The hype surrounding our new air shock has been brewing for quite some time and we are happy to announce the wait is over! Due to the reputation of EXT’s current line up, it has been highly anticipated that this would be a revolutionary project—and the final product does not disappoint. An air sprung rear damper has been the missing piece in EXT’s already extensive line-up of high-performance suspension products, entrenched in years of research and development.
As this is the first air shock from EXT, it is called the ARIA, “air” in Italian… which is saturated in novel technology and design approach. Though the EXT brand has become synonymous with unrivaled performance of coil shocks, their knowledge of air spring technologies actually began in the Williams Formula 1 program developing products for the highest forms of racing.
Early on in the project it was clear to EXT’s team that they wouldn’t be satisfied with simply adding an air can to their existing coil-shock structure– high performance necessitated a complete ground up re-design Thus, EXT took the innovative dual-positive air chamber concept made for the Era fork and formatted a new version of it to fit the unique needs of the Aria application. From this groundwork they have created a shock featuring a noticeably improved air-spring able to reach high levels of sensitivity and support that are currently only achievable with coil sprung shocks.
The Aria’s hydraulic damping system is based on the E-Storia circuit design but implements architecture specific to the demands of an air shock. Excellent tunability of the damper is achieved by maintaining independent high- and low-speed compression circuits, as well as isolated rebound circuits. These damping adjustments have been designed to give the user a discernable change between clicks while maintaining enough granularity that the rider should be able to find the perfect setting.
To complete the package, the proprietary LOK 2.0 system and externally adjustable hydraulic bottom-out control (HBC) were integrated into the Aria as well. Plainly put, EXT’s Aria is not your conventional air damper. The combination of many of EXT’s proven features and a revolutionary air spring make it stand out from anything else on the market. Let’s take a deeper look inside the technology of this unique air shock:
• AS3 technology: the dual positive chamber featuring only 2 dynamic seals to separate the 3 different chambers. (EXT unique patented design)
• Positive chamber +/++ (low/high) with endless adjustment potential via 2 s eparate air valves to finetune the spring characteristics.
• Negative self-activating large volume chamber.
• Unique air seals design based on aerospace technology.
• Lok 2.0 technology.
• 14 mm superlight weight internal shaft
• Large 28mm hydraulic main piston
• Adjustable Hydraulic Bottom-Out Circuit (HBC)
• Proprietary “Super Finish” surface treatment on sliding parts
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