RockShox Rear Shocks

RockShox introduces two new rear suspenders for 2008, the Vivid and Monarch. The air sprung Monarch is designed for cross country and all mountain applications while the Vivid has been developed for downhill and freeride use. The Monarch uses a Dual Flow rebound circuit and a single Schrader valve to pressurize both the positive and negative air chambers (Solo Air spring). The entire shock weighs in at a mere 250g.

The Vivid introduces RockShox Drop Stop anti-bottoming system in which interchangeable foam pads can be swapped on the fly to control harshness during the shock's last 20% of its travel.

Rock Shox focused on durability for the new Vivid coil shock. The shock's one-piece body eliminates a critical o-ring, has an extra-large cross-section for the remaining seals, a 12.7mm (1/2") diameter hard-anodized aluminum shaft, a long seal head bushing to minimize the effects of side-loading, and hard-anodized three-piece mounting hardware. Like many high end coil shocks, the Vivid features a piggyback-style reservoir. In the reservoir you'll find a rear shock-specific fluid instead of a cheaper fork oil that can break down more readily.

Rock Shox has chosen to supply the new Vivid with only the essential external adjustments; low-speed compression, beginning and ending stroke rebound. All of those adjustments are also fully isolated to keep one setting from affecting another, which is a nice tough. Spring preload is provided by the standard threaded collar setup, but bottom-out tuning is now handled by a clever Drop Stop system that allows users to swap out the conical bottom-out pads just by removing the coil. For now, the Vivid will only be offered with a steel coil. We'd expect to see a Black Box edition coming out in the future featuring titanium hardware and springs.

SRAM/RockShox finally unveiled the Monarch's details at Sea Otter this year. It's an air-sprung shock aimed squarely at the XC/All Mountain segment of the population (frames with 80-160mm of rear wheel travel, depending on the size and stroke.) RockShox is claiming "seamless bump performance in a lightweight package." The Monarch's air can is relatively small-diameter to improve frame clearance, but the small diameter can is said to have a large oil volume to increase damper performance and decrease fade. Like Fox shocks, a larger diameter can will be available to give a more linear spring rate.

The Monarch will use RockShox's Solo Air chamber design. This feature balances positive and negative pressures through a single Schrader valve, which swivels out for easy access and tucks against the shock to reduce the chance of causing damage in a crash. This is a welcome change to the relatively odd positioning on many rear shocks when mounted on a frame. As an added bonus, a gradient will be anodized on the damper body to make setting sag that much easier.

Compression damping is not based on the Motion control technology, but features "parallel high-speed and low-speed compression circuits." Supposedly, this will handle brake dive, rider movement and small bump movement with no problem, although neither of the compression circuits are externally adjustable. Depending on the model, there will be acessible rebound, Floodgate platform on/off (rear Poploc maybe?) and platform threshold.

Rock Shox currently has six sizes slated for the Monarch: 152mm x 31mm (6.0" x 1.25"), 165mm x 28mm (6.5" x 1.5"), 190mm x 50mm (7.5" x 2"), 200mm x 50mm (7.875" x 2"), 200mm x 57mm (7.875" x 2.25"), and 216mm x 63mm (8.5" x 2.5"). Claimed weight is an impressive 205g for the shortest model.

Rumors are circulating of both new models making their way to dealer floors around the time you read this.

Rock Shox currently has three sizes planned: 240mm x 76mm (9.5" x 3.0"), 222mm x 77mm (8.75" x 2.75"), and 216mm x 63.5mm (8.75" x 2.5"). Claimed weight is 426g for the 216mm model without coil.