The Most Common Reasons a Shock Underperforms

A shock is a shock is a shock, right? How different can they be?

Here we examine the most common reasons your suspension may be underperforming and what you can do about it.

Does This Sound Familiar?

Lack of Support

Most shock manufacturers either don’t want to or are not equipped to truly support their customers.

Most are in the business of just selling as many shocks as they can and are not necessarily interested in investing time and resources to ensure their customers' success.

This is just wrong.

Delayed Optimization

In most cases, shocks ship to customers with “factory” settings. Manufacturers expect customers to simply bolt-on the product and then make adjustments based on trial and error.

This process is inefficient and leads to frustration, lost time (on track), and wasted money.

Don't delay your performance.

Inexperienced Tuning

Anyone can make (or sell) a shock, but that does not mean you should buy from just anyone. Who you buy from matters more than you may think.

To truly maximize performance, deep experience and technical know-how are required. Not many possess the expertise to get a truly dialed-in setup.

Work with the best.

What Most Shock Companies "Promise"

There is a disconnect between what most shock companies promise their customers and what they actually deliver.

LOWER UPFRONT COST

Shock manufacturers can drive down costs by delivering products set to generic, “factory” settings, but you pay with decreased performance.
BOLT-ON PERFORMANCE

They make false promises about the ease of improvements: "Our shock is better. Your performance will improve if you simply bolt-on our product."
PERFORMANCE (WITHOUT SUPPORT)

Most shock manufacturers either don’t promise or are not very good at providing support to customers post-sale.

What They Actually Deliver

The performance they deliver does not lead to winning results.

GREATER TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP

You may save a couple of bucks on a set of shocks upfront. But, because most shocks are shipped with factory settings - optimized for everyone, not just for you - you will need to invest additional money after the fact to tune the setup to your application and driving style.
SMALL GAINS, IF YOU ARE LUCKY

While it’s generally true that some shocks are better than others (you get what you pay for), bolting on a “better” shock is likely only to give you small gains. That’s because the factory settings aren’t customized to your application or you as the driver. Remember, a shock is nothing without a proper setup.
ONE SIZE FITS ALL SERVICE, IF ANY SUPPORT AT ALL

Just like the hardware setup, the support from most manufacturers leaves the customers wanting more. We believe support is something that makes all the difference in optimizing the performance of your newly purchased shocks.

WHAT DRIVERS AND RIDERS REALLY NEED

Optimal hardware for their specific application, personalized shock setup, and backend support to reinforce their relentless passion and pursuit to always be better.

Just like the racers we support, we are relentless in our pursuit to always be better. To us, that means not just selling a set of the best shocks to a customer but personalizing the setup and providing support to help that customer in THEIR pursuit always to be better.

Get started today on your path to improved performance with S3!