DVO Suspension has been stepping things up this year and just released the brand new DVO Diamond 36 as well as the Topaz Prime rear shock. We had a chance to visit them this week to check out the new product and get them installed on our bikes for some testing before the launch. If you are thinking visiting them is some industry privilege it is not, their HQ is in Santa Clarita, California and anyone can stop by to check out some product or get their DVO suspension serviced. They even have free espresso, just make sure Jr or Ronnie are the ones pulling it. If you are lucky too, the car shop in front of them gets some exotic projects weekly so you might see some rad vehicles while you are there!
So what is new for the Diamond 36? Basically everything! A few weeks ago we brought you our first impressions of the new Onyx 38 by DVO and talked about how great that fork felt. They went with a new SL air system, so gone is the old OTT coil set up, and instead you have a much easier to set up fork that retains all of the suppleness in the initial stroke. DVO is bringing those internals over to the Diamond setup, which is a much more trail / enduro oriented fork, with travel ranges from 140mm to 160mm. They also spent a considerable amount of time working on the crown of both the 38 as well as 36 chassis to help increase trail traction while remaining stiff when needed!
All of this is backed by the awesome customer service that DVO has been known to provide, where you are actually able to get on the phone with them and have them dial you in! Bryson Martin has been doing suspension things for a long time and is actually the man behind Marzocchi from back in the day!
The Topaz Prime rear shock is also new for them this year. This addition to the standard Topaz features both High and Low speed compression adjustments allowing you to fully dial in the shock to your enduro or downhill needs. Paired with the DVO Onyx 38, the tunability of your ride will be all up to you and excuses are out the door. Both the Topaz as well as the Diamond 36 are fully adjustable tune wise straight from DVO, so if there is something specific you want from your suspension you can actually hop on a phone call with them and discuss what you are looking for from your ride! If you get Ronnie on the phone, ask him about his Big Mac experiment and how that has been going.
Our test session was on a very rocky trail system called “Rocky Peak” just north of Los Angeles. With lots of big rocks to roll off and plenty of chunk, we were able to really put the new suspension through its paces. We even had the pleasure of riding with professional racer Spencer Rathkramp, who was able to show us some of the lines when things got spicy. Right before the ride we ran into pro racer Rae Morrison who also rides for DVO Suspension. Having worked with DVO over the years one thing we have always noticed is they feel like so much more than a suspension company and people associated with the brand really do consider themselves part of a family. With so many other giant suspension corporations being swallowed up by private equity firms, it's a refreshing thing to see.
On trail, the real magic here is the Diamond 36. My wife Hannah has been struggling to get a good rhythm on her Yeti Sb140 and attributed a lot of that to the Fox 36 that comes stock having a bit more of a stiffer tune out of the box and the Yeti putting you in a bit more of a race style position on the bike. After a lap of one of the more chunky trails out there, her feedback continually seemed to be that the fork felt much more supple in the initial stroke while feeling just as stiff. She seemed to really be enjoying how much control she had of the front end of the bike, again balancing out the more race-like feel the Yeti SB140 was giving her.
A lot of the feedback seemed to line up well with how I felt about the DVO Onyx 38. The new SL air system seems to have achieved the perfect combo of great feeling fork and super easy to set up feel on trail. Spencer was running the same fork and seeing him put his Specialized Stumpy through the paces on some bigger lines also was very confidence inspiring in the Diamond 36’s performance.
The Topaz Prime rear shock I had on my Rocky Mountain Slayer also felt great. While I did not notice too much of a drastic change over the Topaz I'm currently running, obviously the biggest difference here is the ability to fine tune high and low speed compression adjustments, something that is crucial on the Rocky Mountain suspension platform given its unique feeling curve. A lot of riders will appreciate this option and it's a welcomed addition to their lineup.
We are currently putting the Diamond 36 through the paces for a long term review, stay tuned!
Find out more here: https://dvosuspension.com
