Stupid Shock Question

[yzeater]

Why doesn't the shock look like the fork? don't they essentially work the same? Could you have a short for with stiff spring and oil as your shock? I know it's stupid, but I'm creative

 

[KiwiBird]

Before long travel suspension the shock was very similar to the fork but long travel brought leverage ratios which put more stress on the shock so shocks evolved from mixed air/oil (as the most basic forks still use) to oil and inert gas separated by a bladder or piston in order to keep damping more constant.

If you look at modern bikes you will see that the fork has evolved to more closely resemble the shock.

If you are creative enough you could use a friction shock such as turn of the century bikes used (2 rotating disks with a piece of leather between them) but why go backwards?

 

[JTT]

Their job is made significantly different by the use of linkage and leverage ratios. A linkage fork...name eludes me now...was tested by Honda in the past that used a "shock like" setup with linkages.