A current Fox wi-fi dropper put up patent software takes good mountain bike know-how to a brand new stage of integration. Envisioning a world the place virtually the whole lot in your bike is electronically managed, Fox is engaged on a wi-fi dropper put up that connects to their next-gen Stay Valve suspension, syncs to your electronic-shift drivetrain, pairs to all the present sensors in your bike & physique, and even provides a number of extra new ones, too. The top objective appears to be multi-system automation – whether or not linked to GPS place knowledge, to your stay energy output and heartrate ranges, and even reacting to your voice instructions…
Plus, this new dropper would add good user-customizable drop level, along with basic infinite-adjust drops!
A sensible Fox Wi-fi Dropper in growth for years
We’ve seen Fox’s wi-fi dropper seatpost patent functions for greater than a decade (the earliest one I keep in mind dated again to 2013). And the core idea and visuals haven’t actually modified in any respect since then – a dropper put up that could possibly be mechanically or electronically actuated, and probably linked to a number of techniques in your bike. However in these 10+ years, what has actually modified is increasingly more electronics on mountain bikes, smarter management techniques, and extra potentialities for built-in and automatic controls.
A number of the wildest controls that Fox might come up, now appear way more believable in our minds – like a voice-activated dropper put up or perhaps a dropper that learns from previous rides and robotically drops your saddle as you method a descent.
So what do we all know?
This latest Fox wi-fi dropper patent that they filed earlier this yr (and was simply revealed this summer time US20240182131A1) curiously focuses extra on computerized shifting than it does on the dropper itself. However Fox’s core wi-fi dropper tech already obtained patent safety in February of this yr. That merely exhibits a dropper with an digital solenoid (365) inside the bottom to open and shut the valves that permit the dropper to go up and down. It exhibits potential antennas (1402A&B) on the dropper collar & seatpost head to speak with a distant, and energy connectors (1404A&B) that may draw energy from inside or exterior batteries.
What I feel this means? Fox’s upcoming wi-fi dropper put up is just about dialed-in. And now they dive deeper into the automated controls themselves.
Infinite AND stepped drops
What’s distinctive that we all know in regards to the wi-fi dropper from these patent filings is that Fox is proposing a dropper put up that’s each infinitely adjustable and in a position to be dropped to set heights. The attention-grabbing factor there, is that the tech to have infinite & stepped drops just isn’t particular to digital droppers, however might work on a mechanical dropper put up too. That’s as a result of they’ve two separate pairs of valves and launch circuits inside to activate both mode (see 530 A&B and 535 A&B in Fig. 10-13, under). So the two modes could possibly be managed individually with two levers, a single 2-stage lever, or with sequential inputs to an digital lever.
Particularly on an digital dropper, because of an inside place sensor the rider might pre-program their excellent drop factors. Perhaps you want your put up absolutely prolonged for climbing however simply 2cm dropped for rolling trails? Even pre-setting higher and decrease stops might permit a motorbike producer or the top person to restrict general journey, or restrict full top-out top. For instance, the end-user might set their saddle top with an digital cease. And so they might set how far they wish to put up to go down at most drop. That might even permit producers to place the identical most size dropper in all bikes, no matter dimension, and nonetheless let the customer simply customise their excellent place on the bike.
Inside this wi-fi dropper put up, the Fox patent additionally describes how the place sensors pair to digital actuators to feather the 4 valves that open & shut to permit vertical dropper motion. That lets them sluggish the dropper because it reaches the specified journey set-point for smoother motion and correct stops at any level within the journey. So no top-out or bottom-out clunks… or overshooting the preset journey limits.
Dropper paired to the whole lot digital
An enormous a part of the newest Fox Stay Valve patent that we reported on final yr, was how way more related it plans to be. And the way smarter additionally means extra lively. Now, we anticipate the upcoming Fox wi-fi dropper put up goes to get in on the good occasion, too. These newest patent docs described a dropper carefully synced with digital shifting and digital suspension damping controllers.
And automatic controls appear to be their largest characteristic. Nevertheless don’t fear, there’s clear description of on-the-fly adjustability and a short lived pause in computerized controls each time the rider makes a guide override enter. But it surely seems to be like Fox envisions dropper put up place, suspension compression damping (and by some means spring price), and equipment choice – all robotically managed.
And automatic Fox wi-fi dropper management from all sensors
The Fox resolution sees a central processing unit and controller amassing knowledge from pace, cadence, energy meter, rider coronary heart price, GPS location, vertical acceleration, and inclination sensors. And crunching that knowledge to ensure your bike is at all times within the optimum setting. In addition they describe a voice activation system the place you would converse instructions to drop or increase your saddle to a predetermined top, of drop/increase it absolutely. And there’s descriptions of a display, indicator LEDs, and even audible alerts (beeps?) that would verify what mode or place your dropper put up is in.
“…the seat put up is actuated by a controller designed for receiving and analyzing enter related to a bike owner’s coronary heart price in addition to the bike owner’s GPS coordinates. For instance, if the controller receives enter that describes the bike owner’s coronary heart price as being decrease than a given preprogrammed threshold whereas driving, then the controller might sign to the seat put up to maneuver up or down, inflicting the bike owner’s work price and coronary heart price to extend or lower. In one other instance, if the controller receives enter that describes the bike owner’s GPS coordinates as being such that the bike owner is nearly to reach at terrain having a steep descent, the controller might trigger the seat put up to decrease in preparation for the descent.
…[or] following a pre-mapped route, for instance, predetermined seat put up top and/or gear alternatives, or suspension settings will be embedded within the route map and the controller can sign the seat put up top changer and equipment changer to vary to the placement acceptable seat put up top and/or shift to the placement acceptable gear robotically.”
To us this all sounds fairly wild.
However, Fox has been engaged on a lot of this tech since not less than 2012 – earlier than XTR took mountain bikes digital with Di2 in 2014, lengthy earlier than SRAM pushed MTB wi-fi with AXS in 2019, or when Fox made Stay Valve digital suspension controls actual the summer time earlier.
So perhaps it’s not as far-fetched because it sounds?
