RockShox has released its latest generation of Charger damper which features in its 2025 Pike, Lyrik, and Zeb forks. The Charger 3.1 damper is said to greatly widen the range of compression and rebound adjustment on offer giving riders more control over how their fork feels. The brand's stated goal is "to reduce harshness that makes it to the rider’s hands, leading to having more control and confidence when riding at higher speeds."
It's not just RockShox's best suspension forks that are getting spruced up though, there are updates to the brand's rear shocks too. The Super Deluxe gets new High-Flow internals and the Vivid Coil gets fitted with an updated TouchDown RC2T damper.
Charger 3.1 equipped forks
RockShox says that the new Charger 3.1 damper greatly enhances the control of compression and rebound adjustment. By fitting a low-speed compression (LSC) circuit with 68 percent more oil flow and increasing high-speed compression (HSC) on offer, SRAM's suspension brand says it has greatly broadened the tuning range to suit a wider range of riders and trail types.
Not only does Charger 3.1 give a wider spectrum of adjustment, but different LSC and HSC adjustments won't affect each other. By eliminating this compression cross-talk, suspension adjustment should be simplified as you no longer need to compensate one suspension adjustment with another.
The forks can be further tuned with RockShox's new Shim Tune Kits, there will be two compression (Standard and Heavy) and three rebound tunes (Light, Medium/Standard, and Heavy). These kits will retail for $30 / £ 29 / €32.
The Charger 3.1 will be available in Ultimate and Select+ (OEM only) versions of the Pike, Lyrik, and Zeb. There will also be a Charger 3.1 RC2 damper upgrade available which allows you to rebuild your Pike C1+ (2023+), Lyrik D1+(2023+), and ZEB A1+(2021+) fork with the new damper and controls. The Charger 3.1 RC2 damper retails for $358 / £345 / €386, or a much more cost-effective option is upgrading your existing Charger 3 damper with an upgrade kit for $75 / £72 / €80.
Impressively, pricing is slightly cheaper than the last incarnation of the forks, with the Zeb Ultimate coming in at $1,159 / £1,119 / €1,249, the Lyrik Ultimate at $1,099 / £1,079 / €1,199 and the Pike Ultimate at $1,049 / £1,049 / €1,169.
Hands on with the 2025 Pike and Lyrik
We've been testing two of the new RockShox forks prior to release. Rich Owen has been on the tough trail/enduro Lyrik, while Guy Kesteven has been putting the shorter travel Pike through its paces.
Both were highly impressed during testing, Rich summed up the Charger 3.1 equipped Lyrik...
"Once setup is nailed, the latest Charger 3.1 equipped Lyrik is a superbly sensitive, grip-enhancing fork that allows you to ride tough trails faster. Wider compression bandwidth makes finding your sweet spot trickier though and requires more tuning than the last generation. As a result, plug-and-play riders could struggle to get all the benefits."
Guy gave his findings on the latest Pike...
"Phenomenally gripped and sensitive control means RockShox' latest mid-weight, mid-travel Pike can be rallied as hard as a far bigger fork. Greater adjustment and extra oil flow potentially means more tuning time to find a balanced ride though."
See our RockShox Lyrik Ultimate 2025 and RockShox Pike Ultimate 2025 reviews for full verdicts. Click on the video above to see the Pike in action and hear Guy chat about it while riding the 'Ard Moors Enduro.
Shock upgrades
The Super Deluxe shock gets High-Flow upgrades reflecting key changes to the Charger fork damper. The main piston and oil reservoir have been redesigned to give better oil flow, resulting in more suspension sensitivity, and improving rear tire grip.
Again, like the Charger 3.1, the damping range has been increased to give a wider number of usable settings which should please suspension fettlers and means the shock can be used on more extreme terrain. Five LSC settings range from light to supportive and the full Super Deluxe range has been updated.
Prices for the 2025 Super Deluxe Ultimate range from $599 to $629 / £579 to £609 / €649 to €679 depending on configuration. The other three Super Deluxe models are OEM only.
It's not all just air suspension though, as the Vivid Coil shock gets an updated TouchDown RC2T damper. The new system bypasses the main piston compression damping through the first 10 percent of its travel to increase sensitivity. Firmer damping kicks in for the next 70 percent of travel over more challenging terrain, then an Adjustable Hydraulic Bottom Out takes care of the final 20 percent of the stroke – which is fine-tunable with five compression settings. The Vivid Coil also gets a new softer bottom-out bumper and comes in a downhill-specific model.
Pricing for the Vivid Coil Ultimate and Vivid Coil Ultimate DH is $619 to $649 / £629 to £659 / €699 to €729. There are three other tiers in the range, but they are all OEM only.
RockShox has also just announced an air can upgrade for Super Deluxe C1+ (2023+) and Deluxe C1+ (2023+) shocks. The new DebonAir+ Linear XL air can bridges the gap between the Super Deluxe and Vivid shocks, giving an increase in positive air volume that RockShox says will give "riders super supple action at the top of the travel." RRP is $97 / £99 / €111.
Last but not least, RockShox has also released a RC2T Ultimate piggyback reservoir upgrade for the Super Deluxe C1+ (2023+), Super Deluxe Coil B1 (2023), Vivid C1 (2024), Vivid Coil C1 (2025). Pricing on that is $230 / £220 / €245.
All the new aftermarket suspension featured here should be available now, and we will start to see it along with the OEM versions appearing on 2025 bikes later this year.
