New Rear Shocks from SR Suntour: DUAir and UNAir
Originally posted on August 27, 2015 at 16:28 pm
SR Suntour recently announced two new rear shocks called the DUAir and UNAir. The company’s motivation is to deliver an affordable option that’s able to keep up with its forks. Not only will the DUAir and UNAir offer consumers reasonably-priced aftermarket options, but they’ll also offer SR Suntour the ability to provide bike manufacturers solid front and rear suspension packages.
With these new shocks, SR Suntour is launching an entirely new shim stack damper system including a patented new piston design.
This new piston offers a multi-stage compression circuit to handle both low- and high-speed compression damping. Take a look at the oil ports on the top of the piston. The long, kidney-shaped holes are the high-speed ports, while the small, round holes are the low-speed ports. Now, imagine the shim stack sitting on top of the piston. Under low-speed, low-pressure movement, the shim will flex only slightly. This opens the low-speed ports, allowing oil to pass. As shaft speeds and piston pressures increase, the shim stack will flex open more, exposing the larger oil ports as well. The harder the impact, the higher the shaft speed, the more oil the piston and shim stack is able to flow.
This damper will be offered in three different configurations; RC with external compression and rebound adjustment (DUAir only), LOR with adjustable rebound and a true lock out, and LOR8 with adjustable rebound and 80-percent lock out.
The new shocks’ main bushings have been redesigned to reduce friction and improve reliability as well.
While the UNAir and DUAir will share SR Suntour’s new damper, their intended markets are somewhat different. The UNAir offers a single air volume option and will be offered in sizes catering to the cross-country and light-duty trail end of the spectrum. Conversely, they DUAir will be offering in larger sizes and its four available “air pipes” allow manufacturers and end consumers to tune the progressiveness the air spring to meet the needs of specific frame designs and riding styles.
The UNAir with LOR or LOR8 damper will retail for $325.
The DUAir with RC, LOR or LOR8 damper and large air pipe (default) will retail for $350.
These new offerings from SR Suntour are highly tunable, which is perfect for OE applications. I’d expect to see a lot of these shocks on price-point bikes in 2016 and 2017.