Patent ID: 7946163

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing a wheel suspended from a frame by a vehicular suspension; providing a shock absorber with electronically adjustable damping for damping the frame relative to the wheel, the shock absorber including a piston slidable within a closed cylinder, said piston dividing the interior of the cylinder into first and second chambers, and a spool valve external to the cylinder and having an inlet in fluid communication with the first chamber and an outlet in fluid communication with the second chamber, the spool valve being electronically actuatable to vary flow of hydraulic fluid from one chamber to the other chamber; providing a sensor for measuring a characteristic of the shock absorber; providing a computer having software and being operably connected to the shock absorber and being in electrical communication with the sensor; creating a data set with the software corresponding to a predetermined relationship between the stroking velocity of the shock absorber and the desired force exerted by the shock absorber; measuring the characteristic of the shock absorber by the computer as the wheel moves relative to the frame; using the measured characteristic by the software and selecting data from the data set corresponding to the desired force; and automatically adjusting the damping of the shock absorber by the computer in response to said selecting.