


Though I didn’t find it to be a huge problem on the old bike, the new system bobs less when climbing. I haven’t indulged in quite as long an adventure on the new bike, but even on three or four hour-long rides, the reduction in upper body fatigue is noticeable. The effects of the Future Shock are most noticeable on long days.ĭespite doing this last year on the previous-generation bike, I was left very impressed by how much of a difference the system made on a (*humble brag warning*) 282km coast-to-coast epic. I felt like we had already poo-poo’d the whole ‘suspending the rider’ concept with the Girvin Flexstem way-back-when.įor such a simple system, it is remarkably effective – on rocky or rough terrain, your weak cyclist’s upper body is jiggled around far less than on an unsuspended bike, improving comfort and control enormously. The Future Shock suspends the rider alone. I will preface this section by saying that, when the Future Shock first debuted on the Roubaix way back in 2017, I was hugely sceptical that it would actually work.Ī typical suspension system sits beneath the head tube, suspending both the rider and bike. The Future Shock 1.5 – which was featured on the previous-generation bike and is still used on cheaper versions of the bike – has swappable springs (soft, medium and firm), but does not feature the hydraulic damper or adjuster. It offers 20mm of linear travel, allowing the cockpit to move up and down relative to the frame and fork. The Future Shock 2.0 – which actually debuted on the latest Roubaix in 2019 – is an adjustable coil suspension cartridge housed within the fork steerer. The adoption of the latest-generation version of the Future Shock was the headline news at the launch of the new Diverge.
