Rear Suspension Design

[throet]

For whatever reason I found this video fascinating, but what does it really mean? If I'm interpreting correctly, a steep drop that tapers off as you get more into the travel, like what you see with the rift zone, would probably be best suited for our local, rocky terrain. Would you agree? What about how high or low on the graph the curve is though? If that is the leverage ratio, what does it really mean in terms of how the bike rides? Curious to hear what you suspension geeks have to say.  

 

[AustinBike]

I am no suspension geek, but this video says a couple of clear things to me: First, those that think "I can design my own and it will be better because it will be for me" are wildly underestimating the complexity of suspension and second, any type of change, from fork size to even tire choice, can have a huge impact on suspension.

When I bought my Niner RIP 9 I originally borrowed a bike from someone I ride with (exact same bike) and when I bought my used one with lots of modifications, it took me months of component swapping to get it close to the original demo. When I bought my Orbea I wrote down all of the original components and all of the measurements between things when I got it totally dialed in. I know over time things will change, but suspension is such a touchy beast that I really wanted to make sure I was being as optimal as possible.

[AntonioGG]

I'm no suspension geek either as far as leverage ratios go (my experience is with linear springs/dampers only), but I think how high on the graph the curve is just says more for the shock travel/design/valving than how it's going to ride.  I think the curve by itself doesn't say much without knowing how the shock force curve looks.  If you had a metal linear spring shock then that curve tells you a lot.  But with an air spring plus maybe spacers and the valving, I'm not sure how much it tells. 

Now I'll sit back and read what the true MTB suspension gurus have to say.

[ATXZJ]

Not a guru but my experience as a chassis builder in my hotrod & rockcrawling days helped a little.

The rest I've learned from sites like this one from Andrextr:

https://www.youtube.com/user/andrextr/videos

Edited March 10, 2020 by ATXZJ

[AntonioGG]

6 minutes ago, ATXZJ said:

Not a guru but my experience as a chassis builder in my hotrod & rockcrawling days helps a little.

The rest I've learned from sites like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/user/andrextr

That's an awesome channel!