The dial will only have those three settings, there are no intermediate steps between them. They’re working with the bike brands to get the ideal tune for the shock at the zero center setting, then the + and – settings simply give you a little bit of fine tuning. Now, they have a “zero” setting in the middle, with a + and – to either side. Old models would have something like Locked/Firm, Pedal/Trail, and Open/Descend modes. The other big change is the external compression settings. But when it hits something big, it’s still able to get the wheel out of the way quickly. All of this is tech that was available in the Super Deluxe with the piggy back reservoir, but now they’ve fit it into the non-piggy-backed inline shock body. It means that when you’re pushing on the bike, like when driving into a berm and need more support, it’s better able to push back and help you stay in control. First, it acts like a check valve to stop flow from going the wrong way. Which means that when you hit something or press down on the bike, oil can’t flow backwards through the rebound circuit. Second, it also lets them better tune the low speed rebound while still giving you user friendly external adjustments. Rockshox added a shim stack above the low speed rebound’s adjuster needle, which serves two purposes. Meaning, however you have your low speed rebound set, that’s going to influence the low speed compression, too. Which makes it really hard to tune the low speed (shaft speeds of 2-5 inches per second) compression damping because the low-speed rebound needle could be anywhere. So oil is able to flow backwards thru it when the shock compresses. Obviously, there are size constraints as to what you can put inside the shock body, and Rockshox says that on many inline shocks, there’s no check valve that closes down over the low speed rebound circuit. The new Deluxe Ultimate brings a “fully checked damper” to an inline design.Īn “inline” shock is one that doesn’t move any of the damping functions out to a piggy back reservoir, like on the Super Deluxe ( shown center, top photo). There’s also a new air can called the Meg Neg, which probably isn’t for you, and a new way of thinking about external compression knob functions that should make it a little easier for everyone to use, including OEM customers. Or frames with fitment issues that prevent a piggy back reservoir from fitting. It’s a new inline shock that brings the tech typically found in a piggy-backed model down to a more streamlined size for shorter travel bikes. But here, we do see one completely new model, and it’s called the Deluxe Ultimate. Much like the new Rockshox forks, their rear shocks get a lot of internal and tuning updates to refine their performance. Support us! BikeRumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article.

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