In terms of blown shocks a massive majority of the time people are (knowingly or unknowingly) referring to 1 of 2 things which are loss of oil from the damper, or air/nitrogen ingress in to the oil volume.
Neither of these are independent to rebound or compression. If you lose oil or you have air in your oil this is going to affect both compression and rebound. If you have no oil, or your oil volume is say 50% air due to both oil loss and air ingress then your damping and compression are both going to function incorrectly, objectively.
See this video below for an example of how most twin tube shocks function.
[https://vimeo.com/130459969](https://vimeo.com/130459969)
The perception of the ride is also highly dependent on the severity of the failure as well. If it is just a small amount of oil loss or air ingress you will likely perceive very little change but if it is a ton of air in the damper or complete oil loss then you're looking at a potential loss of 100% of both compression and rebound damping which of course would severely impact your ride feel to the point of being potentially dangerous.
If your shock is not functioning as it should due to a high volume of air in your oil then you might have the impression of the bike being "lively" since the damper is providing very little resistance in both directions and will feel very soft and active.
I do not personally agree that the damping is as low down the priority list as your post makes it out to be, but that's a subjective opinion. I am just one guy and I am comfortable being proven wrong.
I do think there is still value in the review and I do agree that you can definitely feel a bike out with a blown shock it's just unfortunate that the impressions were (potentially) affected by an improperly functioning shock.
TLDR: Edit - I mostly agree with you, but I think it's more nuanced than proposed. Aaaaand my statements are presented entirely on the idea that this is a run of the mill seal failure (which is most likely) rather than something catastrophic.
May 25, 2022, 12:31 p.m. - thaaad
In terms of blown shocks a massive majority of the time people are (knowingly or unknowingly) referring to 1 of 2 things which are loss of oil from the damper, or air/nitrogen ingress in to the oil volume. Neither of these are independent to rebound or compression. If you lose oil or you have air in your oil this is going to affect both compression and rebound. If you have no oil, or your oil volume is say 50% air due to both oil loss and air ingress then your damping and compression are both going to function incorrectly, objectively. See this video below for an example of how most twin tube shocks function. [https://vimeo.com/130459969](https://vimeo.com/130459969) The perception of the ride is also highly dependent on the severity of the failure as well. If it is just a small amount of oil loss or air ingress you will likely perceive very little change but if it is a ton of air in the damper or complete oil loss then you're looking at a potential loss of 100% of both compression and rebound damping which of course would severely impact your ride feel to the point of being potentially dangerous. If your shock is not functioning as it should due to a high volume of air in your oil then you might have the impression of the bike being "lively" since the damper is providing very little resistance in both directions and will feel very soft and active. I do not personally agree that the damping is as low down the priority list as your post makes it out to be, but that's a subjective opinion. I am just one guy and I am comfortable being proven wrong. I do think there is still value in the review and I do agree that you can definitely feel a bike out with a blown shock it's just unfortunate that the impressions were (potentially) affected by an improperly functioning shock. TLDR: Edit - I mostly agree with you, but I think it's more nuanced than proposed. Aaaaand my statements are presented entirely on the idea that this is a run of the mill seal failure (which is most likely) rather than something catastrophic.