New Rise 40 650B / 27.5″ wheels added to the lineup. all of their Rise wheels will now have decals around the valve stem that shows wheel size, making it quicker to see what size wheels are on a particular bike.
Keep in mind, when SRAM launched the Rise Wheels last year, It was pretty clear they were going after the OEM market at least as much as the aftermarket. We’re thinking that this quick move into the nascent 650B explosion means it’ll be popping up on somebody’s bike. That they’re launching it at the alloy 40-series is both because carbon molds are expensive and likely because most companies (ENVE excepted) seem to be taking a cautious, middle of the road approach to the new wheel size.
Recently introduced tubeless kits for the Rise wheels will be available for this one, too.
New Solo Air spring system replaces Dual Air. It removes the additional air valve at the bottom of the fork and uses a check valve to automatically set the negative spring pressure.
No more negative air valve on the bottom. SID, Reba and Revelation will get the new Solo Air. Besides simplifying set up, it also removes a few moving parts and lightens up the forks slightly (a few grams).
This Solo air spring technology is more similar to what’s used on the Monarch, as in there’s a small check valve thtets air pressure equalize between the positive and negative chambers during compression. Suspension engineer Jeremiah Boobar says this also lets their forks and shocks match up better. Seems to be a common theme.
A redesign for the Monarch RT3 more than doubles the range of rebound damping, triples the compression damping range and decouples the compression settings in each of the three positions (Open, Pedal & Lock). The latter was done by changing the way ool flows through the compression circuit. Before, they had to balance oil flow through multiple orifices to get performance where they wanted. Now, there are separate holes for oil to flow through go for each setting.
This provides them with more flexibility to tune the fork to an OEM bike maker’s specifications.
The lever is redesigned to make it easier to know what setting you’re in by opening up the lever movement from 120° total range to 120° rotation per setting. It gives the lever a full 360° rotation, meaning you can go directly from locked to fully open.
New Rapid Recovery Rebound helps the shock recover more quickly from rapid succession hits, letting the bike ride higher in its travel and handle rough terrain better. Boobar says its a digressive rebound curve. That means that rather than have a progressive rebound curve that starts slow when the shock is at bottom out and returns faster as it nears top out, RRR let’s it rebound at a quicker, linear rate through roughly the first 2/3 of rebound then slows down toward top out.
These new shocks don’t ship from the factory until mid summer. Forks are leaving the factory now, add about 60 days until you start seeing them.
On Rockshox forks, there’s a new PushLoc remote is a mechanical push/push fork lockout that mimics the action of the hydraulic X-Loc. Think ballpoint pen with the click button at the top and you get the idea. It’ll be available as a standalone unit with integrated mount or to work with their MMX mount.
The Reverb Stealth will ship from their factory for aftermarket early May, meaning you can likely actually buy it in July. More OEM bikes will start making frames compatible with it. Originally, it was just done with Scott and Trek.
Avid Elixir 5 gets new internals to match its higher end brothers (new bleed port location, revised caliper, 170mm rotor option, etc.)
