specialized brain fade shock - why does it have so many names?

Question

ive come across several shocks on specialized bikes (epic, enduro, and stumpjumper) that have that special reservoir. ive heard it called the Brain Fade, flow control valve, and specialized AFR shock. whats the real name? or are they all actually separate models?

someone please enlighten me on this. if they are different, which one is the best?

Answer 1

Okay...

When specialized designed the Epic XC race bike, they designed with Fox the Brain. I belive that the brain is the Fox Float with the inertia valve that's placed at the closest point to the hub as possible. This 'first release' of the Brain was very stiff, while it was very good for racing, for more 'normal' riding it took a harder bump to activate it.

So it wasn't very confortable.

I think that for 2005 they created the flow control valve, which sets a threshold to set how hard you want a hit to activate the shock. So you could have better bump compliance at the cost of a little bob.

For 2007, Spech made two changes. It adjusted the Brain valve to make it more plush than previous versions, it might have cost a little bit of that hardtail feeling, but it's better for overall use. And this is the Brain Fade...

And, Specialized started making their own shocks, which is the AFR shock. And it uses the Brain to adjust the active/stiff position.