A latest Fox wi-fi dropper submit patent software takes good mountain bike expertise to a brand new degree of integration. Envisioning a world the place virtually every thing in your bike is electronically managed, Fox is engaged on a wi-fi dropper submit that connects to their next-gen Reside Valve suspension, syncs to your electronic-shift drivetrain, pairs to all the prevailing sensors in your bike & physique, and even provides a number of extra new ones, too. The top aim 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 wise Fox Wi-fi Dropper in improvement 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 submit that may very well be mechanically or electronically actuated, and probably linked to a number of methods in your bike. However in these 10+ years, what has actually modified is increasingly electronics on mountain bikes, smarter management methods, and extra prospects for built-in and automatic controls.
A few of the wildest controls that Fox might come up, now appear far more believable in our minds – like a voice-activated dropper submit or perhaps a dropper that learns from previous rides and mechanically drops your saddle as you strategy a descent.
So what do we all know?
This latest Fox wi-fi dropper patent that they filed earlier this 12 months (and was simply printed this summer time US20240182131A1) apparently focuses extra on computerized shifting than it does on the dropper itself. However Fox’s core wi-fi dropper tech already acquired patent safety in February of this 12 months. 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 attainable antennas (1402A&B) on the dropper collar & seatpost head to speak with a distant, and energy connectors (1404A&B) that may draw energy from inner or exterior batteries.
What I feel this implies? Fox’s upcoming wi-fi dropper submit 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 concerning the wi-fi dropper from these patent filings is that Fox is proposing a dropper submit that’s each infinitely adjustable and in a position to be dropped to set heights. The fascinating 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 submit 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, beneath). So the two modes may very well 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 inner place sensor the rider might pre-program their splendid drop factors. Possibly you want your submit totally prolonged for climbing however simply 2cm dropped for rolling trails? Even pre-setting higher and decrease stops might permit a motorbike producer or the tip 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. They usually might set how far they need to submit to go down at most drop. That may even permit producers to place the identical most size dropper in all bikes, no matter dimension, and nonetheless let the client simply customise their splendid place on the bike.
Inside this wi-fi dropper submit, 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 gradual 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 every thing digital
An enormous a part of the newest Fox Reside Valve patent that we reported on final 12 months, was how far more linked it plans to be. And the way smarter additionally means extra lively. Now, we count on the upcoming Fox wi-fi dropper submit goes to get in on the good celebration, 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 function. Nevertheless don’t fear, there’s clear description of on-the-fly adjustability and a brief pause in computerized controls each time the rider makes a handbook override enter. But it surely appears to be like like Fox envisions dropper submit place, suspension compression damping (and someway spring fee), and kit choice – all mechanically 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 fee, GPS location, vertical acceleration, and inclination sensors. And crunching that knowledge to verify your bike is at all times within the optimum setting. Additionally they describe a voice activation system the place you would converse instructions to drop or elevate your saddle to a predetermined top, of drop/elevate it totally. And there’s descriptions of a display, indicator LEDs, and even audible alerts (beeps?) that might affirm what mode or place your dropper submit is in.
“…the seat submit is actuated by a controller designed for receiving and analyzing enter related to a bicycle owner’s coronary heart fee in addition to the bicycle owner’s GPS coordinates. For instance, if the controller receives enter that describes the bicycle owner’s coronary heart fee as being decrease than a given preprogrammed threshold whereas driving, then the controller might sign to the seat submit to maneuver up or down, inflicting the bicycle owner’s work fee and coronary heart fee to extend or lower. In one other instance, if the controller receives enter that describes the bicycle owner’s GPS coordinates as being such that the bicycle owner is nearly to reach at terrain having a steep descent, the controller might trigger the seat submit to decrease in preparation for the descent.
…[or] following a pre-mapped route, for instance, predetermined seat submit top and/or gear picks, or suspension settings might be embedded within the route map and the controller can sign the seat submit top changer and kit changer to vary to the placement applicable seat submit top and/or shift to the placement applicable gear mechanically.”
To us this all sounds fairly wild.
However, Fox has been engaged on a lot of this tech since at the least 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 Reside Valve digital suspension controls actual the summer time earlier.
So possibly it’s not as far-fetched because it sounds?
