Hi all,

I've always assumed when working out what the travel is you are measuring the rear shock length, ie a 100mm shock would change in length by 100mm…

I was having a discussion with someone today who mentioned he always thought it was how much vertical travel the rear wheel goes through.

I'm fairly sure I am write, but I have been wrong plenty of times before…

Anyone care to clarify?!

It's the rear wheel travel, I think you'd be doing well to find a mountain bike shock with 100mm stroke!

fair enough… I stand corrected.

Even foes only have 2:1 ratio and the shocks are massive. Most are 2.5-3.5:1 ratio.

Just shows there is a whole lot about this mountain biking malarky that I know nothing about!!!!!!!!!!!

It varies.

Most frames are built around a specific shock length and leverage ratio.

These might not correspond exactly however, linkage designs often vary the amount of leverage at a given point in the travel. More and more designs today exploit this to give a plush initial response before ramping up toward the end of the travel to counter the tendency of air shocks to blow through the mid portion of their stroke easily.