Welcome to the MEATengines take on cycling-content-creation’s lowest-of-low-hanging fruit. An entire week of ‘Best Of’ awards where we (I) choose a single product to top categories so diverse in terms of both use-case and price point as to render any verdict irrelevant.
If you can guess the winner(s) before scrolling down then award yourself 1000 bonus points* (*bonus points have no monetary value or value whatsoever).
Before I reveal this year’s suspension category winner, I need to note a couple of things for the record. First of all, I regularly ride a rigid fork and, therefore, I actually know nothing about bicycle suspension. Also, I’ve never been the Canadian National DH Champ. These and other shocking revelations will be coming to light in my future tell-all autobiography: ‘Andrew Major – An Older, Fatter, Slightly Shorter, And Much Slower Matt Beer.’
This year’s winner for top suspension product, released for the 2023 model year, is a rear shock that comes in thirty-two different sizes. There’s a massive range of factory valving options with five different compression tunes and three rebound tunes as stock options and custom tuning available. It’s so rare that you can’t even buy a new one aftermarket if you want to. There’s no suggested retail price, and even the biggest online suspension retailers don’t have it listed.
Redesigned for ’23, this shock has been beefed up internally to manage the worst aligned shock-killing frames on the market whether they’re boutique simple single pivots or production many-link yoke or ‘onion’ mount setups. It uses some of, if not the, best quality anodizing in the bicycle industry. Service parts and tech info are widely available for the home tuner.
I’m on the record as saying that, better or worse, this should be the shock that every other suspension product is compared against. Without further adieu, the ’23 RockShox Super Deluxe Select.
The Super Deluxe Select (SDS) shares the same quality of manufacturing – from materials to anodizing – as RockShox’s top-end $870 Super Deluxe Ultimate less the full suite of adjustments. On the trail side, the air pressure and low-speed rebound damping are the only tuneable features. At home, the air volume is also easily adjusted using up to three tokens. This beauty doesn’t even include a lockout that you probably don’t need and will likely never use.
The street price for a brand-new take-off is $250-300 Canuck-bucks and for a used one feel encouraged to deduct $150 to cover a routine 100-hour service from the good folks at Fluid-Function. The good news is that no matter how well-tuned it comes, enough folks are desperate for a few more knobs that there’s a ready supply of these things. That said, if your bike comes with an SDS then give it a shot, it’s a fantastic shock.
Does it perform as well as a thousand-dollar Vivid Ultimate, Ohlins TTX2, or ’24 Float X2 with every adjustment you can think of? What about a $1500 EXT Aria? If that’s a legitimate question, then you’re probably not considering a bike that comes stock with the SDS or browsing the buy-and-sell for a used one, right?
Performance to original equipment (OE) dollar, it’s prepared to go tête-à-tête with any shock on the market.
Runner Up:
It can’t win because it wasn’t new for ’23 (hey, I don’t make the rules?) but I can’t not mention this fully updated, fully supported, 2014 Cane Creek IL Air shock. Adjustable high & low-speed compression and rebound, air volume, and sporting the best climb switch in the business, it’s an easy choice for folks who already own an old Cane Creek Inline shock or are looking to commit to a suspension product with long-term support.
