Show Us Your Pits: DVO Suspension

You just never know what you’ll spot when touring the pits here at Crankworx. Case in point, we encountered a GT Force belonging to BMX racing pro Mike Day hanging out at the DVO Suspension tent. What made us take a second look was the DVO Diamond fork hanging off the front.  There aren’t a whole lot of these forks floating around in the wild, so seeing one strapped to a bike is definitely noteworthy.

The bike and fork in question, just hanging out.

While we were there, the techs were putting together a 2015 carbon Devinci Spartan. We’ll be sure to bring you photos of that shortly as well.

Something about that sign just doesn’t add up…

Getting back to the fork now. The Diamond sports a 15mm thru-axle, and will be available in all 3 wheel sizes. Don’t sell your 26″ wheels yet!

The Diamond damper is a bladder-style cartridge, but unlike other systems out there, the bladder contains air, and is surrounded by oil. As the fork moves through its travel, the oil compresses the air bladder, controlling the stroke.

High and low speed compression are handled through a pair of finely-machined dials. The low speed compression sports six distinct settings to help fine-tune the amount of compression needed.

A close look at the rebound damper. While the dial designs aren’t set in stone, it looks like you’d have to try rather hard to smash this one off a rock.

A unique feature of the Diamond is the “Off The Top” negative spring. It offers 15mm of preload on the negative spring, which according to DVO product manager JP will allow for a bigger range of rider weights without affecting the air spring.

DVO is currently working on an integrated fender for the Diamond. This one was fast-prototyped with a 3D printer, but future versions may come in carbon fibre flavour.

Unlike most threaded axles, the Diamond thru-axle has its threads on the inside to prevent damage from drops, which is good news for those of us with butterfingers and/or fists of ham.

The matching piece for the thru-axle. It’s held in place with an o-ring, and can be popped out to adjust the position of the axle lever.

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With an expected release later this year and an anticipated MSRP in the $1000 USD range, DVO has set their sights squarely on the high-end segment of the market. We’ll be spending some time on both the Diamond and Emerald DH fork later in the week, so stay tuned for  first ride impressions…