PUSH SV Eight

This Man Wants You To Buy His Shock

Push Industries have built a brand defined by quality and service. Starting out as a suspension tuning shop, getting it right by the customer was the main priority. From tuning, Push moved into suspension componentry with coil spring conversion kits to bolster the tuning business, before birthing the ElevenSix shock in 2015.

Making the leap from suspension tuning shop to full-blown manufacturing facility was a huge move, but the core tenets remained in place; attention to detail, quality of manufacture, and dedicated customer service. The ElevenSix is entirely made in-house in Loveland, Colorado - from design, to prototyping, testing, iteration after iteration of R&D, and finally to machining each and every part on a bank of insanely sophisticated and expensive DMG Mori mills, then assembling each of those parts, one shock at a time, to exact specification and tune per customer. It's a very expensive shock. There is also nothing else like it on the market. And it is only available for a limited number of bikes.

And so we get to the new kid on the block, the fresh out of the mill SV Eight.

This Shock Is Not Like His Other Shock

The SV Eight signals PUSH moving from one-off, bespoke custom manufacturing into something resembling mass production. Or maybe, more accurately, batch production. With the ElevenSix, each shock is made to order, one at a time, with one tech gathering the parts then assembling the shock to a tune specific to a particular bike and customer. It is labor intensive and time consuming, and the price of the ElevenSix represents that effort. With the SV Eight, PUSH is making shocks in batches, with preset tunes, to fit a much wider range of bikes for a customer who is looking to upgrade his or her stock suspension but maybe doesn't have the budget or the correct bike, or the ultra-discerning suspension performance demands, that are served by the ElevenSix. The SV Eight is a simpler shock than the ElevenSix, but is still very much an upmarket offering.

"SV" denotes "single valve" and this, along with the batch production process, is what differentiates it from the dual damping circuitry of the ElevenSix. Instead of a pair of switchable separate compression damping circuits, the SV Eight gets it done the old fashioned way like most of the other shocks on the market. Compression damping offers high and low speed adjustment at the end of the piggyback reservoir, and there is a single rebound adjuster at the other end of the shock. The IFP runs at a relatively low 85psi, there's a hydraulic bottom out piston, a Melonite QPQ treated steel shock shaft, the shock is filled with Motorex oil, and, like everything else PUSH makes, the SV Eight is designed, prototyped, tested, manufactured and assembled entirely in house in Loveland, Colorado.

It is available in four lengths: 185x50-55mm trunnion, 205x60-65mm trunnion, 210x50-55mm standard eyelet, and 230x60-65mm standard eyelet. The varying stroke lengths for each shock are achieved by 2.5 or 5mm travel adjustment chips that mount up under the conical bumper at the top of the shock shaft. Each shock length is available in either an "A" or "B" tune; "A" tune covers spring rates from 300 to 500 lb/in, and "B" tune is tailored for 525 to 700lb/in springs.

There is no "climb lever" or switchable compression damping platform on the SV Eight, and PUSH claims that pedal bob and rider induced feedback is handled by its 3-port bridged piston design. When I asked what that actually means, Darren Murphy, founder and CEO of PUSH, said; "The bridged piston is a unique main damping piston and damping characteristic that is balanced with the compression base valve located in the head assembly of the shock. The compression damping characteristic, combined with our low pressure nitrogen chamber, allow us to create a shock that rides with good stability when you’re pedaling down the trail, but can quickly react when bumps are thrown at the rear wheel."

I, being an idiot, still don't know what exactly that means. Also, being an idiot, I forgot to take a picture of the piston when I was snooping around the factory...

Riding The SV Eight

Since I happened to be snooping around the PUSH facility, and since I had a brand new bike with me, Darren hijacked my rig and gave me the nickel tour of the factory while the boys swapped a new SV Eight in where a similarly new Fox DHX2 had been. Then they kicked me out before I could ask for a new fork as well, and set me free to roam the frozen wastelands of Colorado. I Finally got to ride the new shock in St George, Utah, managed to get some rough bracketing done there, then made it back to Santa Cruz for a couple more rides where I think I am zeroed in where I want to be for now. That's a longwinded way of saying I only have about 8 hours on the shock so far, and this is best looked at as a "first impressions" kind of thing rather than a thorough long term grind.

I currently weigh 190lbs dressed to ride (Damnit! I was 180 two months ago. Goes to show what a diet of gas station food and stress will do to a boy. No wonder my clothes don't fit anymore), and my Starling Murmur is a 150mm travel single pivot that uses a 230x60mm shock. The initial spring rate calculations suggested a 450lb/in spring, which matches what the Fox calculator spat out for the same setup with the DHX2. Bouncing it around the parking lot led us to mount a 475lb/in spring, and Darren threw a 500lb/in Hypercoil spring in as I drove away, just in case I gained any more weight.

With one turn of preload on the spring, sag was 18mm - right about 30%. Spring aside, I went with the stock suggested settings for the first ride. There are 25 clicks of low speed compression damping adjustment, 25 clicks of high speed compression damping adjustment, and 18 clicks of low speed rebound damping adjustment available. The "Out Of The Box" setting is with the clickers smack dab in the middle of the adjustment range; 12 clicks out from fully closed on each of the compression knobs, and 9 out on the rebound.

Initial impressions on the combined chunk to loose rock riding in St George were of a buttery plush initial response that felt like it was maybe a tad eager to move through the mid stroke but still resisted bottoming with impressive resolve. There was definitely some light pedal bob when spinning at low effort on flat ground, but once I started digging in on proper climbs things settled down. I still would like a climb switch, because I am aboard a simple suspension design that doesn't have any linkage or floating instant center magic to help with climbing. That said, I was very impressed with the tractability and responsiveness of the shock when pedaling uphill.

Back in Santa Cruz, I started targeting the mid-stroke behavior, and ended up adding a few clicks to both the low and high speed compression settings after experimenting with running them each fully open then fully closed, ultimately ending up at 10 clicks out on the low speed compression and 7 out on the high speed. Rebound is at 5 out. This gave me what feels like the most pedal-friendly all-round setup that absolutely devours wheel craters and g-outs and stays beautifully composed when plowing rock gardens. There was some small amount of that silky smooth small bump compliance sacrificed but it is still ridiculously plush for a single pivot. If I was really smashing deep into the travel on a regular basis, I might opt to speed up the rebound a hair, since all the cool kids run fast rebound these days, but for this spring rate, the current setting feels good most everywhere else - doesn't pack down in the fast stuff, doesn't pogo in the slow stuff.

Is it worth it?

Hell, I'm obviously not qualified to answer that. I just forked over a couple grand for a filet brazed steel single pivot frame. Obviously my priorities are not well aligned with the meat of the market.

At 865 USD, the SV Eight is a downright bargain compared to an ElevenSix. But the ElevenSix is so over the top in every sense that it is not fair to try and pull that comparison. The SV Eight is roughly TWICE as expensive as a Fox DHX2 or a RockShox Super Deluxe Coil Ultimate, once you factor in the extra money you need to spend outfitting the SV Eight with a spring and mounting hardware. Both the DHX2 and Super Deluxe Coil Ultimate are very respectable shocks. Is the SV Eight twice as good as them?

No.

It's good. It's really good. But I'm not convinced it is twice as good. I prefer the way the SV Eight works to the Fox that was on there, but to be fair, I hadn't spent enough time dialing the DHX2 in to really get it singing. However, the combination of tractable plushness and mid-stroke poise that I was able to find in relatively short order with the SV Eight impressed me. It was real easy to get to know, and I am really looking forward to geeking out on bracket runs over the next few weeks to see where this goes.

There's more to it than a straight up plushness per dollar ratio, though. And since I AM the kind of guy who will throw money at bikes made out of steel, I can also really get behind the idea of something that is made entirely in one place in Colorado, soup to nuts as they say, by people who live, eat, sleep and dream mountain biking, and who have a reputation for customer service that goes well beyond what anyone else is doing in this arena. That matters more and more to me the longer I stick around on this planet.

Knowing that those DMG Mori mills need someone to help pay for their cutting oil habit, knowing the people who work at PUSH, knowing that if I completely hamfist myself into a corner turning knobs the wrong way someone will answer the phone at the other end and help me unbollox myself, that makes the SV Eight worth every penny to me.

But, as already mentioned, repeatedly, my motivations are not rational. Maybe yours aren't either.

PUSH SV8