EXT are a company with a wealth of know-how when it comes to suspension. Their suspension can be found on rally cars, among others. The brand is still relatively unknown on the mountain bike scene, but that might all change with the new EXT STORIA LOK V3.
We’ve long tried distancing ourselves from coil shocks on our bikes, replacing them with much lighter and more adjustable air shocks. However, if you look at the starting lineup of any enduro race including the EWS, you’ll see this trend is well and truly over. Every second race bike now features a coil shock. Does this mean that every bike would be better off with a coil instead of air-sprung shock? Usually, coil shocks are very linear, rushing through their travel too easily if used on bikes designed with the progression of air shocks in mind. EXT claim to have solved this problem with their € 950 STORIO LOK V2. The coil spring itself is as linear as any but thanks to EXT’s Hydraulic Bottom-out Control (HBC), the last 15% of the shock’s stroke ramps up progressively. Therefore, the STORIA LOK V3 can also be used on bikes with a relatively linear leverage ratio. On top of that, the HBC allows EXT to use a much smaller bottom-out bumper, so the shock can actually use its full stroke length.
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