ND Tuned is a Portuguese aftermarket suspension tuner that’s creating some interesting hop up kits for Fox and Rockshox forks, plus a lightweight, fully adjustable coil spring for downhill. Starting at the front, the OVR Intelligent System cartridge uses a fully pneumatic damper to drop about 200g off your fork’s weight, yet still gives you complete control over the damping. What puts it over the top is they also claim it provides about 10% to 15% more usable travel!
OVR stands for Opening Valve Resistance, which hints at how it works. Much like with an oil-based damper, it’s simply controlling the flow rate of air through the internal ports and valves. The video above show somewhat how it works, with a bit of a language barrier.
We reached out to them to see how, exactly, a damping cartridge could extend the usable travel of a fork, and here’s the answer: With a traditional damping cartridge, only the air spring side is supporting the rider, and sag is typically set at ~25%…which means you only have ~75% of your travel left to absorb bumps when the suspension is loaded.
With OVR installed, you can reduce the air spring’s pressure to around the same psi as your body weight (give or take, depending on fork model) because the air pressure inside the damper is also supporting your weight. They say this translates to a sag of around 10%, which frees up 10% to 15% of your travel to be used. And all this without making the fork feel overly harsh. We do suspect there’s a bit more of a breaking force required to set things in motion, hence the “no pedal bob” claims, but for racers seeking every incremental gain they can, a 200g drop is massive.
And it’s all yours for about €390 and a couple weeks without your fork…they say it has to be factory installed. They offer it for the Rockshox SID, RS-1 and Reba, and the Fox 32 Performance and 32 StepCast forks.
…as do their aftermarket stanchions and steerer tube. The 32mm stanchions (also for Fox and Rockshox, only) get a 40 micron thick hard anodized black coating to maximize stiffness and smoothness. Prices range from €109 to €114, available for 26″, 27.5″ and 29er forks from both brands.
The DH 2xRC3 coil shock claims to be the lightest such thing on the market, yet still gives you external controls high/low speed compression and low-speed rebound. Spring rates are offered for various rider weights, and preload is set with the adjuster ring. The outside is 100% machined from alloy, and inside is a “high performance” oil.
Retail is right at €800, plus the cost of the spring, sold separately.
The brand also makes aftermarket tuning circuits for motorcycle suspension. We found these products in their distributor’s tent, so check MRC-trading.de for info, and use Google Translate as necessary.
