Following on from the thread about BETD linkages the other day, I thought I'd give a run down of fitting one, and a quick review of said item. Might be of interest to some – and deathly boring to others 😉

I ordered the linkage on saturday, and on monday a nice lady from BETD rang to say they only had the silver in stock, and was that ok. I'd wanted a blue one, but actually I think silver ended up looking much nicer. So that was ok – Good, friendly service too.

1) removing the old linkage, I stripped down the rear of the bike and took off the shock and linkage.

At this point I discovered that the bearings in the BB pivot were totally knackered.
So I tapped them out and went to a bearing shop – only had them to order and wanted £10 per bearing! So I tootled up to Bike Shed in Exeter, and they had a couple they sold me for £4 the pair. Nice 😀
Tip – these bigger bearings are exactly the same as the ones used in freehub mechanisms.

2) New lower pivot bearings fitted (used a socket and hammer, no problem)

3) The BETD linkage next to the original. It's a much chunkier build, very nicely machined and finished. Good quality bearings, and decent bushing/reducer for the shock. I didn't weigh, it, but I suspect it's a bit heavier than the original.

4) Fitted the shock bushing and reducer – Used sockets and a vice, all went together with a nice close fit.

5) Cleaned up the rear end and put together the new linkage, shock and rear triangle ( the only bits not replaced were the bushings in the pivots by the rear dropouts, but I checked and greased them).

I put the shock on the 150mm setting, seems that it'd be a 2 minute job to switch the travel, all you need is a 6mm allen key.

6) The BB height is actually only increased to 13.5" on the 150mm travel setting, not 14" as BETD state on their website. The original BB height was about 12.9mm. So a bit of a lift, but it shouldn't affect the handling too much.

7) The finished product (minus chain, and yes I know the weeds are terrible!)

First impressions from a very short ride on a local farm trail – the rear end seems nice and plush, the 30mm travel increase is definitely noticeable. I need to play around with the air in the shock – probably a 10-20 psi increase? The increase in BB height isn't really obvious, and the handling seems not to have been affected. Obviously the head angle will be slightly steeper, but i actually like that 🙂 slightly quicker handling isn't a bad thing. The rear end also feels laterally stiffer (hand wobble test!)

Overall – product quality is ace, nicely made, and comes with good quality fittings. Good customer service from BETD too. £100 isn't cheap, but so far seems money well spent, IMO anyway. I'll give a further review after the next proper ride on it.

Also big thanks to Exeter Bike Shed for being willing to nick the bearings from a couple of spare freehubs, and not charge me an arm and a leg.

The 14" measurement is to the centre of the BB tube. Looks nike a nice bit of kit. 😀

Ah, that makes sense. But is also daft as the important measurement is the actual BB clearance IMO!

It's not all about the clearance, it also affects the centre of gravity, I believe.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but am I correct in saying that the linkage increases the travel to 150mm? Is there a purpose behind that? Is the bike as strong and stiff as other 6 inch travel bikes? The reason I say that is that I considered the same thing when I had my 04 Enduro, but concluded that I was trying to turn the bike into something it wasn't. I even went a stage further and put a coil shock on mine.

That's exactly what I did with mine a few years ago and it made a huge difference to the way the bike rides, in a good way. I've stuck with the 120mm setting though and popped a 140mm coil Pike on to replace the 130mm Fox Talas I had.

does the lower travel setting make any difference to the stock link? Is it supposed to be more/less progressive?

good review ajantom too late for me as I've sold my frame now 🙁

does the lower travel setting make any difference to the stock link? Is it supposed to be more/less progressive?

The linkage is longer than the original (see photo) and it move the pivot point for the shock slightly, so giving a slightly raised BB on the 120mm setting. I think it's meant to steepen the head angle slightly – something I've noticed is that the Stumpy does have quite a slack head angle (for my preferences anyway).

If you look at the linkage design, it seems to be slightly curved in profile. So this with the length, and pivot position difference will presumably change the the action of the suspension in some way. Not sure how though!

I hope you don't mind me asking, but am I correct in saying that the linkage increases the travel to 150mm? Is there a purpose behind that? Is the bike as strong and stiff as other 6 inch travel bikes? The reason I say that is that I considered the same thing when I had my 04 Enduro, but concluded that I was trying to turn the bike into something it wasn't. I even went a stage further and put a coil shock on mine.

I think the point here is tuneability – I'll probably leave it on the 120mm setting for most of my riding, but there are some trails round here where the extra 1" will come in useful. The link is also beefed up compared to the original, so the rear end stiffness is improved.

Update on this………

Just went for first proper ride with the new linkage – luckily had the day off……it's glorious out there! 8)

Went up on to Haldon Hill, spent about 1 hour on various singletrack, did the red run, and then down via St. Andrews – a nice variety of ups and downs, and some nice bumpy downhills.

– Climbs really well, the extra BB height has steepened the head angle slightly, and the Stumpy was always a good climber, but it feels a little more sharp on the hills now. With the extra travel I set the sag at slightly more, and it seems to track better on rough climbs.

– The ride is definitely a lot plusher, no noticeable difference in the progressiveness of the suspension, but it soaks up big hits a lot better now. I increased the air in the shock by 20 psi and that feels about right, doesn't blow through the travel too quickly.

– The rear end is noticeably stiffer when stomping on the pedals. The BETD linkage is a lot chunkier, but this is also probably to do with new bearings all round. Feels a lot more flickable in the corners.

– Had a couple of occasions where I would have had pedal strikes with the old setup. The BB height was quite low before – good for balance, but meant that I clipped the pedals quite a lot.

I suspect that some of the improvement in feel of the bike is probably down to the placebo effect of having a nice new bit on the bike 😉 But I can honestly say that it rides better than before. Which is nice.