Hi everyone,
I know this might be a bit of a subjective one but.....
Who's shocks are best? Avo, Spax, Gaz etc etc...
Are the Gaz one really any good? I always thought they were a budget item
but now it appears I can get Spax shocks cheaper!
Anyone got any feelings, good or bad, or old wives tales?
Thanks
I went for gaz from dampertech because they are complerely servicable for one,lots of damper settings and a 3 year warranty.
I cant say more till i'm on the road,but others i've spoken too havnt had problems track or raod.
I bought mine from Darren george, im not on the road yet, but they looks good and cost £200 for all four...
I think it´s spax
[Edited on 13/1/03 by kamikaze]
i bought my car with avo shocks
i think they are expensive but are meant to be very good
If you want the best go for OHLINS or PENSKE they are gonna cost but they are the best, LEDA's are very good not as expensive, then there are all the alloy bodied shocks, of the budget ones i would (and have) go for are AVO's, the chaps up there will pre set the valving if you want them stiffer or softer than the adjustment allows and they are rebuildable 2 1/4's with springs will cost you £190 something with the vat.
is that 190 each
No a pair,
quote:
Originally posted by kamikaze
I bought mine from Darren george, im not on the road yet, but they looks good and cost £200 for all four...
I think it´s spax
[Edited on 13/1/03 by kamikaze]
The thing that puts me off Nitrons is that as far as I can see, they don't have adjustable rebound damping, which if they're anything like coil overs
for mountain bikes I would want because you start off with them set to very very little damping and then gradually as they get older wind in more and
more damping until they're squadgy and vague most of the time, at which point you pay a heap of money to have them recharged.
Apart from, and possibly more importantly, adjustable rebound means you can slow them down a bit for track days and the like, which is doubly
important if you like to stiffen up the springs.
I'm fairly sure Gaz and Avo have adjustable rebound, and I've a suspicion that spax might, but I don't think nitron and zeemerides do. Can anyone
confirm this.
Kingr
I know Zeemerides are rebuilt mini shocks so doubt if its possible to adjust,not sure about nitrons.
The gaz shocks have 36 damping settings as well as adjustable platform,like i said before the 3 year warranty swung it as well as the recomendations
on here.
Kingr:
quote:
I'm fairly sure Gaz and Avo have adjustable rebound, and I've a suspicion that spax might,
I believe most of the cheaper shocks (Gaz, Spax and Avos) adjust bump and rebound simultaneously.
I use Gaz on my race Westfie1d and they seem pretty good (they even come with a test sheet for each one). Rally Design are doing them from about
£45+VAT eash at the moment. For what I paid I could have had some with spherical bearings.
For those interested Gazzmatic was started by Mike Avon who started Avo.
if i go for dampertech coilovers do i need the 2.25 or the 1.9 ones
Depends on what you are using car for and what weight`s,ie bec or car engine? if your thinking about trackdays/competition then 2.25 as more spring
choice easier to obtain etc. if just pleasure than 1.9 will be ok.
However i would go for Avo`s best value for money and rebuildable, but at £45+vat for gaz they sure seem good value!
cheers
Sting
[Edited on 22/1/03 by sting]
Lars
I went for the 2.25" ones since I race the car. For mainly road use you could use the thinner ones
Just to set the record straight. This is coming from shock designer who at one time designed 1/4 of the F1 grids shocks.
AVO, GAZ, SPAX are the same internally. The guy who started AVO only did so because his supply of Spaxs dried up so he copied the shock, he then sold
up and set up with GAZ and again used the same design. The parts are interchangable, trust me i have interchanged a lot of parts from them.
Functionally they are all very poor. The build quality is bad. No two dampers match, the adjustments vary and the adjustments only work for both bump
and rebound.
Ledas are awful, worse than the above. The type of damper valving they use is extremely old and the characteristic is not what you want for a
responsive car.
The shocks i sell are made by an OE supplier to Mercedes. They are not adjustable, but then the most unreliable thing about AVOs etc are the
adjusters. I have designed them and road tested them to set the valving so you don't have to, they match the springs etc. The damping doesn't need to
be adjustable to take up for the wear, or variation in damping due to heat or whatever. Bike shocks are totally different in operation.
See my website www.gtscougar.freeserve.co.uk I have invested in making these shock kits so that you don't have to worry about the cost, quality and
the setup and reliability of the shocks.
Kind regards,
Darren
I am interested in a set, have you got any larger images so I can get a better look, the ones on the site are only 65 pixels!
What is the postage on them, delivery times etc?
Email me if you are shy!
Or U2U
Mark
I bought my shocks from Darren. My car isn't on the road yet, so I can't comment on their "ROADABILITY" yet. Have bought various bits and pieces from
Darren, & have been impressed by the quality and the price. IIRC he wrote some articles on suspension set ups for the Locost mag.
i also looked at these shocks and we decided that we would initially buy a set of the adjustables and see how they were! thats a long way off yet
tho!
what other parts do you sell darren?
I've just uploaded some pics of my Nitrons that I bought from GTS Cougar before the price drop 
Not had them on the road yet so can't say what they are like.
Click Here
Hi all,
The shock kit for adjustable ride height is £220 inc springs and VAT. Delivery in the UK is £12. I have them in stock built up. I can accept cheques,
wire transfers and Credit cards via Paypal.
The shocks are dispatched once the cheques/funds clear, normally get them within a week.
Kind regards,
Darren
Darren
Do you work for Nitron, or are your shocks made by another supplier? If you look on Nitron site it
states that they were approached by Ron Champion to design the shocks.
Maybe you would like to explain the situation to everyone on the board to justify your advert.
Bob you're right. The only adjustment on my Zimmers is spring preload. I'm going to fit 'em to my Robin Hood and if they are rubbish replace with something more adjustable. Like spax or something.. Of course, by the time I have finished building it (at approx. 4hrs / week) all those shock absorber makers will have gone out of business and we'll be flying around in antigravity cars as in Back to the Future II...
Darren
Do you work for Nitron, or are your shocks made by another supplier? If you look on Nitron site it states that they were approached by Ron Champion to
design the shocks.
Maybe you would like to explain the situation to everyone on the board to justify your advert.
From what I can remember, Darren designed the shocks, Nitron made them, they where tested and advertised on RC's website.
Hi all,
Long story. Basically Nitron and myself are the same thing. Guy Evans and I are close friends, i do work for Nitron based on this friendship and he
helps me out in the same way.
So Nitron/I get approached by RC to do a budget shock. We design them and have them made to suit the requirements of RC and other experts, have
devlopment adjsutables made to get the valving correct. Then make fixed rate versions and sell them as cheap as poss.
Now the reason they are not advertised as Nitrons anymore is because Guy has a lot on his plate with his normal high performance product and doesn't
want the Locost product diluting his efforts, so i have taken over the total running of the manufacture and sales of them under my GTS Tuning
banner.
Kind regards,
Darren