I remember a few years ago a manufacturer doing something similar – it looked like a Horst but there was an extra short link at the front of the “chainstay” whose movement was controlled by a (red coloured) link coming down from the rocker arm. So a five-bar as well. I can’t remember who the manufacturer was though -anyone?
Kinda, it was really just a 4 bar though as there was only one axle path and shock rate curve, the link forced the two main linkages to rotate together, and the dropout pivot just accommodated it.
greyspoke – Member
It is a fixed axle-path design, but with a rather extreme shape (and spring-rate curve to match)
Naaa, it’s floating. The rear axle can occupy any position within a ‘box’, simplistically it looks like there’s a rearmost curve which is the one that matters for dealing with bumps, and a series of concentric inner curves which would vary with the lower links position, tapering sharply to zero when the shock locks out under no load/hard pedaling, at any other point you’ve got a curve and suspension travel based on the ratio of bump to pedaling forces.
What I’d be interested to see, is what happens if you land a jump/drop heavily rear wheel first (pushing the rear wheel towards the BB), does it lock out and try to kill you? Or would that require such an extreme angle that you’d be exiting via the back door anyway?