Suspension. Rising rate to sag point, falling from there on. I have no idea how people deal with it? Unless they’re used to 150mm bikes feeling like 100mm.
This is incorrect. As Maxtorque has pointed out, you’re confusing leverage ratio with spring rate. It is actually a falling rate to sag point, then rising.
To explain: When you speak of a “rising” or “falling” rate, in suspension design this refers to the spring rate & not the leverage ratio.
Falling rate suspension is one that gets easier to compress as it moves through its travel – sometimes called the trap door effect. This can be exaggerated by incorrect shock spec’ such as a large volume air shock or coil shock.
Rising rate suspension is one that becomes harder to compress as it moves through its travel.
So, because the leverage ratio on both the Burner and Spitfire go from 3.3 & 3.05 to 2.5 & 2.15 respectively this means it gets harder to compress their springs – this is sometimes called ramping up. When coupled with an air shock which, as pointed out gets harder to compress the further it is compressed, you get a bike that ramps up a lot throughout its travel. This is often a good thing as it sometimes gives that “bottomless” feel (depending on other things such as just how much volume the shock has and it’s ending
Leverage ratio).
I’ve never ridden any I these bikes – I’m just looking at that graph; It’s sometimes the case that a manufacturer will present these types of graph as evidence of ride characteristics. For example, the falling rate up to sag point could be presented as “excellent small bump compliance”. But it could just as easily be ignored because if it’s before the point of sag its irrelevant (we don’t use that much of the travel ‘before’ sag do we?).
Bit because it’s now 4am & I’m really tired I’ll finish by saying that what you’re actually (possibly) saying is that you prefer certain characteristics over others – & that is absolutely fine, but I wouldn’t try and demonstrate a personal opinion/preference with a graph…
To the OP – go & ride one & see for yourself. I hated every Specialized and Turner 4 bar I tried, even though all the magazines raved about them. It wasn’t until I rode a Titus Super Moto that I realised that not all 4-bars weren’t the same. It’s the same with VPP/DW link bikes – they all feel different. It all boils down to how it feels to you & not some bloke on a website or in a mag’.