April 21, 2025
Written by: Dave Parman, Dirtlabs Suspension Tech
When Steve at Vorsprung contacted Dirtlabs about becoming a dealer and service center for their new Telum shock, we were excited for the opportunity to check out a very promising product. Vorsprung makes very well thought out suspension upgrades to existing product so naturally I was very excited to see them in person. I was lucky enough to be asked to get some ride time on one and share my thoughts and initial impressions for a short term review. I have spent a lot of time riding custom tuned shocks over the years, and I was anxious to see how the Telum would perform.
I decided to put the Telum on my longer travel bike, a YT Jeffsy 27.5, with 160mm rear travel. I am running a Fox 38 up front, with a Vorsprung Smashpot V1, and a WPS piston tuning kit in the GRIP2 damper. This is the best fork setup I had ridden and I was looking forward to seeing how the Telum would match.. My main shock on this bike is a 2025 Fox DHX2, with the WPS tuning kit, and this is arguably the best shock I have ridden, so the Telum had its work cut out to match what I have been experiencing with the DHX2.
I got the Telum mounted, and just stared at it on my bike. It really is a work of machining art. A bit bigger bridge assembly than most other shocks, but well laid out with easily accessible adjusters. I set the compression, rebound and hydraulic bottom out near the middle of each adjuster range to give me room to apply more or less damping as I needed for my first ride. My first thought after pushing on the saddle was damn this thing is smooth! It took almost no effort to initiate the shock into its stroke. Obviously great care was taken to give this shock a very well designed main seal housing, and a polished damper shaft. The polymer spherical eyelet bearings also help reduce the friction to nearly nothing, very smooth. I could tell this shock was going to have great bump sensitivity before even riding it.
I did not set up the shock with information from the Vorsprung tuning hub, as we had not set up our account yet. I was too impatient, and decided to just ride with the shock as it was set from the factory.
My first ride was at Bobcat Ridge on the Ginny trail near Fort Collins, Colorado. This trail is quite rocky and technical in spots, making it great to test suspension. Initially the shock felt very good on single impacts and landings off small jumps and drops. But, on successive high speed bumps, it felt a bit harsh and I couldn’t hold my speed and line as well as I would have liked. So I made a few adjustments to compression, and it started to improve. Less harsh spiking when hitting those big square edge rocks. The first ride was pretty good, but I needed more fine tuning to help it rise to the level of performance I was expecting.
The next day I went out again, but I made some adjustments to all of the settings. I took the HBO almost full open as this frame is quite progressive, and the Sprindex spring adds to that. No need for much HBO on this application. I found myself running the rebound faster than I typically do. Usually I like a slow low speed feel, but I decided to try a bit faster. That made a big difference, and with some compression adjustments, now the shock was more active, but I never had any bucking sensation, or lack of rear end stability. The bike was tracking the ground well, and felt very plush and supportive.
After a few more rides, I have been feeling right at home on the Telum, which is always a good sign. I still need to delve into their tuning hub and play with the base valve tuning adjustments with their Rapid Revalve system, which allows you to adjust the internal tune of the shock right at home. You use a special pin tool to loosen the compression and rebound base valves slightly, then use an external allen wrench slot to adjust the tune internally. Very cool, and a great incentive for buying this shock over other brands that have to be sent in to retune. I am very curious to see what impact those changes will have on the overall performance. I have found myself setting new PR’s on things I didn’t feel I was trying that hard. I feel confident going fast into any section and having the bike handle it without throwing me off line or hanging up.
I will update this review as soon as I have more time to utilize the Rapid Revalve settings, and come back with my updated impressions. As of now, I can honestly say this shock is very good, but I think it can get even better! Vorsprung has done a fantastic job engineering this product to fit right in with the top end of performance shocks on the market today. Some may argue it has even better adjustability with the feature to re-tune with little mechanical expertise. Now I have to give the shock to one of my coworkers to test, so we will see how I feel going back to my DHX2. A Telum may just be on order soon!
