I had a go on a BMW once and thought it the most horrid bike I’ve ever ridden. Also, imagine what a bearing kit must cost for one.
it must have been badly set up or set for someone else. The Avalanche shock is custom tuned for the rider by Craig at Avy and are awesome. I had Avy shocks on other DH bikes because of how good they are.
Admittedly the Racelink is a heavy bike and has a very long wheelbase with a highish BB and are built around the dimensions of an Avy fork. They arnt UK bikes apart from maybe at Fort William, they are flat out high speed Alps bikes and not for mincing around the local woods on.
The main bearings are the same size as found on Cannondale headshock/headtube and are a standard Torrington bearing-not expensive, the smaller doglink ones are again Torrington and available from a local bearing supplier. I changed mine only because I was re-powdercoating it.