No, that's not a neoprene shock protector. It's actually a carbon spring system that reduces shock weight and provides additional tuning options. This creation was one of the biggest highlights from day one inside Interbike.
Known as the CCBS system for short, it's essentially several cone shaped carbon discs (or elements), paired in sets and joined to make a spring stack. The spring rate of the stack is determined by the number of elements, the base rate of each element, and their series or parallel orientation in the stack. Want a slightly stiffer spring? Or perhaps a progressive spring? Want it to ramp up sooner or later? The system can be quickly modified to achieve many spring curves and rates. A lip and flange on each element keeps them centered relative to one another.
MW says that the CCDS stack weighs significantly less than the steel coil alternative. For this short stroke shock the weight savings was just over 0.3-pounds. Hysteresis is also much less with the Bellows system than that of a coil spring, and it eliminates the slight bind/friction that coils are prone to.
The system shown here is made by MW Industries, the second largest spring manufacturer in the USA. It's still in the prototype phase, but the company believes they'll have good testing results based on their success with similar designs in other applications. Cool stuff!
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