First Look | Push Industries ELEVENSIX Custom Rear Shock
When it comes to riding each of us is unique, our weight, riding style and the trails that we enjoy vary immensely, making it tough for suspension manufacturers to build shocks that are suitable for all. Big manufacturers now offer highly adjustable shocks and frame specific tunes that work well for most people most of the time. However if you are more (or less) aggressive than most or fall outside the average weight range, then your shock may not be optimised for your riding style.
Update Febuary 2016: We’ve spent 9 months on the shock and published our full PUSH ELEVENSIX review.
Colorado based PUSH industries are well known for their skills in improving other manufacturer’s shocks, offering custom valving and upgrades to tailor suspension performance to individual requirements. The Colorado based company have now taken that knowledge and produced a rear shock built from the ground up for each and every user, but if you want something this unique on your bike you will need to have deep pockets.
The ELEVENSIX (named after the date when inspiration struck) is a new venture for Colorado suspension experts PUSH Industries, and each shock is 100% hand built in house to the customer’s unique requirements. Upon ordering a shock you will work on a one-to-one basis with the engineer who will translate your requirements in to the ELEVENSIX during production. Each unit is hand assembled, vacuum bled, and dyno tested, and hand built to rider specification based on rider weight, riding style, and frame application. To some the $1200 sticker price on the ELEVENSIX will serve as a huge shock (sorry), you have to be kidding right? However, others will understand that ‘hand built’ costs money and bespoke performance always demands a high premium.
The heart of the shock and its unique feature is the patent pending, Dual Overhead Valve Design, allowing two completely decoupled ride characteristics that can be toggled between on-the-fly with a lever. This means not only could you set up a standard climb/descent setup, but choose any two setups, for example have one setting for rooty technical trails with a second setting for high speed bike park terrain – the possibilities are endless. You can now have two very different suspension set-ups on one bike without compromise.
Both compression circuits feature tool free rebound, high and low speed compression adjustment, and the parabolic needles on the LSC and rebound should help when dialling in the perfect setting. Surprisingly the ELEVENSIX does not use a titanium spring, instead choosing to use a HyperCo Ultra Light Spring available in 25lb/in increments. PUSH were concerned that they could not obtain the properties they required from titanium so chose the high tensile spring, which is wound wider in the centre to eliminate spring deflection and body wear.
The ELEVENSIX features the new Digressive Damping characteristic, using custom compression valves to provide incredible traction and control while allowing for through travel on square impacts. The high volumes of Maxima oil and large nitrogen reservoir should ensure consistent performance on long runs.
Each shock comes with comprehensive setup instructions tailored to the bike and rider, and we have fitted an ELEVENSIX to our long term Yeti SB6c. We will put the shock through extensive testing on both epic long rides and through some EWS races. We weighed the shock and spring at 875 g, light for a coil shock but still 471g heavier than the outgoing Fox Float X.
It has to be said that a shock like this is certainly not for everyone, and it screams high end – just looking at the current list of compatible bikes, currently the Ibis Mojo HD, Niner WFO, Santa Cruz Butcher, Santa Cruz Nomad, Yeti SB66 and Yeti SB6c, you can start to see the target market.
Update Febuary 2016: We’ve spent 9 months on the shock and published our full PUSH ELEVENSIX review.
For sure the $1200 price is formidable, but this level of attention does not come cheap and the shock potentially offers a bigger performance upgrade than the four figure carbon wheelsets that now seem de-rigour on most high end enduro bikes. But the proof – as always – is in the riding and we will let you know how it performs in a full review after we have got some serious miles in.
Words and photos: Trev Worsey
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