A RockShox Vivid Air R2C Preview

Gravity for the rider who you get by talking about two basic types: who cares about people to pretend you don't care about the rigs and weight weight. But performance kill weight, let's face it: rider and get both. More weight, bike, rider direction and slope Mario Andretti mass of grief he can shortsa speed to change speed limits performance to must carry.

Creative ways to save their weight based on the commitment to the top riders World Cup circuit, clearly a Rockshox speed (messing with shorts-bit rather than the more familiar, and has come out. I small section about where to not talking about-, talks about 400 grams of savings is a huge component.

Technology

Bright air RC2 mountain bike shock witness. Essentially a RockShox coil shock found a way to convert air shock was not easy by any means. Think about it: air spring to try to get a steel spring-like behavior-is seems like a daunting challenge. Look under the exploded view for yourself that it really can see that everything is not very simple. But then again everything you can.

Might seem more complicated at air dual Chamber bright air, brilliant coil shock original basically is very similar to. Change impact body (J), are being processed now smooth air offers as part of the spring. Part (A)-(E), (dual-Chamber air N that belongs to the spring). All other vivid coil is almost identical. -Minus heavy coils coil to feel like spring in order to achieve all this results when. Air vivid and vibrant coil spring almost the same trip last a few millimeters exception to compare rates, touch the vivid coil ramp-up faster than a brilliant air shows.

It is built into bypass bar appear in the vivid air what's new, hot rod reward pellets. Expansion during heating pellet deployment, and then add additional restitution. Some might be silly enough plastics durability is not, rest assured, in addition to the hot rod rebound rod, well laid out.

Adjustment

Features a vibrant R2C adjustments host. Most obvious ones are more nasty coil spring swap air spring pressure is. It is also the external low speed compression adjustment and beginning and ending stroke adjustment. Need to get the rig dial these four will lament that almost all of them, fixed, and sidewalk affects the slopes of the bond. Should you buy separately) is what is frame adapter. Rather than works of three solutions I chose two aluminum set pieces; long term solutions for your bike is a bit more expensive.

Installation and Setup

Looking at the bright air is larger than coil shock, real might think is not. Only a few millimeters wide diameter larger than coil shock is, since it bright air, see can't see larger. Install the other units in the market today and is same works-just to get adjusted all install be sure to move your stops and not to strike reservoir nothing can shock. The clear, and then install air shock – suspension that easy with circular peasy.

Add or one valve (via internal compensation port automatically set by the negative spring), air is referenced, except that you are trying to delete air is bright air coil quite vivid settings and the same process. In my case I in.30 multiplication SAG measurement and know the shock 76 mm stroke with Banshee legend II requires 30% SAG (76 mm x 0.30 = 23 mm) to get. Before I reach my measurements I added air shocks. Sadly, not many air more vivid a Rockshox products grace SAG gradients; gradient reservoir sticker prints instead.

To configure SAG sets and the full impact on the slope was a head of time. By using my experience can start in the compression settings and legendary compression dial quickly got four clicks much traction coil shock with vivid. I was riding terrain rock, terrain hard patch route and soft, and featured a mix of around. I found was still lovely terrain while tracking a rough control wheel than this setting. A big jump in landing the compression setting is also too much ado about without control the bike.

Looking for recovery setting after you set the compression. Wheel then hit return (play the major role rockgardens) ensure that didn't get the horoscope buckling sense try to rebound first stroke adjustment. It was right about the sweet spot for me 9 clicks.

Finally (big hit) to set the most enjoyable rebound ending line to set. Essentially ended in 5 clicks and sessioning the jump some until the shock could dial. Banshee and press together hard when brilliant gave greater control, bike geometry is designed according to the Lord, initial rear wheel travel aboard edged discovered what worked great. Without compromising control wheel sensitivity which is also the backup permission, adjustment dial.

It feels great overall bright air is like a champion to run. Are lighter than the pound and a half as a result rather than having to play bicycle hot springs, I feel like coil in good control my bike there. I see many you can get it in the future is without a doubt, a brilliant air looking for playing around. See only shortcomings more vivid air you can price coil version is a few dollars. To $ 630 adds another $ 200 under the weight of the coil shock race suggested retail price is not cheap but other options, at least), is to upgrade to the titanium spring. Greater air vivid to me.

I want to thank you for setting Tyler MORLAND and good people a Rockshox vivid air reviews.

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RockShox Vivid Air R2C Preview

When it comes to gravity riders, depending on who you talk to you get two basic types: those who care about the weight of their rig and those who pretend not to care about weight. But let’s face it, weight kills performance: both on the rider and on the ride. The more weight the bike has to carry, the slower a rider can change direction and speed, which limits their performance wailing down slopes at speeds that would make Mario Andretti messa his shortsa.

Clearly Rockshox is familiar with speed (not the messing shorts bit) and based on their commitment to top riders on the World Cup circuit, they have come up with inventive ways to save on weight. And I’m not talking about small savings here – I’m talking about a good 400 grams in savings on a single component which is huge.

The Technology

Witness the Vivid Air RC2 mountain bike shock. Essentially RockShox found a way to convert a coil shock into an air shock, which wasn’t easy by any means. Think of it: trying to get an air spring to behave like a steel spring – seems like a daunting challenge. Taking a look at the exploded view below, you can see for yourself that it really isn’t very simple at all. But then again not everything can be.

While the Vivid Air may look a bit complex with its dual air chambers, it’s basically very similar to the original Vivid coil shock. A modified shock body (J) has been machined smooth and now serves as part of the air spring. Parts (A)-(E) as well as (N) belong to the dual chamber air spring. Everything else is pretty much the same as the Vivid coil. All of this combines to achieve a coil spring-like feel – minus the heavy coil. Comparing spring rates between the Vivid Air and the Vivid coil shows they are nearly the same with the exception of the last few millimeters in travel where the Vivid coil ramps up a touch faster than the Vivid Air.

What you don’t see in the new Vivid Air is the hot rod compensation pellet which is built into the bypass rod. When heated (during extended runs), the pellet expands and adds additional rebound force. Some of you might scoff and say plastic isn’t durable enough but rest assured, the hot rod is a well engineered addition to the rebound rod.

Adjustments

The Vivid R2C features a host of adjustments. The most obvious one is the air spring pressure which means no more pesky coil spring swaps. There’s also the external low speed compression adjustment plus beginning and end stroke adjustments. These four dials give you pretty much everything you need to get your rig wailing down them slopes pinned and sticking to the trail. What you don’t get (which you’ll need to purchase separately) are the frame adapters. I opted for the three piece solution rather than the two piece aluminum set; it’s a bit more costly but a longer-lasting solution for your bike.

Installation and Set-up

Looking at the Vivid Air you might assume it’s larger than a coil shock but that’s not really the case. The overall diameter is only a few millimeters larger than a coil shock but since you can’t see through the Vivid Air that makes it look bigger. Installation works the same as it does for any other unit out on the market today – just make sure you install the shock so that you can get to all the adjustments and make sure the reservoir doesn’t strike anything when your suspension moves. Install the shock with no air and cycle the suspension to make sure you’re clear – easy peasy.

Setting up the Vivid Air is pretty much the same process as the Vivid coil except that you’re going to add or remove air from the single valve on the air can (it sets up the negative spring automatically via internal compensation ports). In my case I needed 30% sag on my Banshee Legend II, so knowing the stroke of the shock (76mm) and multiplying it by 0.30 I get the sag measurement (76mm x 0.30= 23mm). With that I just added air into the shock until I reached my measurement. Unfortunately the Vivid Air doesn’t have the sag gradients that grace many other Rockshox products; instead the gradients are printed on the reservoir sticker

With the sag set, it was time to head out to the slopes to fully set up the shock. Using my experience with the Vivid coil shock, I started off with the compression settings and quickly found that the Legend got a lot of traction with 4 clicks on the compression dial. The terrain that I was riding featured a mix of rocky, rooted terrain with hard patches and soft stuff in and around. With this set up I found I had good control over the wheel on the rough stuff while still tracking the terrain nicely.  On landing big jumps, the compression setting did well controlling the bike without too much fuss.

After the compression was set I started looking at the rebound settings. I tuned the beginning  stroke rebound (which plays a major roll on rockgardens) so that I didn’t get a bucking sensation out back when the wheel tried to return after those hits. The sweet spot for me was right about 9 clicks.

Lastly I set the end stroke rebound (for bigger hits) which was by far the most fun to set up. Essentially I was sessioning a few jumps and dialing the shock until I ended up at 5 clicks. I found the Banshee and the Vivid worked great together, mostly due to the initial rear wheel travel (designed into the geometry) which gave great control over the bike when hitting harder, squared-edged stuff. This also allowed me to dial back on the adjustments, resulting in more wheel sensitivity without sacrificing control.

Overall the Vivid Air feels great and performs like a champ. As a result I have a bike that is a pound and a half lighter, I don’t have to play with springs, and I have good control over my bike with a coil-like feeling. I’m definitely looking forward to playing around with the Vivid Air to see how much more I can get out of it in the future. The only drawback I can see is that the price for the Vivid Air is a few dollars more than the coil version. At about $630 MSRP it’s not cheap but to get a coil shock down to race weight the only other option is to upgrade to a titanium spring (which adds another $200 at least). To me that makes the Vivid Air a great value.

I would like to thank Tyler Morland and the good folks at Rockshox for setting up the Vivid Air for a review.

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