The EXT Storia is quite unlike any other damper, not massively but certainly enough to make us take notice when we visited the company three years ago on the outskirts of Vicenza near Verona. What we experienced was a truly hand made Italian damper, it’s designer Franco Fratton working into the dark hours to put together a custom shock absorber for our test bikes. These are relatively low number products.

Now we are not saying its massively better than other dampers, just different, and we like this. What we like most of all is the grip, the incredible sensitivity that the Storia allows when tracking through root and off camber. In those situations it rates very, very highly. In some ways it’s pretty unnerving to ride the Storia, as muscle memory insists damping should have a certain feel. The Storia feels closer to the RE:Aktiv damping featured on Trek bikes. We like that too, particularly in the wet.