Patent ID: 7055661

Claim:
A hydraulic shock absorber comprising: a shock absorber body in the interior of which a compression chamber is defined, the compression chamber including a peripheral cylindrical wall; a piston and a piston rod slidably mounted in the compression chamber to compress a damping fluid; and a bleed rate selection means for selecting between a constant bleed rate mode and a variable bleed rate mode, with different damping characteristics, the bleed rate selection means including: a constant bleed rate orifice situated in the lower portion of a wall of the compression chamber for connecting the compression chamber with a volume compensation chamber, a set of variable bleed rate orifices defined in the wall of the compensation chamber for connecting the compression chamber with the compensation chamber of the shock absorber and distributed along a path of travel of the piston, and an adjustment socket, for selectively opening and closing the constant bleed rate orifice and the set of variable bleed rate orifices, rotatably mounted for rotation around the compression chamber between (1) a linear mode position where the variable bleed rate orifices are obstructed by a peripheral wall of the socket and the constant bleed rate orifice is open and (2) at least one progressive mode position where the variable bleed rate orifices are at least partially free.