Video: Mountain Bike Suspension Ported Dampers

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Learn about the ported mountain bike suspension damper and other dampers in this free online bicycle parts and maintenance video.

- Rear Sag Setting Tips for Mountain Bikes
- Adjust Damping Compression for Mountain Bikes

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Video Transcript

Another type of damper which is also sort of some motocross technology that's come to bikes--this is probably 70s technology versus 90s technology--is a pumping rod, or a ported damper. So, what we've got here is--this goes in the bottom of a fork and springs go on top of it. This is a big long travel fork. There's a knob that goes up in here that changes how open that is right there. So this one's seized up. That's why it's not on the bike. You can see I can push it more closed or more open, and the oil recirculating from the bottom to the top here controls--this would be the rebound--how quickly the fork returns from its travel in a long travel fork. The nice thing about these is the properties of the oil swirling around and moving through these channels. It gives it some nice properties. It slows down at the end, it's speedier at the top because forces are all built up and compressed and stuff like that, but it also, because you're dealing with air, a damper like this is bled. There's no air in the system, whereas this there's air just free in there. You get what's called cavitations, which is basically the oil having air, like holes blown through it. And that creates inconsistencies and stuff like that.

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Mountain Bike Suspension Ported Dampers

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