{"id":323371,"date":"2025-12-03T20:29:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/323371\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T20:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T20:29:16","slug":"helix-coils-is-finally-giving-coil-shocks-the-attention-they-deserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/323371\/","title":{"rendered":"Helix Coils is finally giving coil shocks the attention they deserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

For devotees, coil shocks promise performance that just can\u2019t be matched by air-sprung alternatives. But, while there are many shock options, most of us don\u2019t think twice about using the spring that comes with a shock, beyond making sure it\u2019s the correct weight. Helix Coil Springs<\/a>, out of Nelson, B.C., is finally giving the unassuming coil the attention it deserves with the help of some Japanese metallurgic magic.<\/p>\n

We talked to Kevin McEvoy about what drove him to make a high-end coil company, why he thinks more riders should take the role of a coil more seriously and the science behind Alex Volokov\u2019s 666 lb signature spring.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Helix checks each spring before shipping it. Photo: Dustin Lalik
\nThe unassuming coil? Or wrongfully overlooked?<\/p>\n

Cycling, as a sport, spends a lot of money on bikes. As mountain bikers, we can spend a lot of money on shocks, even when we do so indirectly through the very expensive frames we buy. The shock at the heart of that frame is, quite directly, what controls whether the frame works as promised or \u2026not.<\/p>\n

McEvoy, founder of Helix and the man behind Nelson, B.C.\u2019s Interior Suspension, says that we might not be getting quite the level of quality we assume when it comes to coil shocks. Or, specifically, the coil itself. As the service centre for several high performance brands and working with most major brands, Interior Suspension sees a high volume of coil shocks. Measuring the coils themselves as part of a service, McEvoy says, showed the spring rates weren\u2019t always as advertised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a pretty big spectrum in quality of a coil spring. With OEM shocks, we\u2019re seeing from 9 to 11 per cent variance in spring rate accuracy, on average.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you consider average spring rates on a mountain bike are 350-500lbs, or more, that\u2019s not a minor variance. With Helix offering springs in 25-lb increments, it\u2019s one to two entire spring rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the bigger issue is the inconsistency and variability,\u201d McEvoy adds. \u201cIf it was always off by the same amount every time, that\u2019s not a big deal. You could plan for that. But with them not being consistent, that\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

An issue that has a direct impact on the performance of these very expensive bikes we invest in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you zoom out and look at how much focus we put into the bikes we\u2019re riding and all the deferent technology on a bike. I think suspension is one of the aspects that, if I was to take your bike and really mess with your settings, it\u2019s going to have the largest effect on how your bike performs,\u201d McEvoy argues. \u201cSo we\u2019re putting all this focus and energy into making these bikes as high performance as possible, but this major aspect of them is, if you look at those accuracy rates, is this wavering number that\u2019s constantly moving.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/a>Helix x Alex Volokhov 666lb signature coil\u00a0
\nVolokhov and the 666 signature coil<\/p>\n

That inaccuracy is, in a way, what led to the 666 lb Alex Volokhov signature spring. While Helix is new, launching just months ago after a few years in development, the Nelson-based pro freerider already trusts the brand for his coil sprung needs. That 666 lb signature spring, which is actually 666lbs, wasn\u2019t just a random fun number.<\/p>\n

It started with Volokhov looking for a heavier shock for events like Rampage and Dark Fest. The 700 lb coils he was using for events like Dark Fest weren\u2019t cutting it. So he brought a bunch in to Interior Suspension and, to everyone\u2019s surprise, most measured between 620 and 630 lbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I asked him how much stiffer he wanted. He was aiming for around 50lbs. So we settled on 666,\u201d McEvoy says. \u201cThe idea being that a 666 lb spring that is actually accurate is going to be stiff than his his 700 pound springs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The devil is, as always, always in the details.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Dustin Lalik
\nTaking mountain biking seriously<\/p>\n

The apparent lack of attention to detail is mountain biking that Interior Suspension found when measuring shocks is, from a wider view, kind of understandable. Mountain biking, while growing, isn\u2019t the hugest market. Especially when you narrow that down to bikes with coil-sprung shocks and then compare it to motor sports, where vastly more coil springs are being used.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is that mountain biking inverts the usual relationship between human and machine. Being based in Nelson, Interior Suspension does a lot of work on snow sports during the winter making snowmobiles the obvious comparison. The weight of a snowmobile is significantly more than the rider, whereas the weight of a bike is significantly less than the weight of a a rider.<\/p>\n

For motorsports, suspension is designed around the weight of the machine. In Mountain biking, suspension needs to be optimized for the weight of the rider. And, compared to a thousand-pound motorized machine, a much smaller change in spring rate can have a very noticeable impact on the rider\u2019s experience. So, while small variations in spring rate might not be as noticeable in other realms, the inconsistency McEvoy is finding in OEM springs really is important to mountain biking.<\/p>\n

Helix\u2019s goal is to take the lowly coil\u2019s role in the ride experience more seriously. That mean\u2019s designing coils specifically for mountain biking, just as shocks are designed for bikes. To do that, McEvoy and Helix looked to Japan.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Dustin Lalik
\nMeet Swift: The Japanese brand take steel very seriously<\/p>\n

To get coils made to the standards McEvoy thinks should be standard for the industry, Helix works with Swift. The Japanese brand is one of just a handful of high-end spring manufacturers in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that really sets Swift apart is that they are the only spring manufacturer in the entire world, even amongst those other very high level spring manufacturers, that own their own steel mill,\u201d McEvoy explains, adding, \u201cThe part that makes them really cool is that they describe themselves as a metallurgy company first and a coil spring company second.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owning the mill gives Swift remarkable control over quality and consistency of its coils, compared to brands that are building their coils from steel purchased from someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother issue that is less talked about with coil springs is in production. The coil is wound into a coil spring. That builds up quite a bit of stress in the spring. That stress needs to be relieved through, usually a heat treatment process and a shot pending process,\u201d McEvoy explains. \u201cBut if all those processes aren\u2019t very tightly controlled, you can get softer and stiffer sections in the spring. Also, if a brand is\u00a0buying a steel from someone else, often in spools of hundreds or thousands of feet, you can get little diameter changes throughout the spool, and little quality control issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having its own mill also gives Swift the ability to optimize the alloy it uses for different purposes. It\u2019s HS5.TW alloy is designed specifically for off-road use.<\/p>\n

In one final touch, McEvoy points out that the colour of the spring isn\u2019t paint or even anodizing. Swift impregnates the pigment into the steel during the milling phase, something owning its own mill allows only the Japanese brand to do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kevin McElvoy. Photo: Dustin Lalik
\nMade by Swift, made for Helix<\/p>\n

Coils made \u00a0for Helix aren\u2019t just Swift springs, though. McEvoy worked with the brand, going back and forth for a year, to optimize Helix coils for the unique demands of mountain biking, down to the alloy used to make the springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe off-road alloy is tuned, optimized to respond quickly under load, essentially to be more active,\u201d McElvoy says. That alloy is then used to design a spring around how a shock moves on a bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at where a coil spends most of its time in its travel, you can actually optimize the spring around that space. On mountain bikes, that\u2019s generally around 30 per cent sag,\u201d McElvoy explains, compared to an automotive where that number might be closer to 10 per cent. \u201cYou can also optimize it around the kind of forces and shaft speeds that a coil on a mountain bike sees.\u201d<\/p>\n

That makes a Helix coil a truly mountain bike specific part, not just a generic spring. All that adds onto the impressive accuracy with which Swift is able to produce shocks. Helix tests every coil before it\u2019s sold. McEvoy says they\u2019re seeing springs measure with 1.3-1.5 per cent of the claimed spring rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwift is also maintaining that accuracy anywhere in its travel,\u201d McElvoy adds. \u201cWith many OEM shocks, if you test at different parts of the coil you get drastically different numbers. With Swift, you\u2019re not getting any softer sections or quality control issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those irregularities, McElvoy points out, then interact with the kinematics of your frame. And that can happen in unpredictable ways.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ToughCast finishing touches<\/p>\n

The final touch on a Helix spring is the adaptor. This not only lets a Helix coil work with a wide, and expanding range of shocks, but adds performance. The adaptor is made out of ToughCast, a material that works partially as a solid lubricant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people call it plastic, I\u2019m like \u201cwow wash, it\u2019s not plastic. This is engineered polymer,\u201d McEvoy says with a laugh. \u201cTruthfully, I could have chose a much cheaper material. And I did look at other materials. But for its characteristics, there\u2019s nothing better I could find.\u201d<\/p>\n

The material, similar to what\u2019s used by Push on its shocks, works with the coil\u2019s natural rotation as it compresses instead of fighting it. This prevents binding between the pre-load collar and the spring. It also helps quiet any creaking some might experience on a coil.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A little effort to change. A lot of performance gained. Photo: Dustin Lalik
\nThe future is coil<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t guessed by now, McEvoy is a coil advocate, both though Interior Suspension and, now Helix.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just a massive fan. I think the feeling of reduced friction and the ability to react to small bumps is always a benefit. If you can reduce the friction in the system, that\u2019s always.a win. There\u2019s no downside to that,\u201d McEvoy says. \u201cIf coil\u2019s well set up for you, it\u2019s pretty hard to go back, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Air springs, though, are still dominant. McEvoy argues this is as much to do with convenience as the quality of performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is that you need to physically change springs,\u201d McEvoy explains \u201cWe all said weight was the big thing, but I think that\u2019s the real reason the bike industry has favoured air suspension. Bike shops had to stock all those coil springs. All the different brands and different lengths and different rates, it turns into an inventory nightmare for the average bike shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coil, he argues, should be getting more attention for the performance gains it offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that in B.C., especially here in Nelson, we definitely are in a more gravity oriented part of the bike world,\u201d McEvoy admits. \u201cBut I think people are coming around. They\u2019re not so worried about every little bit of weight and are thinking about how we can get our bikes to perform better? Feel really good, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

The vast improvements in bike design, McEvoy thinks, are opening up more room for springs to, well, return.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, bikes are so light that you can actually afford to add some weight to your bike if it\u2019s going to have a significant performance increase,\u201d McEvoy says. \u201cI think coil suspension is one of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dI use the term weight well spent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For devotees, coil shocks promise performance that just can\u2019t be matched by air-sprung alternatives. But, while there are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[143159,49,48,143160,143161,635,37165,143162,1700,35620,123662,82],"class_list":["post-323371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alex-volokhov","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-coil-springs","tag-coil-suspension","tag-cycling","tag-helix","tag-helix-coil-springs","tag-mtb-features","tag-mtb-gear","tag-nelson","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}