Attack position – body position of the rider when riding into a technical section of trail, braced for any trail feature with weight balanced in the centre of the bike.

Compression – Controlling how the suspension moves through the available travel.

High-speed compression – How the suspension moves through the travel from High-speed hits not high-speed riding, for example rocks, roots, braking bumps, landing from jumps/drops etc.

Low-speed compression - How the suspension moves through the travel from low speed movement not low-speed riding, for example when under compression through a berm, going up a transition of a jump etc.

Linear – The strength required to compress the spring remains the same through the full movement.

Progressive – The strength required to compress the spring increases progressively through the full movement.

Metric – Referring to the eye-to-eye measurement of a shock in mm rather than inches.

Piggy-back – An extra part of the shock that comes out from the main body. This gives a larger oil volume for internal damping, offering better damping control and more consistent performance on extreme terrain. The frame design must have the space for this larger type of shock and will not fit all bikes.

Preload – How much the coil spring is compressed in its static state.

Rebound – how fast a shock returns to full extension.

Sag – how much travel is used under rider weight.

Shock pump – A high pressure air pump used to adjust air shocks, running at a much higher pressure than a normal inner tube/tyre pump.

Spring rate – The force needed to compress the shock.

Stroke length – the amount of travel the shock has, not the same as the amount of travel the bike has.

Trunnion – A trunnion mount shock has a larger body where one eyelet is housed in the body. This allows a longer stroke length in a shorter eye-to-eye.

Volume spacers – Internal plastic spacer that can be added inside an air shock to reduce internal air volume and so increasing the progression of the shock through its travel.