Topic: Fox Podium RC1 Shock - Impressions

[Retro Rocket]

no you cant mick , these days ohlins will only lease you the top stuff . not sure what it costs for Motogp forks but i know that this year it is £85,000 for the moto2 forks .

You get the point though....  

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

I can only imagine what technology the leased Ohlins have, but the FGR300's sure do look pretty nice:
https://www.ohlins.com/product/fgr300/

[Retro Rocket]

I can only imagine what technology the leased Ohlins have, but the FGR300's sure do look pretty nice:
https://www.ohlins.com/product/fgr300/

Yes, they have all the bells and whistles...

[fastbroshi]

I wonder if anyone's attempting to license GM's magnetorheolgical technology to adapt to motorcycle forks.  That IMO is far ahead of anything Ohlins is doing.  85k pounds just to lease?  wow.

[Retro Rocket]

I wonder if anyone's attempting to license GM's magnetorheolgical technology to adapt to motorcycle forks.  That IMO is far ahead of anything Ohlins is doing.  85k pounds just to lease?  wow.

I'd say its already been done, and not by GM

The technology was originally developed by Delphi Automotive Division based in the UK and then developed further by BeijingWest Industries in China

Have you seen the new front motorcycle suspension being developed in Australia..? 

PM sent

[FunJimmy]

I'm sure there are a few following along with real interest in the outcome and for those I post this final reply.

So I sent the photo (above) of the shock compressed on the scale to Fox and asked them to comment. More specifically on the contribution to spring rate of a gas charged shock. This is the response I received. Doesn't leave me with a lot of options.

Email:

Jim
 
Hope your week was good.
 
I sent this along to our engineers. Although they understand your thinking here, what you are doing in the picture is not something that gives us information that is helpful in trying to set up the shocks in question to your bike.
 
Id really like to get you fixed up. At this time, I only have 2 solutions for that; 1- get you the 100lb, 8” spring now and send 85lb if/when they are available. 2- return the shocks (would need to talk to Devin for that).
 
Whatever you decide is fine. The goal is to get you comfortable and rolling. I’m doing all I can with the resources available. If your satisfaction cannot happen on FOX, I’ll have to live with that.  Definitely not my first choice but you can’t win them all.   
 
Have a great weekend.
 
Stacey Sell
FOX Global Distributor Sales

[slikwilli420]

Sounds like they aren't too worried about losing you as a customer. If it was me I would be setting up a return and moving my hard earned money to ohlins.

[fastbroshi]

Sounds like they don't want your money Jimmy.

[FunJimmy]

Sounds like they aren't too worried about losing you as a customer. If it was me I would be setting up a return and moving my hard earned money to ohlins.

Sounds like they don't want your money Jimmy.

I'm sure they'd love to have my business and money but they sure aren't too concerned if their product performs as advertised. On more that one occasion Stacey casts doubt that Fox will ever be able to supply the correct springs even though they are readily available from third party vendors. It also appears that nobody in the supply chain really understands or cares if these shocks are setup correctly or not. It has become my problem and my responcability to make, adapt and experiment until I get it right. That isn't what I expected or signed up for when deciding to purchase high quality shocks from one of the countries largest suspension manufactures. Perhaps niche market products should be left to niche market specialists.

[simon#42]

the truth is most people who buy these shocks either don't know or don't care about set up , they are bought because they look good .
i disagree that these are a high quality shock though they are not , if the engineers that made them cant work out the spring length what chance have they
got with the compression and rebound damping?  send them back so some clueless hipster can stick them on his cafe racer and buy some decent ones .

[fastbroshi]

They're too busy making money off of Ford and can't be bothered with us peons.   

[FunJimmy]

the truth is most people who buy these shocks either don't know or don't care about set up , they are bought because they look good .
i disagree that these are a high quality shock though they are not , if the engineers that made them cant work out the spring length what chance have they
got with the compression and rebound damping?  send them back so some clueless hipster can stick them on his cafe racer and buy some decent ones .

Well said Simon!
My concern too.

[bwaller]

It's silly to think so Simon, but you're spot on.

[FunJimmy]

There's been some really helpful and well thought out input on the subject at DoTheTon.
Check it out. http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=69895.0