Posts
4908
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6/26/2009
Location
Boise, ID
US
Fantasy
66th
Edited Date/Time
11/22/2015 5:18pm
We're kicking off the Vital MTB Forum Hot Seat with our long-time friend, ripper and mad scientist, Dave Camp. We've seen Dave come up from collegiate shredder to DIY garage-builder to industry engineer. Dave is fast on a bike and creative in shop.
A little background info:
Name: Dave Camp
Age: Just turned 30
Years riding: 26; 16 for real
Education: ME degree from CU Boulder
Competitive result highlights:
-One time I beat Eric Carter in a dual slalom race (he crashed because I intimidated him with a nasty holeshot)
-Recently got 4th at Snowmass Big Mountain Enduro 2015
-Qualified for Slopestyle finals at 2007 Crankworx Colorado
-Won some Mountain States Cups back in the day
-Crashed a lot
Some of Dave's garage-made bikes from the last few years
DC Special 1.0
DC Special 4.0
Camp keeps it fun with the skinsuit and the Giant Faith w/ swinglink flipped for a slacker, lower bike
Employment history:
-Bike shops all through high school and college... Big Kahuna Bikes in Littleton was the best
-Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for 3 years, fresh out of college. I did lots of paperwork and ran around on submarines looking for leaking pipes.
-Trek Bicycle suspension office in SoCal for 3 years. I helped design the Re:aktiv shock and did a bunch of other research projects and stuff that never made production like the patented seatpost project you guys showed, a bunch of other stuff.
-Currently at RockShox for a year so far.
Current job/position title
RockShox Rear Shock Design Engineer. I design shocks and help with testing and starting production. On-going production problem support. TPS reports. etc.
Post your tech or riding questions here today and Dave will respond as best he can.
https://p.vitalmtb.com/photos/users/600/avatar/s1600_water_bike.jpg?129…
I also am enjoying a lot of the canyon rides here in Colorado Springs
Currently that's my favorite.
Have you (or anybody else to your knowledge) experimented with dual-rate springs for MTB suspension? Everybody is always looking for small bump compliance + big hit ramp-up...could dual spring rates help address that need, or am I missing something?
Testing is extremely hard- you have to be disciplined enough not to ride (or at least evaluate) product if you're tired or conditions change. You can easily make opposite decisions if you're getting tired and hungry vs feeling fresh and rested at the beginning of the day.
I'd say you need to go above just getting a degree. Racing, wrenching in a shop, side projects- all those things are excellent preparation for bike industry jobs.
-I've taped rags around my stanchions to prevent oil from dribbling down my lowers and getting on my brakes
-used beer can shims between axle and lowers to compensate for bent lowers on a dirt jump bike (QR fork)
-bolt through frame and seatpost to prevent wrong sized seatpost from twisting
plenty of other scary stuff
And, why did RockShox omit externally adjustable high speed compression on both the Vivid R2C and Boxxer platforms?
If you think about it- the regular coil and bottom out bumper are already a sort of dual rate spring- just right at the end of stroke you get a massive increase in force.
Also- air springs are generally adjustable in this manner by using volume reduction.
I did the math and seems like with a 2.66 to 1 ratio a medium compression tune "should" work.
if it should be a m/m why on earth was a m/l specced?
Also, whats the difference between the B1 (i had in 2014) B2 and B3 shocks?
Thanks Dave!
Air or coil based on performance alone?
If the answer is coil then why can't I get a spring for my boxxer that is properly x firm.Any suggestions on how to get the best out of my boxxer team & vivid r2c.I'm using a 500lb on the rear and x firm in the front of my dh but it still feels too soft for my weight.I'm pushing 250lbs and struggle with suspension set up other than using air but I prefer the feel every time of coil.
Stoked you ride a patrol, I do also and have just fitted the push 11/6 to it.Man it sure does rip.
High speed compression is more in effect on square-edged hits, large drops and other sharp impacts. Generally we find the high speed adjustments are a lot harder to tune and usually only add harshness.
I think the HSC adjustments were omitted due to cost and the fact that most (definitely not all) consumers didn't gain much performance by twiddling the knob.
That's a tough situation- if you are maxxed on coil springs and it's still too soft- you might have to go air or air assist of some kind.
What are your thoughts about stuntin' on jumps mid race run?
camp can jump too. end of derail.
Post a reply to: Forum Hot Seat - Dave Camp, RockShox Design Engineer