Shock Landing: BOS plushes into Oz

We've just got word that Rouler Imports here in Australia are importing and distributing one killer suspension brand BOS. Who the frick are BOS you ask? We'll here's a breif rundown of European engineering at it's best.

Bos has been created by Olivier Bossard in 1999, to tune and built racing suspensions for cars, motorbikes and MTB. It became within a few years one of the most successful brand in car racing, by winning 3 Dakar Rallies in a row, and three Junior WRC world titles. Bos currently provides dampers for brands such as Mitsubishi, Subaru, Citroên and Renault, for offificial racing programs as well as OE mounting for rallies cars. But Bos’s roots are from MTB racing at the higher level. Olivier Bossard is a true legend of MTB, as the most titled bike and suspensions designer ever. Today, Bos makes an ambitious return to MTB, aiming to become one of the best suspensions brands in the world.

Bos’s story is mainly Olivier Bossard’s story. This motocross racer used to tune himself his suspensions, always looking for perfection, and when he started racing in MTB DH, he felt there was no real DH fork on the market, and decided to make his own ! This carbon fiber legs fork already used shim stack, and featured an oversize hub, as a pure motocross fork. And when he showed it to Max Commençal, chairman of Sunn, and his top DH rider, François Gachet, they immediatly choosed to race with this prototype. We were in 1993. Olivier Bossard has been hired by Sunn at the end of 1993, to develop the first double suspension DH bike of the french brand. Within three months, he created the Radical Plus, a stunning DH factory bike, fully made by Sunn, from the frame to the hubs, including factory fork and shock!

Sunn made 50 Radical Plus for 1994 season, for its official team and its customers. The bike made an amazing step forward in terms of technical features, and was incredibly efficient. The world could discover its performance in the first 1994 World Cup race, when both François Gachet and Anne Caroline Chausson won the male and female categories for the first official race of the bike ! At the end of 1994, Gachet and Chausson were both World Champions, and Gachet won the World Cup. It was the first titles of an incredible serie to come. The Radical Plus has been evolving for six years, providing amateur racers the best DH bike ever. But the most impressive was the factory bike, a real formula one MTB,which featured the best technical solutions! Many riders have been world champions with this bike, the likes of :François Gachet, Anne Caroline Chausson, Nicolas Vouilloz, Cédric Gracia, Fabien Barel and Mickaël Pascal!

But the most reknown of all these riders, beside Anne Caroline Chausson, is Nicolas Vouilloz, ten times world Champion, who started working with Olivier Bossard in 1997. The Vouilloz / Bossard duo is still considered as the best rider / engineer combo of the Mountain Bike History. They went so far in search of performance, taking care of every single detail, trying to control everything in a scientific approach of racing, that they became a true legend of MTB. When Olivier left Sunn to create BOS,Nicolas Vouilloz decided to make his own team, and asked Olivier to build him a new bike (the V Process). Together they worked for 4 extra seasons, winning three other titles (Nicolas has only been injured once). With 5 titles + 3 w World Cups won together, they remained unbeaten when Nicolas retired from racing. This incredible success story gave to BOS the premium image in MTB Suspension.

BOS is known as the best suspension maker ever for MTB. But until now, his products were only intented for a few top riders, and were very expensive. On top of MTB, BOS also grew in car and motorbike racing, winning many titles and races. In 2004, the company stopped its tuning activities, to keep focusing only on it’s own brand and products, becoming one of the best European suspensions maker. After a short period not being involved in MTB, BOS is now coming back with great ideas. Bos started again in MTB racing with damping kits for DH forks for Marzocchi 888, Rock Shox Boxxer and Fox 40. Those kits sold very well, with almost no advertising, all around the world. Many top World Cup riders used them in their forks, even sometimes hidding it from their sponsors! In 2007, Bos launched its new rear shock, and it has been a new success, still with almost no advertising. All the riders who used the BOS Fork kit / rear shock combo where amazed by its efficiency. Olivier Bossard then understood that Bos could play one of the first role in MTB suspensions. And we decided to take a step further, by making our own DH fork, which should be followed by many other models. Bos is now working on his future range, which will include DH forks and shocks, as well as enduro or XC items. The brand will have a new graphic identity for MTB, showing the high technical level of the products, as well as the good «MTB Spirit». The MTB fans all over the world are already following the success story. And their ultimate dream is now coming true, as Nicolas Vouilloz signed a new contract with Bos as official test rider!

Stoy Shock

Successor to the DH07, Stoy is the new downhill shock from BOS. Even more advanced than its predecessor, its main design change is a new piggy-back shape and shorter reservoir. Its compression adjustment assembly is completely new. Stoy’s mounting hardware uses needle roller bearings, a luxury reserved up ‘til now for Nicolas Vouilloz’s “factory” shocks. The benefits: bushing play reduced to zero, and incredible durability compared to normal mountings.

As with all BOS shocks, Stoy is fully adjustable and easy to service. Each new shock is set-up specifically to suit the rider and the bike. Stoy fits most downhill bikes on the market. It’s also available in non-standard sizes on demand from 190 to 280 mm.

Features:

Hydraulic monotube shock with 3-way valving

Adjustments : high & low-speed compression / rebound

Specific setting to match bike

Needle-bearing mount kit

Lenght : from 200 to 280 mm

Weight : 478 gr - complete without spring

Idylle Pro Fork

The much-anticipated new downhill fork from BOS succeeds the legendary upside-down V Process factory fork ridden for more than 5 years by Nicolas Vouilloz, multiple World Champion and new BOS test rider.

In five years, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge in Toulouse, and we have learned a lot from working at the top level in different disciplines. We applied our mountain-bike knowledge to cars in the early years at BOS, and now we’re applying the car knowledge gained from our involvement in WRC and Rallye Raid to bikes! The first thing you notice about the Idylle Pro is that it’s a pressurised fork, thanks to the separate reservoir. It uses the same technology as the rear shock, and is obviously similar to the famous Mitsubishi WRC factory shock.

Like many of the high-performance BOS rear shocks, the Idylle Pro has an adjustable hydraulic bottom-out. You’ll also see that the compression adjuster on the piggy-back reservoir is exactly the same as the one on the Stoy shock - a matching set.

The high and low-speed compression damping and rebound damping are all adjustable on the Idylle Pro. The version that you see here is pre-production and will be very similar to the final version which should be available in a few weeks. We’ll be putting the finishing touches to it with the help of Fabien Pedemanaud and Nicolas Vouilloz, who will also take it on its first downhill run.

Idylle Pro FAQ

Why isn’t it an upside down fork?

Many people were expecting an upside-down fork from BOS because of Nicolas Vouilloz’s factory V Process fork. To be honest, we did give it a lot of thought. If marketing was the main priority, we would have gone for upside-down, no question ... but what we wanted most of all was to produce a fork that was right for today’s downhill, and was affordable for amateur riders.

The BOS upside-down forks exists ... but only on paper. To produce it meant some compromises which would be too inconvenient for the user. In order to achieve the stiffness we wanted, it would have needed a special hub with all the implications for riders (special wheels, incompatibility with current standards, extra cost). In the end, an upside-down fork would have been too expensive and we didn’t want to ruin our entry to the downhill fork market. On the plus side, the conventional fork allowed us to keep within industry standards, as well as producing great performance at a reasonable price.

Why is it pressurised?

In motorcycles, the top-performing forks are all pressurised, mainly in motocross (internal reservoirs), but also in Moto GP where the reservoirs are clearly visible. We produced a kit for Moto GP forks three years ago which pressurised conventional forks with very good results. The key advantage of a pressurised fork is that it works like a rear shock. In brief, the hydraulics are both more constant and more reactive. Also, the damping can be separated from the lubrication (all governed by the same hydraulic oil in most conventional forks). Idylle Pro uses two different types of oil: one for lubrication, ie. the smooth operation of the fork, and the other for damping. So, we not only use the same compression adjustment as the Stoy, we also use the same oil in the damping circuit. It’s easy to see how duplicating the same systems give benefits all round.

Features:

Pressurised damping system

Single damping cartridge with piggy-back reservoir

Adjustable hydraulic bump stop

Adjustments: high & low-speed compression / rebound

Spring and preload on left-hand side

Air bleed screw on top of both upper tubes

200mm travel

7050 aluminium upper tubes ø 36mm

Magnesium lowers

Forged 6061 aluminium + CNCed crowns

1 1/8” steerer

20mm axle diameter

N'dee Fork

Still a prototype, N’dee is a new single crown enduro fork, based on Idylle’s structure. Featuring a single open bath cartridge, it will be available with around 160 mm of travel. But many details are still to define. N’dee will be set up by Nicolas Vouilloz as soon as 2008 enduro season, and BOS' aim is to provide a bunch of forks to "Very Important Customers" as soon as possible. (admin note: I wonder if SR is considered "Important"? HINT HINT)

Features (TBC)

Hydraulic fork / single open bath cartridge

Adjustments: compression / rebound

Spring and preload on left-hand side

Air bleed screw on top of both upper tubes

160 or 170mm travel

7050 aluminium upper tubes ø 36mm

Magnesium lowers

Forged 6061 aluminium + CNCed crowns

1 1/8” steerer

20mm axle diameter

Rouler Imports are bringing these BOS bad boys into Aus. So if you want to get your grubby little hands on any of the BOS range, you'll need to hassle your LBS (Local Bike Shop) to contact Rouler for stock. The word on the street is they're shipping asap, and should hit our shores by early June! Price's are still up in the air at this time, but expect to pay around $1390 for the Stoy Shock, and about $2990 for the Idylle Pro Fork. They're not cheap, but thank f^ck for that. That can only mean, well, they're not built cheap either!

Rouler Imports

BOS Engineering