The joke goes, "The only way to get suspension to work in the 1970s was to not let it!" We've come a long way, and that was the beginning of the suspension revolution that brings us to today's generally great components and all the world-class stuff going on in racing. Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer and Technical Editor Kevin Cameron start with the basic forces at work including what's called V-squared damping (say "ouch!") move to friction dampers and damper rods, and finally get up to the beautiful and easy-to-work on high-performance cartridge dampers on the best bikes of today. And the side stories are almost half the fun.