Introducing RockShox Vivid Air Rear Downhill Shock

RockShox has long been the pioneer in mountain bike suspension air springs. From the humble beginnings in the RS-1 air spring, to Hydra-coil air, Dual Air and Solo Air, air springs were proven to be supple, light and adjustable. RockShox took air springs even further establishing long travel air springs with the BoXXer World Cup. This knowledge created the first World Cup ready air rear shock, Vivid Air. The mission for the Vivid Air project was simple; create an air shock capable of winning a World Cup Downhill but keep it easy to tune on the shop floor. After spending decades supporting World Cups, RockShox knows that World Cup DH is the ultimate benchmark in performance. If it can perform there, it can perform anywhere. The key challenge for the project came straight from our racers mouths: "Keep the same feel and performance from the start of the run to the end of the run!" With this mission in mind the team started with our championship winning Vivid damper and began sculpting a new air spring system around that damper. RockShox finalized around a twin-tube solo air system that feels as supple as a coil, but has the ease of adjustability with a single air valve. Once we had refined prototypes we took them out to be punished by our World Cup stars. Consistently the riders like, Steve Peat, Sam Hill, Greg Minnaar and Mick Hannah, came down and said, "It feels great! The harder I ride the better it feels. I just have more to push off of compared to my coil Vivid." The riders were discovering the benefits of air's "speed sensitive" nature when compressed at high speeds. Over successive hits or a high speed hit the air spring will absorb the same amount of energy as a coil spring, but do it without using as much shaft travel. Boiled down you ride higher in the stroke leaving you with more available shaft travel for that next huge hit. To address the needs for consistency from the top of the run to the bottom, RockShox had to address the increased heat that was causing rebound fade. The answer to that problem came in the form of a tiny piece of thermoplastic. The Hot Rod is a beginning stroke adjuster rod with a piece of thermoplastic in the middle. This material expands when heated, closing down the beginning stroke rebound, just a little bit. This adjustment is matched with the heated oil's reduction in viscosity to keep your rebound adjustment feeling the same as when you started the run. The fade resistance of the Hot Rod coupled with the twin-tubed Solo Air system results in a shock that is ready to be pushed, easy to adjust and pulls over 400 grams off your bike! Welcome Vivid Air to the family. Vivid R2C - 216 x 63.5 (8.5 x 2.5) Weight: 530g Availability: August 1st, 2010 MSRP: USD $ 620.00 Features - Over 400g lighter than Vivid coil! - New Solo Air system for super supple performance - Beginning stroke rebound - Ending stroke rebound - Low speed compression - Spring rate (via air pressure) - Hot Rod thermal compensation www.sram.com