SHOCK ABSORBER

A shock absorber has a damping force generator including a spool valve body that is reciprocally engaged with a cylindrical portion of a piston and pressed from both sides by a pair of compression coil springs. The cylindrical portion has first openings for extension and compression strokes, and the spool valve body has second openings for extension and compression strokes. When the piston is displaced relative to the cylinder, the spool valve body is displaced by a difference between pressures in upper and lower cylinder chambers, so that the damping force generator changes a degree of overlap of the first and second openings for the extension stroke in the extension stroke and a degree of overlap of the first and second openings for the compression stroke in the compression stroke.