BikeRadar Tech Talk Podcast Ep 2: Mountain bike suspension dampers

Dampers are a key component to control your suspension. Seb and Tom, from BikeRadar's tech team, discuss how they work, why they're needed and offer some set-up tips.

This damper is the reason why the Sweep Roughcut is so good

X-Fusion

Tom Marvin

Published: June 28, 2019 at 2:11 pm

In this episode, BikeRadar's technical editor Tom Marvin and technical writer Seb Stott discuss the intricacies of suspension damping. Dampers do an incredibly important job in a bike's suspension, so if you want to know more, make sure to give this a listen.

Suspension dampers are there to control a bike's fork or shock’s action through its stroke – without them, the suspension would effectively be like a pogo stick, so they’re very handy!

We cover the reasons why they’re so useful, how they work, and touch upon how to best set up the suspension on your mountain bike.

Various fork dampers from SRAM
Fork dampers sit inside one side of the fork's legs, to control the action of the fork - David Rome / Immediate Media

The links you need

Vorsprung suspension has created a couple of great videos with extra detail on damping, which are well worth a watch.

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Any more for any more?

Our Tech Talk series covers a range of relatively geeky subjects, all to do with mountain bike tech. Let us know in the comments if there’s a subject you want to know more about, and what we should cover in our up-coming Road Tech Talk series.

Tom Marvin

Senior technical editor

Tom Marvin is a technical editor at BikeRadar.com and MBUK magazine. He has a particular focus on mountain bikes, but spends plenty of time on gravel bikes, too. Tom has written for BikeRadar, MBUK and Cycling Plus, and was previously technical editor of What Mountain Bike magazine. He is also a regular presenter on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel and the BikeRadar podcast. With more than twenty years of mountain biking experience, and nearly a decade of testing mountain and gravel bikes, Tom has ridden and tested thousands of bikes and products, from super-light XC race bikes through to the most powerful brakes on the market. Outside of testing bikes, Tom competes in a wide range of mountain bike races, from multi-day enduros through to 24-hour races in the depths of the Scottish winter – pushing bikes, components and his legs to their limits. He’s also worked out that shaving your legs saves 8 watts, while testing aerodynamics in a wind tunnel. When not riding he can be found at the climbing wall, in his garden or cooking up culinary delights.
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