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What makes BOS Suspension so good?

March 4, 2014, 10:03 a.m.
Posts: 194
Joined: Aug. 21, 2006

What the fuck are you droning on about? Knob.
I've ridden loads of DH venues, trail centres, valleys, glens, and moors and I've never - not even a single time - met anyone who fits your description in the UK or anywhere else. I suspect its something you picked up from some fuckwit on singletrack.

Touched a nerve?

Blur 4X - Sunday Factory.

March 4, 2014, 11:18 a.m.
Posts: 1055
Joined: Jan. 31, 2005

There is also the frankly amazing lack of customer service they offer. In the UK they have been through 4 distributors in the last 5 years, all of whom have told BOS take a long walk off a short cliff, due t a complete lack of support, no parts availability, massive lead times etc.

There are people who have waited MONTHS to get even basic parts, like seal kits etc. As as result, people are trying Fox seals in them, resizing RS bushes to bodge to fit, etc etc.

They are a real life customer service car crash. As you can probably gather, i've been on the receiving end of their legendary customer service, on more than one occasion. Now I run parts on my bike I can actually get fixed, easily.

The threat of this kind of behaviour after you've spent an absurd amount of money on a product is exactly why I try to avoid boutiquey stuff. I lusted after and bought that stuff for years but I had my heart broken one too many times. It was as if you were the one doing them a favour instead of the other way around. Now fancy stuff needs to prove itself to me first.

BOS stuff looks nice. Suspensionwerx supports it. Expensive.
Interesting but ultimately I'm going to need to see a serious flaw in my pedestrian (i.e. functional and easily maintained) gear to justify a jump.

There's nothing better than an Orangina after cheating death with Digger.

March 4, 2014, 12:01 p.m.
Posts: 643
Joined: March 25, 2011

BOS stuff looks nice. Suspensionwerx supports it. Expensive.
Interesting but ultimately I'm going to need to see a serious flaw in my pedestrian (i.e. functional and easily maintained) gear to justify a jump.

I think a lot of people might wonder how well BOS supports Suspensionwerx in terms of spares.

March 4, 2014, 12:15 p.m.
Posts: 5731
Joined: June 24, 2003

if winning world championships since 1994 is new, then I guess you have a point. bos is great because it wins and is not full of gimmicky marketing crap.

http://m.pinkbike.com/news/Bos-Suspension-A-History-of-Victory.html

'cept all fork manufacturers even Manitou has been winning for ages too.

Debate? Bikes are made for riding not pushing.

March 4, 2014, 1 p.m.
Posts: 8256
Joined: Nov. 21, 2002

What you seem to get (in the UK) is fat, middle aged IT managers who want to do a lot of purchase justification, who tend to wobble round trail centre's once a week on a very expensive carbon bike telling everyone in a very loud voice how much their bike cost [HTML_REMOVED] how much better the BOS suspension is from the 'Fox crap' they ran before.

awesome. although i dont think its unique to the uk.

i doubt id be able to feel the subtle differences. i'll keep on picking up rockshox cheap until reliability tanks.

i get picky over other minutia like geometry or tires

WTB Frequency i23 rim, 650b NEW - $40

March 4, 2014, 6:25 p.m.
Posts: 961
Joined: April 9, 2006

'cept all fork manufacturers even Manitou has been winning for ages too.

way to read the article.

www.travelswithtyler.com

March 5, 2014, 7:32 a.m.
Posts: 5731
Joined: June 24, 2003

way to read the article.

Way to miss the point.

Debate? Bikes are made for riding not pushing.

March 5, 2014, 10:10 a.m.
Posts: 0
Joined: Dec. 25, 2009

Touched a nerve?
Nope. I'm not fat, middle aged(quite), a trail centre wobbler or in IT. And I quite like my fox crap thanks. It's just bollocks. Most MTBers are pretty cool down to earth folks in my opinion and the minority of twats certainly aren't unique to the UK.
It's just a lazy stereotype normally rolled out because some idiot has read it somewhere and is too bone to form their own opinion.

March 5, 2014, 11:39 a.m.
Posts: 0
Joined: April 14, 2011

I've worked as a workshop manager for some of the largest bike shops in the UK over the years and have dealt with tonnes of warranty claims for many brands

the best advice I could give to any customer making an expensive purchase; do your research and see what "real world users" are saying about their experiences with the brand you are interested in.

buying a product for its "high performance" is fantastic until you realise you don't have support when the product develops a fault or just needs a service

the pedestrian options from the "big brands" starts to make much more sense when they have your product repaired or replaced in the same week, because they have invested in proper infrastructure to take care of their customers.

Nothing worse than waiting weeks or months to get a fault repaired or get something serviced. Negates any incremental gains in performance over the pedestrian choice.

There is a reason Specialized, Trek, Giant, Shimano, SRAM, Fox, etc. have the lion's share of the market

In my recent role I've been doing warranty work for road bike brands, and typically its taking 2-3 months to get a new frame for the small "boutique" brands, compared to 48 hours with Specialized or Trek.

There is a reason all 3 of my bikes are Specialized, I don't have a hard-on for the brand, they just make good quality frames and I know they have my back if one of my frames develops a fault.

On my most recent warranty claim on my mountain bike frame (it developed a crack after 10 months) I had a brand new frame within 48 hours.

In contrast my buddy had a problem with his Ellsworth, got messed around for 2 months and received his damaged frame back "repaired" which then failed on the 1st ride, he eventually got a new part (rocker) and sold the frame at a loss, bought a Specialized Enduro.

March 5, 2014, 4:38 p.m.
Posts: 961
Joined: April 9, 2006

Way to miss the point.

yes other forks won races during that time but BOS was dominant, which is very evident if you read the article, making your point not relevant to my point

www.travelswithtyler.com

March 5, 2014, 6:06 p.m.
Posts: 0
Joined: Feb. 29, 2008

Having had 3 BOS forks and shocks, they feel different than most of the other suspension products. Some will like it, and others won't. I don't think they are necessarily more "special."

On the positive side, quality seems much higher than others and you can go a lot longer before having to service them. On the negative side (which has been brought up already), it was difficult (and still is) getting service/replacement parts, etc.

March 5, 2014, 7:54 p.m.
Posts: 0
Joined: June 12, 2004

Having had 3 BOS forks and shocks, they feel different than most of the other suspension products. Some will like it, and others won't. I don't think they are necessarily more "special."

On the positive side, quality seems much higher than others and you can go a lot longer before having to service them. On the negative side (which has been brought up already), it was difficult (and still is) getting service/replacement parts, etc.

Likewise with every open bath fork

March 6, 2014, 5:18 a.m.
Posts: 0
Joined: Aug. 15, 2011

Disclaimer, I've owned and lived with three pairs of Bos forks and two rear shocks, I'm far from a pro but capable enough to be able to detect subtle changes in suspension, traction and control.
Bos was admittedly expensive when it first launched but now is pretty competitive with Fox who I would call the market leader. The extended service periods mean I spent less time faffing with suspension and replacing seals or sending it away for servicing.
I also do not buy into the all suspension is the same, just as there are cheap makes which perform worse than the mid tier Fox and Rockshox products, its entirely feasible for there to be expensive high end products that perform better. Bos is one, there are others such as Avalanche I believe.
From my first ride on a Bos fork it was immediately noticeable that there was increased mid-range support and traction, especially noticeable over wet roots where it literally blew my mind just how much more stable the bike was. In turn this additional confidence enabled me to carry more speed into roots and many other areas where previously I would have backed off slightly.
I think the reason why Bos are better than the other shocks out there is because they manufacture to tighter tolerances and provide a close to optimum setup out of the box. Generally I find you don't have to move from more than one or two clicks from the recommended settings. These settings were achieved through both subjective and more importantly objective testing when they entered the market with Nicolas Vouilloz who obviously knows a thing or two about suspension and bike setup.
Other suspension manufacturers have already stepped up their game to close the gap on Bos (Rockshox charger damper etc) so doesn't provide the same magical leap it did say 3-4 years ago.

There are two downsides to Bos
Firstly I think its a better 'race' fork than a plush weekend mince around XC trail fork which is why a lot of the (I won't call them fat middle managers!) less capable riders who don't ride at what I would class as race pace get the advantage of the Bos forks. You need to ride them fast and hard to get them working 100%, at lesser speeds they don't provide the same magical additional performance over competitors.

Secondly and probably more importantly, their service and parts supply sucks compared to Fox/RS. We've had numerous providers of service here in the UK now and its always the same issue. Lack of spares availability. Bos need to sort this out if they want to gain further market penetration IMHO.

Hope this was useful, Ive tried to provide a balanced view based on my practices experience of living with this brand of suspension. I'm not in any way paid or compensated by Bos, all my products have been paid for 100% with my own money at retail pricing.

March 6, 2014, 8:19 a.m.
Posts: 0
Joined: Feb. 29, 2008

Likewise with every open bath fork

It's more than that. Other open bath forks I have had either had less quality seals that started leaking or other issues (like Marzocchi). Given higher quality parts that probably go into the fork, it ran a lot longer without much maintenance vs. other open bath forks.

March 6, 2014, 9:37 a.m.
Posts: 3800
Joined: April 13, 2003

It's more than that. Other open bath forks I have had either had less quality seals that started leaking or other issues (like Marzocchi). Given higher quality parts that probably go into the fork, it ran a lot longer without much maintenance vs. other open bath forks.

High quality parts in an open bath is going to run longer than high quality parts in a non open bath. Lets compare apples to apples.

:canada:

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