EXT Storia V4 - Ride Report
I’ve been air-or-die in terms of shocks for the last 10 years of trail riding, but EXT’s V4 Storia coil shock offering has me seriously considering otherwise. I’ll break down its performance into off the top, mid stroke, and end support. But first, an overview of Queenstown terrain I’ve been riding it on:
Queenstown is smooth for the most part yet littered with trail chatter from braking bumps and occasional roots. There are plenty of corner entry and exit creativity or ”French lines”. Repeat big impression events are rare unless you go looking for them. Your suspension will be doing most of the work in the mid-stroke balancing body weight transfers, trail chatter at sag, pulling the bike off the ground at a moment’s notice. You’ll spend a decent amount of trail time just deeper than sag with your weight more over the rear axle on steeper terrain. Otherwise, you’re just pedalling up to get to your next descent. More often than not it is an access road or hiking-ish trail to earn your descent.
Breakaway/Off-the-Top
The breakaway on the Storia V4 is incredibly light. Super light. I swapped out a Vivid Ultimate with Rockshox’s “Touchdown” where the first 10% bypasses compression damping circuits for the most uninterrupted transition into travel. But that is an air shock with bigger seals - which means more friction. With a 400lb spring, the Storia slightly sags under the bike’s own weight… Narrower seals on the main shaft and high flow valving as standard are responsible for this feel. As a consequence of such valving, EXT claims cavitation is near-impossible for the most consistent performance on sustained descents. Translate that to the trail, and you’ll never feel the Storia hesitate to get into its travel.
Mid-Stroke
The light breakaway force then complements into the mid-stroke performance of the Storia. It translates to a quite lively feeling when handing over from compression to rebound or vice versa. The low speed compression (LSC) circuit has a wide range of adjustment to change what traction you can get under weight transfer. You can reduce LSC damping to allow for travel you can sink into for most weight transfer traction, or increase damping for support you can pull off the ground from or pump out of corners from. On a 170mm trail bike, this is an impressive standout compared to other coils that can mean compromising on recommended spring rate for enough mid-stroke support. …and this is before the shock is even custom tuned to your bike’s kinematics and your riding style. On the return stroke you do get a refined Italian “squish” noise that is easily drowned out by trail noise. It’s not the infamous Fox Float X2 squish of past generations, but a refined, performing Italian “squish”.
End of Stroke
Highlight - Climb Switch/Lok
The V4 maintains my personal highlight of the EXT philosophy - the Independently valved Lok. It’s a tuneable climbing switch that feels more like a breakaway valve. It supports your pedalling position yet it lets go at any trail feature bigger than a golf ball. For EXT it also acts as a safety in case you accidentally leave your climbing switch on. The shock will still offer traction for compressions coming at the bike. So, you can worry about getting to the bottom with control and flicking the Lok back to where you need it - no harm done.
Summary
You don’t need to spend long on an EXT product to realise they are different. Great different. Their ultimate goal is traction at the wheels and it shows. Other suspension brands perform well - no doubt. But, it is almost like my time on EXT (especially the V4 Storia) has me thinking other brands have a disconnect. A disconnect from the suspension itself performing well within its stroke, rather than encompassing the energy a rider can put into a bike and making an advantage of the control it can offer from the trail through the axle’s path. Different perspectives. Better performance. Yes, EXT makes a high performance shock with a matching price tag. So it may count some riders out. BUT: How much would you pay to have an uncompromising, customised-to-you, fellow-rider engineered bump absorption for near perfect traction at any moment with a five year warranty..?
