Sea Otter Spy Photos: RockShox Vivid Air Shock

 agreed

 genius it's on a knolly podium...not an xc or a slopestyle bike.....

 i think it the shock that the santa cruz syndicate team were given the option of running at south african world cup last year?

 nateb- i meant maybe this will be a shock that can actually be used for DH, unlike DHX airs which have issues

 jeza08, The blackbox guys ran them in practice and Peaty said it was nearly there in terms of matching the vivid coil's small bump compliance...

 ye and hes not saying that because hes sponsored and is trying to hype a product up before its released

 More than likely. I'd wait for reviews to see if his statement is true...

 I think because this is only a prototype they obviously cba with the appearance of the shock and just focused on it functional side, i can guarantee you that by the time this is released to the public it will have been pimped up completely

 Manitou actually made what is possibly the best air shock around for Dh use, Fox DHX Airs are absolute pieces of shit

 people care about the look of any bike components. in a big way the whole bike industry is a fashion thing whether you like it or not.
the older Monarch and Vivid shocks have already proved that you can rely on RockShox and I believe this new Vivid Air will be as good as the others, i'm also glad they change slightly the shock appearance.

 Sure, things "should" look nice. Ultimately though, performance is the main priority. However, it seems alot of people in here think esthetics is the biggest priority. Real bikers want the best performance. Everyone just wants to look cool while they're standing around talking about their bike.

 looking very very nice....

 Awesome info on sicklines.com. "Hot Rod," That's friggin nuts, and awesome! August 10, vivid air, here I come...

 you got that shit on lockdown

 Never really liked the look of the large canister, but that's me

 Does not do it for me.

 well, considering that i have only been disapointed with RS lately, and that i pretty much have to admit that i love fox, all ive gotta say is: ill put my money on a good old/new DHX air if i wanted an air shock that will last forever and feel like a coil shock..or even a zocchi roco air, since they seem never to break down, and fell like, well, a marzocchi!...but nicely done RS...

 konamandan, how does it not do it for you? we have no clue how it performs!! I mean, it may not look super sexy, but if it's any better at all then why would you care? I'm interested to see some performance reviews on this baby and see the specs... could be a great thing. Could also suck hard.

 Ugly as sin, but if it's better/cheaper than something like a DHX Air, RS are onto a winner....

 ^^ i think some people still believe that a 'pretty looking' shock works better and/or makes you faster..... sigh>

 Well it does make you look way cooler... no arguing with that! Lol, I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a sexy looking part. Fox has some gdamn sexy forks... but their performance backs them %100. Zocchi tried making their stuff only look sexy and everyone realized what shit they were pretty quick (talkin like the 08 years). They have since figured out that performance is important too and I believe they have done a pretty good job with the newer stuff since then.

Plus, I can't argue with the fact that it does look ugly. I thought the same about double barrel until I found out how damn awesome they are! Now ugly is sexy! (Think Subaru WRX... sexy f*cking car but take a step back and have a look... wtf are you driving man?!)

Haha, long ass post... I'll shut my trap.

 haha! but ur right! god damm the wrx ist fugly!!! but i love it!! and for me its one of the coolest cars in the world! even tho its as ugly as burned to death street dog...the performance, name, history behind the cars makes it as slim and glamorous as a 21st cetury model)) well..ok..maybe not thaaaat pretty, but buyable!))) hehe))

 f*ck ugly...
dhx air looks amazin and its a fox so its good

 Sorry....DHX Air's aren't that great...especially for big bikes. Lots of stiction and poor valving....

I'm a much bigger fan of the Evolver ISX-6...more adjustments, feels much better w/ less stiction & much better price.

 Looks fricken awful! It had better ride fast to make me put that on my bike...

 It's a prototype, i think right now there goin for fucntion rather than looks, they'll come once the basics are dialed in. I love my vivid 5.1, new would go to anything else.

 I like the look....it also looks extremely functional.
I can't really see anywhere where I could complain asthetically...maybe some more colour on the body? I like the simplistic design though.
Also remember Black goes with all colour schemes....blue grey and black doesnt.

 STi's look sick!!

 greg won SA world on that shock. the performance must be there.

 who gives a f*ck if its ugly?? if it gets the job done it gets he job done. you need to quit worrying about whether or not your bike looks "pretty" and just ride

 agreed!!!!!!!^ i get shit for my bike all of the time but it still goes down the mt and its still fun

 "You'll have to wait until tomorrow for all the info, but this air sprung damper from RockShox was spotted on the back of Curtis Robinson's Knolly Podium."

 well look it looks a dirt bike thing that could snap right away or somfin

 I have no choice but to agree with your well founded and defended logic. Clearly you have done so much work in suspension design that you can analyze the inner workings of this shock merely by glancing at a few pictures. One can only imagine how many hours you must have spent in engineering and dynamics classes to gain this level knowledge. It's even more incredible to me that you are able to boil your brilliant opinion down to a mere 4 words. Some day I hope to know as much as you!

 hahaha.

 dude i work at a bike shop and do have knowlege of suspension products

 Yah dude I work at a bike shop too I've worked on suspension I can't tell by looking at 4 pics on how well the thing rides my bet is that u haven't ridden nearly anything as progressive as that

 actally i have...... i have a RC4 on my nomad and i would rather ride that rather than the vivid....yes i know there is a difference between the two but if the vivid air is anything like the vivid coil it will ride like crap

 the key point being you have no idea how it will ride. Oh and i have an rc4 as well... snap oh and remember its a lot more costly than the vivid hence the performance difference :S Don't judge this shock till you have tried it, u havnt even seen the specs/internals yet

 like i said if it rides anything like the vivid coil it will ride like shit....and how much more progressive can it be from the rear shocks out there???

 guess we will have to wait and see... you cant really even attempt to talk about its performance until it has at least had one review! And tbh the only form if you can call it that of feedback we have so far is positive as peaty and co seem to be running it happily for the seaotter dh stuff, yes it may be set up for them and they may have to, but its all we've got!

 Funny how u say the old vivids ride like crap when nearly every one on the podioum of last years world cup including the champ were riding vivid coils don't get me wrong I'm a fox guy too but think before u write things like that

 the rear shock is just one of the many things that can produce podium finishes.....its all about how the person does the course to create those podium finishes

 So if they put riders on podiums it's because of the rider's ability, but if they ride like crap for you it's because they're poorly designed?

 no i dont think that its just from exp that when i ride a bike with a vivid then a fox i find there are huge differences in performance.......and i know a few ppl that when they sold a DH or a FR bike just as a frame they have just thrown the vivd in for free just for the fact to get rid of it