Patent ID: 8820495

Claim:
A shock absorber, comprising: a housing; a piston slidably retained within the housing, the piston dividing the housing into a first fluid chamber and a second fluid chamber; a partially hollow piston rod coupled to the piston, the piston rod including a chamber orifice at a first end of the piston rod, the piston rod further including a hollow chamber having at least one hollow chamber opening; and a tunable fluid flow regulator coupled to the hollow piston rod at the hollow chamber opening, the tunable fluid flow regulator adjustable to change at least one of a rebound resistance or a compression resistance of the shock absorber by adjusting a rate of fluid flow between the hollow chamber of the piston rod and the second fluid chamber, the tunable fluid flow regulator including a main body including a cylindrical surface and a bottom surface, the cylindrical surface orthogonal to the bottom surface, the cylindrical surface and the bottom surface together defining a single interior cavity of the fluid flow regulator, the main body further including a central support structure that includes one or more primary openings that are in fluid flow connection with the hollow chamber opening, and each of the primary openings are configured to allow fluid to flow into the single interior cavity when the shock absorber undergoes compression and fluid to flow out of the single interior cavity when the shock absorber undergoes rebound, the fluid flow regulator having at least one regulator rebound orifice, a cover plate that is removably coupled to a first end of the main body, and a regulator rebound valve stack having at least one deflection disc contained within the single interior cavity of the fluid flow regulator and configured to at least partially cover the regulator rebound orifice, and wherein the regulator rebound valve stack is positioned in between an inner surface of the cover plate and a top portion of the central support structure, the regulator rebound valve stack in contact with the inner surface of the cover plate and the top portion of the central support structure.