Saw this earlier and having ‘ordered’ 2 of these, the delays and (although regular) vague updates of ‘more testing’ without naming the big mfr had me a little worried, but this is great news, esp as I have lots of air Sprung RS stuff 😀

404 Kickstarter backers helped make ShockWiz a reality and their pledges will be honored this August in a combined effort from Dusty Dynamics’ Nigel Wade and SRAM.

I agree, great news for the backers; otherwise, this would have been another 404 (Not found) product. Sorry :).

Three of us chipped in together to get one. I’ll be happy if we get it in September.

Yeah but, what happens if you ride a trail, shockwhiz tells you to adjust everything and then you go somewhere else with different terrain, then you change again, and again, and again

I like the idea of this, would have strongly considered one had I known about them at the time.

What ever happened to that green box with a bit of string some one was pushing as a way to tune your suspension?

Yeah but, what happens if you ride a trail, shockwhiz tells you to adjust everything and then you go somewhere else with different terrain, then you change again, and again, and again…

Unless you ride a totally different trail every week, I reckon you’ll get a decent database of what setup to use where after a couple of months?

Be good for racers, do a couple of practise laps/runs, tune suspension, second set of practise runs etc.

Though I barely notice my suspension when riding unless i muck up a drop and really bottom out forks.

I’m still surprised nobody has developed a bluetooth accelerometer based system, one on one end of the shock/fork, one on the other, work out the differences in acceleration to see how much travel your using, etc. I had dreams of doing something like that with my bike setup app, never had the time, money, or knowledge to take it that far though.

rs, SussMyBike is doing something along those lines.

http://www.sussmybike.com

yeah, i’ve seen that, that’s the one with the bit of string (or whatever it is), I would like to see it just with accelerometers.

RS, all the top telemetry systems use a setup similar to sussmybike. They all use accelerators. Those measure g-forces, and do not measure distance accurately and can be interfered with by acceleration that is not acting on the suspension.

The rockshox one wont be nearly as accurate from what I’ve been told.

They all use accelerators

Accelerators you say? Bloody e-bikes are everywhere now…

I bet they even used accelerometers or even encoders too, the crazy nuts!

The shockwiz thing looks like an interesting idea measuring pressure changes over time rather than position and speed, sussmybike has some merit too as a cheap simple measurement device, of course neither are as refined or ‘factory’ as bolting a bunch of motorsports data logging kit to your fork, but as a “get you in the ball park” tool I can see the benefits… But which one costs more? And which will be available to buy first?

Pricing and speed to market will more likely be the deciders than which is more accurate…

Shock wiz are still saying August shipping

How much tom?

We paid £130 (split between 3).

Thanks Leku

I think the sussmybike is 170 but are offering a further 20% off.

Think I paid similar to leku, but iirc that was a super early bird offer, pre exchange rate drop, so expect it to be more than that now, though mass production with prob bring costs down.

though mass production with prob bring costs down.

Given SRAM have bought it, I fully expect it to only be available built into blackbox forks or shocks once the kickstarter funders have been given theirs. Cant see them selling it aftermarket to fit competitors products.

It’s being branded as Quarq though, pretty sure their power meters fit a variety of cranks, not just SRAMs?

Maybe they will then, doesn’t seem very a ‘SRAM’ approach though 😉

Surley theres a lot more money to be made by making a universal version that works on any fork, why limit profit by cutting out markets?

Because if you can tie an attractive feature into your own product they may sell more of those (and thats where the real money is).

I’ve no doubt that’s what they’ll do, along with a match maker version (maybe with cut back functionality) for everyone else, or for existing RS stuff.

Oh I can see the flagship product lines now, all the SRAM brands “merged” absolutely every metric logged for analysis, HR/power/cadence/gear selection/suspension performance all tagged onto your GPS, probably timecoded with your helmet cam footage for good measure… Yeah! big data sucking the fun out of riding a MTB, it’s so bloody #enduro it’s not true…

You can sit there post ride, staring at your ipad, stroking your beard, supping your craft ale and gazing at all that data, completely unable to make any intelligent use of it…

I really want them to do it now, just so I can scoff at the new golfers.

Ha, maybe! I do think that ShockWiz is a great idea though, it might not be 100% reliable or accurate, but I like the idea that using the simple measurement of pressure change (which of course gives you more important rate of change) you can get 90% of the way there very simply and quickly. Someone asked me what I would change about our business model the other day and I think they were looking for something a bit more glamorous/exciting sounding than my response, which was to be able to improve the suspension set up for delivered bikes. ShockWiz could do that for customers.

Like most my friends my suspension settings are somewhere between ‘factory’ and ‘I wonder that that does’. We have shared the cost between 3 of us. Just knowing that your settings are mostly right would be nice.

Seems an ideal bit of kit for a bike shop to rent out or to offer with new bike sales.

Hmm, nice images of the final (probably) product on the Bikerumour news article[/url]. No new info though.

Seeing that finished product its clear its going to have aftermarket availability, which is surprising from SRAM, but good as im quite keen to try one.

If it remains something that can be bolted on to any fork then this is definitely something that shops / coaches could make good use of to enhance the service they offer.

I’d be interested in a group buy with friends, depending on final price of course.

Si

I’ve just watched an interview with a quarq rep at Eurobike and he said ShockWiz is still in development and we may see something at Sea Otter next year….maybe.

Shame, I was hoping there would be a working example at Eurobike. I wouldn’t have thought the hardware was that complicated so I’d guess it is proving difficult to get consistently useful suggestions from the data

The (weekly) updates to the Kickstarter backers are saying shipping at the end of sept, so the sea otter might be something a bit more integrated