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We managed to get our hands on one of the extremely rare Motion Ride E18 linkage forks last week for a first look. Here's our interview with Motion Ride founder Mathieu Alfano who talks us through his innovative, anti-dive suspension fork.
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hey everyone this is Andy from
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singletrack magazine and I'm here with
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Matthew bright motion right
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a French suspension manufacturer who is
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making this rather cool-looking linkage
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fork now I know a lot of you wondering
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like why would I want a linkage fork
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when I telescopic fork is so good
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so why the answer is very easy
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it's about anti diving the telescopic
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one when you brake you drive you change
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the whole geometry of your bike you are
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not stable and you lose something like
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80% of your capability absorbing shocks
0:36
it's it's not normal it's a problem yeah
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we did that to answer this problem this
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is the the only fork able to be 100%
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anti diving so if you go into a steep
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section of trail and you pull you for a
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break you're not gonna move down exactly
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you're not gonna sit still and all your
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travel available in all situations so I
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mean how did you come to the design how
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did you decide to make the focal look
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like this you know we saw a lot of
1:06
linkage fork in the past but it was from
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engineering thinking yeah okay and we
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know they have some problem with that we
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didn't choose the position of the axis
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it's the only solution mathematic
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solution to get on t dive fork so you
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didn't think oh it has to look like they
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are not a solid different you yeah
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you've taken a bright blank sheet of
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paper designed from the ground up and
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you've gone basically this is the way it
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looks because that's the only way it can
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work
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exactly if you see another shape or fork
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that meaning it's not 100% a diamond yes
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there are a few other different kind of
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linkage folks I mean I'm sure some of
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the viewers will remember for example
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the curve in form that was on a pro flex
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and that looked different to this yeah
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that wasn't an anti die fork at all was
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it yes exactly and then and that
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actually had a different wheel path yes
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the wheel path on this is no because
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there is two things we we wanted to to
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keep it's the stunner
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way to mounted it the stirrer here yeah
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okay and
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the same axle path as a normal form the
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the goal is to to make people able to to
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have the same Ripper than with the
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telescopic one yeah okay so it doesn't
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change nothing about geometry or feeling
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you can have a little bike at the
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beginning it just wanted I'm right so I
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mean this fork is first of all remove
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anti dive yeah I mean if you wanted to
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you could have changed the axle path you
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could have changed the the offset but
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you wanted to keep it as similar to a
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standard fork as possible because like
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if you change too much people won't know
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why the better to ride on that so on
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yeah it's pretty cool so I mean with
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this there's a I mean because it's anti
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dive and it is a linkage fork it's kind
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of cool because you're not really losing
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any wheel base are you as the the fork
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travels through it
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it's your full travel you're not really
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shortening the wheel base of the world
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okay at the beginning I mean for the
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first fifty percent yeah of the travel
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is exactly the same as a telescopic one
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yet after as we can do what we want yeah
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we choose to to have a vertical travel
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yeah okay and that's good for the bass
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well to keep the same and to keep the
3:33
your bike stable for big shorts like
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jump or stuff like that you don't feel a
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little squirmy when you touch the ground
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you know you're very stable and you can
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actually notice it a little bit on the
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bike you mean on a bike with a regular
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telescopic fork you push down and the
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wheel sort of sucks up underneath you
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yeah whereas this is just lifting up in
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front of you it's it's very it looks
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very interesting at the beginning it's
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the same at the telescopic one and at
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the half of the travel up it come
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vertically yeah so you have the anti die
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feature and then on top of that you when
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you're hitting terrain and you're going
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faster and faster and faster
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you're not losing that stability
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stability because you're not shortening
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the wheelbase either are you yeah and I
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mean and and although again it looks a
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very very radical it's not changing the
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geometry of the bikie there is it it's
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not affecting anything like that all
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those yeah
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the same upset yep everything still the
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same yeah and this version is a 160
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millimeter travel and it has the same
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crown to axle as a fox 36 so exactly you
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could put it on your bike and no anti
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dive no wheelbase changing yeah and no
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maintenance no maintenance at all
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there is no ball bearings no no ball
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bearings in here ball bearings right
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it's composite bearings more bushing
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bushing here it's special one it's not
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like we were used to see on the bike
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yeah it's a more complicated for us for
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the production okay it's very precise
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stuff but when we do it yeah after you
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don't have to do nothing no maintenance
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no oil no grace no play no screw nothing
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to do wow it's quite exciting isn't it
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to think that just have fun yeah just
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just did ride your bike and never clean
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it it is possible if you want yeah yeah
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if you want to clean it you can clean it
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with a high-pressure water no problem I
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know the Wow like you can high-pressure
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hose this clean and it won't affect it
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at all no no no that's all so we've got
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composite bushings in here that don't
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wear they don't need lubrication they
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don't produce play and you can't take it
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apart either can you you can't remove
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these pieces if you are actively the
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frame is is hydraulic press yeah for the
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product during the production yeah okay
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and after you can't do any nothing on
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the frame it's just a lifetime it's all
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I mean if if there was an issue you can
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still do it yeah it's not something you
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would do at home but nothing to do bring
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it and if you I mean you might be able
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to see a here on the on the video we've
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got these end caps
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yeah and although they look like that
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actually removes the pivot that's not
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the case it's just cosmetic isn't it you
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can remove it with your special tools
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just to for the design for the change to
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call or if you want yeah
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at the moment we have folklore but it's
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just for a design yeah so mean like that
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I mean originally the idea was just anti
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dive but already we're hearing no
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maintenance no changes in geometry as
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well yeah it's quite a lot of advantages
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here yeah and there is a lot of other
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advantage at one yeah I mean if we look
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at this actual suspension medium we have
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this carbon beam here which is a wave
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yeah the way this is a carbon wave now
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am I right in saying that so this is the
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spring exactly and this spring will suit
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any what rider-waite exactly so how does
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that work I mean like if I'm a lot
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heavier than Hana but we wrote the same
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spring and it works fine for both of us
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okay you can see that the the spring is
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it's curved okay so we're not gonna
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curve it again no no okay we're gonna
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pull on it okay if you make it function
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you you're gonna pull on the blade and
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the result is that the curve is
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progressive one okay so if you tight it
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with the little exactly you change the
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stiffness you can fill so it's okay for
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every every pilot yes you don't wait to
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worry about there's no air or anything
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in here that will get to this in a
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moment but that's not an air shock and
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some people believe there's no air
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there's no nitrogen
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there's no coil springs to change now
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just this one spring and the only
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adjustment that you need is preload and
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it it does sound fantastic but it
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actually does work we've really like a
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good test over the past day and it
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hasn't really really worked and and
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another thing you mentioned as well
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generally when we've posted about this
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fork in the past everyone's thought of
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this being under compression and it's
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it's being squashed and kind of worried
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how much stress these carbon fiber
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threads can take but that's not the case
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that that's the natural shape of the
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spring and what in effect is happening
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is it's being straightened out back to
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its natural shape exist no there's no
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pressure now is there's no stress the
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more the the bigger shocks are
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the better is the so this is this is
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actually relaxing it yeah the threads
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are relaxing under under load which is
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pretty impressive and if we like say if
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we look at the other side this is not an
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air shock it's just a damper isn't it
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exactly one person jumper okay no air
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there is no internal piston inside there
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is two problem on the normal jumper the
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friction okay in overheating the
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friction
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it's about air pressure inside okay so
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we don't have air pressure inside and
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about eye pressure hydraulic seal we
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don't have see yeah okay it seems I I
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like the way you design things it's like
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okay the problem is this so let's not
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put it in we we must take it away we
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don't need to fix it we just remove it
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and to remove high pressure so yeah we
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we have to be sure that there is no high
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pressure so we have atmospheric pressure
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technology there make sure there is no
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high pressure on time lick is not
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possible
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with our technology so you don't need to
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worry about leaking impossible right we
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don't any we don't have seal right so no
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leak right okay so one thing you may
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notice with a telescopic fork is when
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you first get onto the fork you have to
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kind of break the seal yeah to get it
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working and that stiction can affect the
10:06
small bump yeah performance of a fork
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and that's because of high pressure
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seals it needs to keep the air in it
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needs to keep that oil and everything in
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but because this is a low pressure
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system the seals don't really need to do
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so much so no sin no friction no
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stiction amazing it so this is very good
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for the senseability grip air con 4 it's
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really really good and the other point
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is about overheating yeah okay it's a
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problem because it's change the
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viscosity is cause it's all coiled and
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so the behavior and it's not good for
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lifetime of the of the ide rollick
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jumper so we we have a cooling system
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inside okay half of the oil is used to
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cool the system so it's not possible to
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over eating so
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the same behavior all the time yeah okay
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and no maintenance is all wrong
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it's again no maintenance so we've got
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yes quite especially for us where it's
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usually muddy and rainy it like to have
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something that has no maintenance no
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seals to worry about you can pressure
11:08
wash it yeah it sounds like the dream
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basically yeah it's done for that yeah
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for the dream and just pleasure too
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right
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so on top of the you know the the pull
11:18
action the low pressure system and
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obviously the the oil circulating to
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cool down and we've also got an
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adjustment on here as you but not really
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as you'd find on a regular fork again
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it's it's different again it's yeah it's
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a bit different we we wanted once again
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doing something very simple yeah okay so
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you have in the the first part you
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adjust the ribbons like normal one okay
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but we have a second mod okay the firm
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mod if you want to get a fork very very
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firm very stable for a jump bite back
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stuff like that you just have to turn a
11:56
bit more and you lo you choose sorry low
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medium high and your hands change is the
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firm exactly totally the change the the
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behavior it's to fork in one excellent
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so if we just take a look at the damper
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here with this green line here and
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that's the center setting for of the
12:16
book and if I turn it anti-clockwise
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yeah that affects the rebound only so
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only a rebound so the further
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anti-clockwise you go the faster the
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rebound is yeah and personally for me I
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just had it one click and it was amazing
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for anything doesn't matter if you're
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hitting small bumps big bumps jumps
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rocks roots just one click of rebound
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was the only adjustment I had to do and
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what I we didn't get chance to ride
12:41
because we didn't have any smooth trails
12:43
to test it on is the height is the firm
12:46
mode from and that's if you go to the
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opposite side of the Green Line so if
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you go clockwise past the Green Line and
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that actually firms up the suspension
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and that's great for bike parks but jump
12:58
exactly contracts yeah right stuff like
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that people who want to get very very
13:06
from uni deport yeah you need the
13:08
support of support yeah yeah excellent
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all right okay so before we go with this
13:13
different tire sizes we all sizes sorry
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yeah and different travel options yes so
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this is the 27.5 and it's okay for tires
13:21
up to 2.5 inches exactly and what travel
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options can we have it from 150 to 170
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so it's it's a big full yes you're okay
13:30
all right excellent
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and if you have a 29 inch wheels or plus
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tires directly you have exactly until
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three pound three for the tire yeah with
13:42
a three how do you say three inches
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inches yeah yeah exactly
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in the travel is from 140 to 160
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excellent so if you're on a twenty nine
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or a plus-sized by exiling yeah you can
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also go for one of these two and in the
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future I believe you're gonna do a cross
13:58
country fork and a downhill for yeah
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exactly
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excellent so but no information about
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that at the moment yet yeah all right
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and in last few details if people don't
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like black and green is there any other
14:10
option yeah four or four : we have a
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green blue orange dark orange like a
14:17
this yeah exactly and the black black
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and titanium yeah you can see the the
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color on the site website okay and so
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yeah that's it that's the motion e18
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motion rifle of the eighteen anti die
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for lots of benefits there and I'm gonna
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be doing a full write-up about this and
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also have a you know do a bit of a
14:39
write-up about my first ride impressions
14:41
to which really good really really good
14:44
but check out single track world for
14:47
more information and the full write-up
14:49
and their you remember to subscribe to
14:52
this if you like this video where we'll
14:54
see you again soon
14:55
thanks very much Matthew thank you
14:56
romantic use me thank you thanks bye
14:58
right
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