A Crash Course in Mountain Bike Suspension (2026)
A Crash Course in Mountain Bike Suspension (2026)
山地自行车避震系统速成课（2026）
The trouble with being an aging mountain biker is that while my skills may marginally improve, the rocks don’t get any softer with every passing year. I’ve come to accept, for example, that I’m never going to clean the Teacup Trail in Sedona when riding from the west side of town over to the fun, mellow trails like Adobe Jack around Soldier Pass. But I stupidly keep trying, broken bones be damned, because what is also true: With every passing year, bike suspension keeps getting better. 作为一个上了年纪的山地车手，麻烦在于尽管我的技术可能略有提升，但岩石并不会随着岁月的流逝而变软。例如，我已经接受了一个事实：当我从塞多纳（Sedona）西侧骑行前往像 Adobe Jack 这样有趣且平缓的步道时，我永远无法顺利骑完 Teacup Trail。但我还是愚蠢地不断尝试，哪怕摔断骨头也在所不惜，因为另一个事实是：随着岁月的流逝，自行车的避震系统一直在不断进步。
Garage mechanics have been tinkering with bike suspension since around 1888. Full suspension—bikes that are equipped with a front fork and a smaller rear shock—went mainstream in the 1990s when brands like Specialized, Trek, and Santa Cruz brought the results of their tinkering out of the garage and into the daylight. 自 1888 年左右以来，车库里的机械师们就开始钻研自行车避震系统。全避震自行车（配备前叉和较小后避震器的自行车）在 20 世纪 90 年代开始流行，当时 Specialized、Trek 和 Santa Cruz 等品牌将他们的研发成果从车库带到了大众视野中。
I bought my first full-suspension mountain bike, a Santa Cruz Superlight, in 2000. With 100 mm of travel (the maximum distance suspension compresses while absorbing impact) in the rear shock and 120 mm of travel in the front, it gave me the confidence to ride lines through New Mexico rocks I wouldn’t have dreamed of riding on my Specialized Stumpjumper hardtail, which had front suspension only. 我在 2000 年购买了我的第一辆全避震山地车——Santa Cruz Superlight。它拥有 100 毫米的后避震行程（避震器在吸收冲击时压缩的最大距离）和 120 毫米的前避震行程，这让我有信心在新墨西哥州的岩石路面上骑行，而这在以前我那辆只有前避震的 Specialized Stumpjumper 硬尾车上是想都不敢想的。
Today’s full-suspension bikes have so much cush that the world’s best downhill riders can safely crush events like Red Bull’s Hardline Tasmania, a course that combines brutally technical features with massive jumps, because they have front shocks with 200 to 220 mm of travel. 如今的全避震自行车避震效果极佳，世界顶尖的速降车手可以安全地挑战像红牛 Hardline 塔斯马尼亚赛这样的赛事——该赛道结合了极其复杂的技术路段和巨大的跳台——这得益于他们拥有 200 到 220 毫米行程的前避震器。
I have ridden a full-suspension bike for the past three decades and have been testing bikes for WIRED since an ill-planned trip to the Mojave Desert in 2014. But there are far greater experts than me when it comes to explaining how suspension works—so I asked Vernon Felton, director of product at Canyon, former editor at Pinkbike, and the former editor in chief of Bike magazine, to lay it out for us. 过去三十年来，我一直骑着全避震自行车，自 2014 年一次计划不周的莫哈韦沙漠之旅后，我便开始为《连线》（WIRED）杂志测试自行车。但在解释避震系统如何工作方面，有比我更专业的专家——所以我请教了 Canyon 产品总监、Pinkbike 前编辑、《Bike》杂志前主编 Vernon Felton，让他为我们详细解读。
What Is Suspension?
什么是避震系统？
“Mountain bikes are designed to take you up and over mountains … and all the rocks and roots that stand between you and your destination,” Felton says. Of course, he adds, one can ride a mountain bike over all manner of obstacles without a suspension fork or rear shock, but “doing so, without the aid of suspension, requires a lot of very skillful body English and takes its toll on your body and energy levels.” “山地车的设计初衷是带你翻山越岭……跨越你与目的地之间所有的岩石和树根，”Felton 说道。当然，他补充说，人们可以在没有前叉或后避震器的情况下骑行通过各种障碍，但“在没有避震辅助的情况下这样做，需要非常高超的身体协调技巧，并且会对你的身体和体力造成很大消耗。”
How Does It Work?
它是如何工作的？
“Suspension almost always consists of a spring (made of either a metal coil or a sealed canister of air) that compresses when your wheels encounter rocks, roots, ruts, etc., and some kind of ‘rebound damper’ that slows down the spring when it rebounds back into its unloaded shape,” says Felton. “Without a damper unit (or ‘shock absorber’), your bike would bounce around uncontrollably like a pogo stick every time you hit a big enough bump.” “避震系统几乎总是由弹簧（由金属线圈或密封空气罐制成）组成，当你的车轮遇到岩石、树根、车辙等障碍时，弹簧会压缩；此外还有某种‘回弹阻尼器’，用于在弹簧回弹至未受力状态时减缓其速度，”Felton 说。“如果没有阻尼单元（或称‘减震器’），每当你遇到足够大的颠簸时，你的自行车就会像弹簧高跷一样无法控制地乱跳。”
Better bike brands, he adds, work tirelessly with companies like Fox Racing and RockShox to “custom-tune those squishy bits so that they work optimally with the bike company’s frame design. The bike’s weight, style, and precise placement of its linkages all affect how the suspension works; consequently, companies employ specific ‘tunes’ to optimize oil flow inside the shock and change how the suspension feels.” 他补充说，优秀的自行车品牌会与 Fox Racing 和 RockShox 等公司不懈合作，“对这些避震部件进行定制调校，使其与车架设计完美匹配。自行车的重量、风格以及连杆的精确位置都会影响避震的工作方式；因此，各公司会采用特定的‘调校’来优化避震器内部的油流，并改变避震的反馈感。”
Why the need for oil? When a bike hits a rock, the suspension, either a coil spring or an air spring, is squeezed. At that point, a piston forces oil upward through small or large openings and valves, depending on the velocity of the impact. This creates resistance, also known as damping, which controls how quickly the suspension compresses. After the obstacle is cleared, the shock “rebounds” or returns to its original length. A shock’s “tune” essentially controls how quickly this process happens and, to some extent, how much impact the shock, rather than your arms, legs, back, neck, shoulders, and every other body part, will absorb. 为什么要用油？当自行车撞击岩石时，无论是螺旋弹簧还是空气弹簧，避震器都会被压缩。此时，活塞会根据冲击速度，迫使油液通过大小不一的开口和阀门向上流动。这会产生阻力，即所谓的“阻尼”，它控制着避震器压缩的速度。障碍物通过后，避震器会“回弹”或恢复到原始长度。避震器的“调校”本质上就是控制这一过程发生的速度，并在一定程度上决定了避震器能吸收多少冲击力，从而减轻你手臂、腿部、背部、颈部、肩部及身体其他部位的负担。
How Does Suspension Differ between a Cross-Country, Trail, Enduro, and Downhill Mountain Bike?
越野（XC）、林道（Trail）、耐力（Enduro）和速降（Downhill）山地车的避震有何不同？
“Ultimately, all suspension is designed to do the same thing—help you ride up and over rough terrain with more ease, speed, comfort, and control,” says Felton. But different styles of mountain biking, along with greatly varied terrain, require different styles and amounts of suspension. “归根结底，所有避震系统的设计目的都是一样的——帮助你更轻松、快速、舒适且可控地在崎岖地形上骑行，”Felton 说。但不同风格的山地骑行以及差异巨大的地形，需要不同类型和行程的避震系统。
“A cross-country racer is looking for the lightest and most efficient-feeling bike,” says Felton. “They place a premium on how quickly the bike lets them climb big mountains. As a result, cross-country suspension tends to have fewer inches of suspension travel, and the suspension might feel firm to a more casual rider.” “越野（XC）赛车手追求的是最轻量、最高效的自行车，”Felton 说。“他们非常看重自行车爬坡的速度。因此，越野车的避震行程通常较短，对于普通骑行者来说，这种避震可能会感觉偏硬。”
Trail, enduro, and downhill riders, on the other hand, says Felton, “want to maximize speed on the toughest descents and therefore generally equip their bikes with suspension that offers a greater amount of suspension travel and a softer, more forgiving ride quality.” 另一方面，林道、耐力和速降车手，“希望在最艰难的下坡路段实现速度最大化，因此通常会为他们的自行车配备行程更长、骑行质感更软、容错率更高的避震系统。”
Is Ebike Suspension Different?
电动助力山地车（E-MTB）的避震有什么不同吗？
Ebikes are “invariably” different, says Felton, because you’re adding a motor and battery to the mix, which impacts how the suspension performs. Likewise, the motor introduces a surge of torque through the pedals that also impacts the suspension (oftentimes making the shock compress even when you are riding across smooth terrain). Felton 表示，电动助力山地车“必然”是不同的，因为你增加了电机和电池，这会影响避震系统的表现。同样，电机通过踏板产生的扭矩激增也会影响避震（即使在平坦路面上骑行时，也常会导致避震器压缩）。
To compensate, companies like Specialized custom-tune the suspension forks and rear shocks so they operate optimally despite the extra weight and power being added to the mountain biking mix. 为了弥补这一点，像 Specialized 这样的公司会对前叉和后避震器进行定制调校，使其在增加了额外重量和动力的情况下，依然能发挥最佳性能。
There are, adds Felton, a few specially modified suspension forks that feature beefier components designed to keep the forks from flexing too much given the greater system weight and ride speed. Felton 补充说，还有一些经过特殊改装的前叉，采用了更粗壮的组件，旨在防止前叉因系统重量增加和骑行速度提升而产生过大的形变。
What Should Consumers Look for in Ebike Suspension?
消费者在选购电动助力山地车避震时应该注意什么？
“Most of the weight on an e-MTB stems from the addition of a battery,” says Felton. Batteries are getting lighter by the day, but a typical e-MTB battery can weigh about 7 to 11 pounds. “电动助力山地车的大部分重量来自电池，”Felton 说。电池虽然日益轻量化，但典型的电动助力山地车电池重量仍可达 7 到 11 磅（约 3.2 到 5 公斤）。