Just don't call them elastomers
Formula Neopos are volume spacers made from closed-cell foam rather than plastic they can offer something that other volume spacers can’t.
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What do Neopos offer? Mid-stroke support and more consistent rebound. With Neopos you can get the mid-stroke support you want without having to end up with an end stroke that is far too hard and rarely accessed.
Regular volume spacers, such as RockShox Bottomless Tokens, don’t much affect how your fork’s mid-stroke. Regular volume spacers just tune the final part of your travel.
The other claim being made by Formula for Neopos volume spacers is that they also help to calm and add consistency to the extension (rebound) of air sprung forks. They do this because they always extend at the same expansion rate, irrespective of how fast or hard they’re squashed.
Some useful graphics
Can you use them in non-Formula forks?
Here’s what Formula say…
“The Neopos can be used with all Formula air forks with a stanchion diameter of 35mm (Formula Selva, Nero R, Thirty-Five). A maximum of 3 Neopos can be used regardless of fork travel.”
Someone needs to find out. Hmm…
Set of 3 Neopos: €29.00 (UK price TBC).
Formula Neopos press release quotes
Introducing the new Formula Neopos
Neopos is a technology that represents the next evolutionary step in air suspension, a cutting-edge innovation that will change your riding experience for the better. Neopos stands for “new positive”,a technology that improves the behavior of the fork’s positive air chamber. In R&D since 2011, Neopos will allow your air fork to reach a level of comfort, response and predictability unimaginable before this time.
A new evolutionary stage of air suspension is now available to all riders
In an air suspension, with or without a volume spacer, the force returned to the rider, both in compression and in extension, is not constant because it depends on the frequencies to which normally a suspension is subjected. Thanks to the operation of the Neopos, the response of the suspension it will tend to be more constant. The consequence is that the Neopos tends to make the compression/extension cycle more independent of the frequencies of the suspension while working which, in a riding situation, vary continuously. The result will be a more constant, predictable and comfortable air suspension. Meaning, more like that of a coil spring suspension comfort.
A more linear curve, using all the available travel.
Neopos is not simply a volume spacer, rather, the Neopos completely changes the concept of a volume spacer. Thanks to the fact that it can be compressed, the Neopos makes it possible to make the air fork’s progression curve more linear, thus avoiding the excessive progressivity given by the traditional volume spacers without giving up the much-needed support in the middle of the travel.
With the Neopos you get all the support of a traditional volume spacer halfway through the travel, but without the abrupt ramp in the final part of the compression curve. The progression curve will always remain gradual, allowing you to use all the available travel of your fork.
A gradual and optimal increase of the air pressure level.
Thanks to its physical and mechanical characteristics, the Neopos allows for results that until today were unthinkable for air suspensions. While the fork is working, the Neopos inside the positive chamber will compress, thus allowing a gradual and optimal increase of the air pressure level. A result that can not be achieved with a traditional air suspension or with an air suspension that uses rigid volume spacers.
The response of a traditional air suspension is not constant.
The Neopos is not simply a “more effective” volume spacer, in fact, the heart of Neopos technology makes it something completely new. The progression curve of an air suspension is not independent of compression speed. As the compression speed changes, the air also varies in its response. In a riding situation, where the compression speeds change continuously, the response of a traditional air suspension will, therefore, neither be constant over time or 100% predictable. Simply put, it will be perceived as being more nervous than a coil spring.
Neopos’ expansion time is always constant over time.
The physical characteristic of the Neopos is that of a slow expansion time which is always constant, i.e. it is independent of the compression speed. No matter how fast the Neopos compress, the expansion time will always be constant over time. If the suspension is subjected to a high compression speed, the Neopos will compress quickly but will still expand slower than the compression speed. For this reason, the real advantages of the Neopos technology can be appreciated on graphs showing the entire compression/extension work cycle of a suspension.