DVO SUSPENSION

If you could do it all over again, would you? Bryson Martin Sr. (DVO founder) did. History may know him as the man behind all the great products and innovations at Marzocchi Suspension for over 25 years. After a great run, it was time to start fresh. When the creative flow stops, something new is needed and DVO Suspension was born.

In 2012 the brand with three letters and a green box was created. A rider-propelled company driven by the passion for high-performance suspension. This was not to be a brand with a shallow logo, this was going to be a strong brand full of the personality and presence of the employees and customers. We are proud to say we have an amazing crew here that genuinely care for the brand.

That same care goes straight to the riders that utilize every product we make. We strive to offer you, the rider, three important things; amazing customer service, a high quality & well-made product, and a feeling of connection to the brand. When you ride DVO, you’re in the family and we will always treat you that way.

DVO IS A HIGH-QUALITY PRODUCT WITH PROVEN PERFORMANCE

-Quality materials for every part

-Advanced cartridge designs with strong reliability and serviceability

-Hand-assembly with an elevated level of quality control

-Easy and intuitive product service that emphasizes customer support and spare parts availability

-Education including detailed videos and articles on set-up, tuning, and servicing

-Products engineered by riders for riders

MADE WITH THE RIDER IN MIND.

All too many times we see companies taking shortcuts on product testing and quality control to bring down cost in manufacturing. That leads to the customer being the beta tester and leaving it up to the market to find issues. In the long-run, that leads to unhappy customers and serious problems that could have been avoided. All of our products go through a rigorous process of testing before it even gets seen by the public. Every fork we produce well exceeds the structural EN testing standards to ensure the safety of our products. Each fork and shock are hand built by trained and qualified technicians that take meticulous care in what they do. It’s inspected at every step and quality certified. At the final step, every fork and shock get dyno tested to make sure it meets our standards of performance and build quality.

The use of thin steel shims is critical to the feel of any high-end suspension system and especially with the new DVO products. Our forks and shocks will be finely tuned with a generous combination of shim stacks to provide that stable and predictable suspension feel for both compression and rebound. Shims are used to restrict oil flowing through the holes or ports in a piston. Shims are configured in various diameters and thickness to achieve specific results as a “shim stack”.

The larger diameter shim that sits on the piston surface is the first shim to resist oil flow and generally affects the low-speed compression. The shims that are in the middle and farthest away from the piston’s surface affects the mid-high speed compression feel. When proper shim stack settings are achieved the end result is a bottomless feel on compression and a controlled/predictable extension that works in concert to keep your wheels planted on the ground. The main reason shim stacks are so amazing is that they are dynamic or speed sensitive and a proper stack can deliver a wide range of damping performance purely based on velocity.

Many companies use orifice or small holes to control compression and or rebound in their dampers, especially on lower-end products. There are serious limitations to orifice dampers, under low speeds oil can easily flow through a hole but when speeds increase, oil flow becomes restricted and hydraulic locking occurs. That’s where a harsh feel on compression occurs or an unpredictable hopping off the front wheel on the rebound stroke can occur reducing traction and control.

Rebound Damping

When it comes to comfort, traction, and ride stability, rebound can have a massive impact on it. Getting your rebound set right can be tricky sometimes so the best way to set it correctly is to actually understand what it’s doing.

So what exactly is rebound damping? Rebound damping refers to the movement of the suspension as it returns back to its relaxed position (after compression).  As the shock or fork compresses and the spring will store a certain amount of that energy. On the backside of the impact, that stored energy within the spring wants to release and push the tire down towards the ground in an uncontrolled way. Damping is changing that stored kinetic energy into heat. This is one of the reasons why your fork or shock heats up while you are riding.

How do changes in rebound affect performance?

The more rebound (slower rebound) damping you have, the more the flow of oil is being “choked”. Therefore the return speed of the wheel to the ground is decreased. The less rebound (faster rebound) damping you have, the oil flow is less restricted and therefore the return speed is increased.

Let’s take a look at a suspension set up with too little rebound (too fast) damping. As you decrease (speed up rebound) the amount of rebound damping, the comfort level will increase and the traction will decrease. When you encounter an impact while riding, the suspension will compress and the energy stored within the spring will want to release on the backside of the hit. Without the proper amount of rebound damping to control that energy release, the wheel will become unweighted and bounce. Resulting in a complete loss of traction.

Why Set Sag? Setting the sag is extremely important when fine-tuning your bicycle just for you.  Sag is basically a measurement of how much your suspension compresses when you are sitting on the bike.  Setting the sag at 20-25% of the total amount of travel is prime for getting the most out of your fork or rear shock. When it is set up correctly, it ensures your suspension will the work the way it’s designed to, preferably in its “sweet spot”. If your suspension is too soft, you’ll be sitting too far in the travel & the fork or shock cant react properly to the next set of bumps. If your suspension is too stiff or over-sprung, your bike won’t have adequate traction and deliver an overall harsh feeling ride.

This information is reproduced from Dvosuspension.com