edge weren’t the first either! canondale was the first example of multi link bike i can remember, i’m sure somebody did it before them. canfield brothers have been making ml bike for a long time. not the same as a dw link but trying to achieve the same thing.
there’s a lot of dw link haters around?
there’s plenty of suspension designs, that will suit some and not others.
I tested many bikes in the search for my new one and found the DW Link equipped Mojo HD my favourite. The DW Link system actually surprised me with how good it felt, even on the other bikes that I tested with it. I had read the marketing stuff but mainly dismissed it TBH, a ‘perfect’ suspension system, blah blah blah, heard it before! The main drawback seems to be expense and possibly changing bearings at some point. I feel the bike does everything very well and have not found any down sides yet. As for coil, the HD was designed around air, and so increases leverage rate at the end of the stroke to overcome the additional air resistance as the shock is compressed, coil shocks with bottom out assist such as the RC4 are said to work with it according to Ibis, I’m sure it is similar for Turner and Pivot.
From my pov the big drawback to DW-link is that you have 8 bearings right in the path of all the crap … single pivot is not clearly the most efficient suspension, but riding in muck most of the year, the low maintenance more than balances that out for me. 🙂
Is it not a case of choose your placebo/skill compensator, then justify the choice?
I half believe that with the technology available today just about any design can be made to work acceptably for any purpose. Although won’t be holding my breath for the arrival of a URT DH bike.
I’m more than happy with the DW link performance, and that’s the only criteria I need to worry about- it works for me a lot better than the (admittedly older) designs I’ve had previously.
As an aside, on my original Mojo propedal made no discernible difference- but on the HD, though it’s running the short shock and 140 travel, I seem to need it. Though as cynic-al suggests, it’s might just be (my) sloppy pedalling that makes it necessary. I guess each incarnation of the DW link has slightly different characteristics.
mr big was urt dh bike hand built in the north east andthough not available now were very popular in the north east and i have to say did seem to work well.
