ROCKSHOX FORK DAMPERS
The damper controls how quickly and smoothly your front suspension compresses and rebounds – here’s how it di ers between fork models
Motion Control
RockShox’s Motion Control damper was released in 2004 and is now found in their lower-spec forks. It’s an open-bath system, where the oil and air inside the damper leg can mix, potentially reducing oil consistency and performance. The damper features externally adjustable low-speed compression and rebound damping, letting you control how the fork reacts to rider inputs and gentler trail impacts. This works using simple ports that oil flows through. Each click of rebound adjustment or small turn of the compression dial closes the relevant port a certain amount, slowing the oil flow down until the port is fully closed and the damping is locked-out. High-speed compression damping is controlled by an internal shim stack, which can only be adjusted by a specialist suspension tuner.
Charger RC
The Charger RC damper is found in RockShox’s mid-range forks and uses a sealed cartridge design, where air can’t mix with oil and shouldn’t a ect performance. RC stands for rebound and compression, and again, you can adjust the low-speed damping externally. The Charger RC damper uses a similar system of restricting oil flow to Motion Control, where a needle moves to block ports, firming up the low-speed damping. However, the cartridge is more sophisticated. Highspeed damping can again only be adjusted by altering internal shim stacks.
Charger 2.1 RC2 and RCT3
This is RockShox’s most advanced damper, found in their high-end forks. Charger 2.1 is a more refined version of Charger RC, with less friction and improved performance. There are two options with this damper. The RCT3 version lets you select from three low-speed compression modes
– open, pedal and firm – which act a bit like an easy-access fork lockout. You can also tweak the amount of damping applied in the open mode. The RC2, on the other hand, features independent high- and low-speed compression adjustment, making it RockShox’s most externally tunable damper. It also has a low-speed rebound dial. As with the Charger RC, the shims in the high-speed damping circuits can be tuned to provide suppler or firmer suspension.