Tested: Push Industries full factory tune with big hit kit for Fox RP23

The real secret to getting the most ‘Push’ from your squish.

Whether you’re a cross country racer, downhill racer, or an enthusiastic trail rider, Push Industries is a company you should be thinking about when you’re ready to get your front or rear suspension custom tuned.  For the average newcomer to mountain biking, just owning a suspension fork or better yet a full suspension bike may seem like a blessing to the body.  Even though the newest cutting-edge rear shock or high tech fork may open up a new world of riding for most, it’s the custom suspension tune that the experienced rider will not only appreciate, but in many cases now demands.

In recent times, bike companies and suspension manufacturers have done an excellent job of building products that most any mountain biker can throw a leg over and recognize a noticeable improvement from designs that were sold not too many years ago.  However, as good as the new products work, they’re all designed to work within a general range based on market research, production costs, and availability constraints that are targeted at a majority average instead of unique individuals with different physiques, riding styles, and terrain choices.  This is where Push Industries comes into play; they tune your ride just for you.

After logging a solid season on techy singletrack that included plenty of full compressions and hard landings in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, I noticed that the Fox RP23 mounted on my year old Santa Cruz Heckler was no longer performing at the same level.  With a little research, and plenty of good recommendations, I drove up to Push Industries in Loveland CO to consider my service and tuning options, and see the shop first hand.  There’s a lot to be said for first impressions, and mine was certainly a good one, so I was optimistic that after discussing my riding style and terrain combined with my weight that the full factory tune with the proprietary big hit kit would make my Heckler better than new.

As part of the custom tune, my Fox RP23 would receive new oil, new nitrogen, new seals, and a new piston (all included with a full overhaul servicing).  Additionally, a big hit kit was installed which includes an additional mechanical bottoming system that allows dampener tuning for the first 2/3rds of travel and also provides a little bit more mechanical bottoming control. 

The stock high volume RP23 allows the Heckler to get really good thru-travel in a straight line, but for people (like myself)who are riding hard and pushing the bike hard into a turn it feels like the bike wallows in the last half of its compression stroke.  By adding the big hit kit, the amount of air volume was reduced which provided a crisper more linear compression that is especially noticed when going into and out of hard G-out turns like switchbacks so that the bike feels more responsive instead of being low in the travel.  It also gave the bike a more bottomless end stroke on hard landings, and allowed the back wheel to continuously absorb repeated hits.

This was all really great, and a very noticeable improvement in the rear suspension performance of my bike, and certainly exceeded my expectations.  However, it’s how Push Industries is able to provide these custom tunes that is so intriguing.  To get some intuition, I spent some time talking with Push Industries founder and president, Darren Murphy.

“To first understand a bikes suspension, we utilize a hardware and software package where we mount a sensor to a dummy shock with no oil or spring and a sensor to the rear axle and cycle the suspension to map out the actual leverage ratio of a specific frame suspension.  This helps us understand if the suspension is a rising rate or falling rate with precise data to map out its travel path.  We get in as many bikes as we can, and we also all ride a lot of bikes, so it’s nice because we can also ride them on the trail to see how the individual leverage characteristics really feel”, says Murphy.  Since their early days, 8 years ago to be precise, numerical maps of frames and their leverage rates have been entered into an evolving database which now includes hundreds of different frames.

Push technicians are not only very experienced, but they can use the database to set a baseline tune for most any specific bike or shock with rider weight and riding style accounted for.  Additionally, the technicians all have the ability to make specific tuning adjustments to interpret client’s needs and adjust from the baseline tune as they deem necessary.  For example, there are 30 baselines for an RP23 that are broken down into 20 pound rider weight increments so potentially, three different people with same weights and specifications are able to each receive unique custom tunes.  The baseline tune specs are based on feedback from thousands of riders, and over the years have been adjusted to reflect the changes in mountain biking and bikes.

It also helps that they produce all of their own shims, valves, pistons, linkages, and other proprietary parts in-house using the latest CAD/CAM software to run their CNC mill.

Accordingly, Murphy proudly notes, “We pride ourselves on being a business that listens to what riders are saying and build our product around that feedback.  When we hear of a continual problem from riders we study those suspension designs to see how we can improve the performance.  When people are coming to Push for service, it’s because they have a specific area of their suspension performance that they want to improve.  We’ve found that our consumers really appreciate being able to deal directly with us whether it’s email or over the phone.”

For 2011, Push will be offering a complete product for the first time.  For the past eight years they just provided servicing and tuning for customer’s existing products, but now they’re selling complete hand built and custom tuned select forks and shocks by Rock Shox.  As Darren concludes, “Basically, we’re buying un-assembled bulk parts kits from Rock Shox and hand building the products with our own custom tuning made to order by our customers.  So, first we get to talk with the customer about which is going to be the best product for their bike, and then discuss how we want to set it up and tune it for them.  It saves the customer from down time, and they get a brand new product with our own custom tuned pistons and valving to build up their new bike.”

For more information on getting your shock ‘pushed’, visit Push Industries.