Understanding Suspension Layouts | Single-Pivot, Horst Link, Dual-Link & More Explained!

Pro 10 triple stage Maestro VPP huh, to tell you the truth, under all these brand names, there are only four main

suspension

types, which are a

single

pivot

link

driven by a double

pivot

link

and a horse link. Watch this entire video and you should be able to identify any type of

suspension

link just by looking at it Suspension designs are complex, you can have various numbers of links and various link lengths, even the position of the shock absorber can drastically alter the characteristics of the rear suspension , which means that two bicycles, even with the same design, can have very different characteristics.

Features Now I'm going to go into this in

more

detail obviously, but before we begin let's have a little jargon and refresher session so we're all on the same page when it comes to terminology. A pivot is a moving part usually made up of a bushing or a bearing a main pivot is the center point where the rear axle or rear wheel will move around it is often known as the instant center a rod is a rigid link or part that connects to two pivots a rocket link is a movable bar or linkage that connects the shock absorber to the rear seat tie rod.

It is so called because it usually rotates in the center and therefore sways as the suspension moves downwards, this is where the suspension reaches all of its travel and has no

more

room to move. the seat stay is the bar that connects the rear wheel towards the seat tube the chain stay is the bottom bar that connects the rear wheel along the chain line, the swing arm refers to the rear of the bike, it's usually a solid piece Anti-squat refers to the amount of effect pedaling has on your bike's suspension, so think of it as your bike squatting or swaying under the load of pedaling.

Anti-lift is the amount of effect braking has on your suspension, so think of your bike lifting as firming up under braking pressures, you'll sometimes hear the terms progressive or linear or leverage ratios when referring to the suspension. Now the leverage ratio describes how much leverage the rear wheel has over a shock because all of its travel is in rear wheel motion, not the shock itself, so you could have 150 Ms of rear wheel motion, but your shock can only move 55mm so we are talking about the amount of leverage it takes to move that shock, so if your bike has a linear leverage ratio it simply means that the movement in the rear wheel and the Movement in the Shar are consistent throughout the entire journey, so let's imagine that your Shar moves 1 mm for every 2 mm of rear wheel movement, that relationship will remain the same throughout the entire journey, since that movement is always consistent throughout the entire journey. all the way through, if you had a progressive lever position, that means there would be less movement in the shock for every 1-2mm of travel at the rear, which actually means it would get progressively harder at the end of the travel.

The Stroke, that's the jargon out of the way, it's time to get into the real meat of the matter. Probably the simplest suspension design is the

single

pivot, as the name suggests there is only one main pivot point about which the rear axle rotates around in this design. a single swing arm and a single pivot and the shock will connect directly to the swing arm so because there is only a single fixed main pivot the rear wheel turning around the feel will be constant throughout the entire travel and i.e. that the leverage ratio is also consistent throughout the entire stroke, so for example, if the rear wheel moves 20 MS and that activates the shock at 1 mil, it will do so throughout the entire stroke and that will give you a very consistent, but it also means they are often accused of being easy to bottom out, of course you can combine a single pivot with a progressive coil or an air shock with lots of spacers and as the bike progresses along As it travels, the air will begin to compress, increase and become firmer. the bikes shift, which gives a little resistance to the bottom.

If there is a solid chainstay between the rear axle and the main pivot point, but other links are involved, then this is a link-driven single pivot, much like the rear axle single pivot. it still rotates around that main pivot point, but by adding a link or more this will change the amount of leverage there is on the fish at different points of the suspension travel, this means the bike could require less force to activate the first gear. part of the travel, but can require a lot of force to engage the suspension toward the end of travel and is therefore not linear like a true single pivot.

For example, the Canyon Lux is a linkage-driven single pivot. You can tell because you can see that the rear axle is attached to that main pivot point, however, you can see that there is also a hanging swingarm link. This gives Canyon the ability to adjust the suspension and in this case they made it more Small Bump compatible by requiring less force to move the suspension through its initial travel. The interesting thing about the Canyon Lux design is that it also uses flexible straps. Now flexible straps mean that there is flex or movement in, say, the seat straps or the chains.

Now Canyon Lux and Ora use flex in the seat stays and this means. that once the bike has gone all the way there is still a bit of movement left which gives it a good amount of bottoming protection but this means they don't have to use an extra pivot point which means that No hardware with no extra metal and that makes it much lighter than something with a pivot added at the end. Now take a look at this AUM orbea and test your new skills. Now, or okam and Rum are often referred to as four bars. single pivots and that's fine basically because there are effectively four bars but look at the main pivot point connected directly to the rear axle which is definitely a single pivot but the extra links holding the shock make it a driven single pivot links, what's interesting about the Ora Ron and indeed the Ora oam is that they have a pivot directly on the rear axle.

This is very similar to a split pivot, although we can't call it a split pivot because it is actually a brand name and patented suspension design. by Dave Weagle is also very similar to tx's ABP suspension design. Now all of these designs are still single pivot linkage driven, but the reason they are split at the axle is to minimize the effects that braking has on the suspension of the bike, so with a single pivot typical if the braking forces are effectively attached to the chainstay, which can cause large movements and therefore the braking forces actually affect the suspension;

However, if there is a pivot on the rear axle or even the rear seat chainstays, that minimizes the movement or effect. that braking has in that suspension design

dual

link or

dual

link suspension designs have a solid rear wishbone or swing arm that is mounted to the frame by two rocker arms, the shock absorber can be driven by the swing arm or one of the rocker arms or even both. of the swing links, this is a very famous design that comes in many proprietary and branded forms, for example, the Giants Maestro suspension, the DW link used on the pivot and the Ibis, the dw6 used on aeton bikes, the VPP or Virtual pivot point used by Santa Cruz and sometimes.

P10 intense and propane suspension, so let's look at the P10 propane suspension. Now the shock is driven by both Rocker links and the upper one will have a slight counterclockwise rotational motion and the lower one has a slight clockwise rotational motion, but in something like a DW. link as used by pivot and Ibis for example, those links actually move clockwise so they are slightly different to the propane P10, although they are both twin links and these little complexities are the reason why which we have so many different brand names for this same style of suspension. Having two links that move independently of each other means that the point at which the suspension rotates may not actually be where the physical kingpin is.

We refer to this as a floating or virtual pivot point if the main pivot point changes along the suspension travel, the characteristics will also change along the travel, meaning the anti-Squat and anti-Rise could be optimized at different points in the bike's travel to better suit the bike's needs. The bicycles are easily identified as they have a pivot in the chain stay. close to the rear axle, meaning the rear axle is effectively mounted to the seat stay, this often forms a four-sided suspension aesthetic, which is why it is often referred to as a four-bar because it now simply has four bars As I mentioned above, an Ora Ron and an Ora Okam are often referred to as four-bar single pivot and in fact you can also get a four-bar double link, but that doesn't mean that any of these suspension designs are Technically a four-bar design, the proper technical term for a true four.

The bar is the horse link and anything else that just looks similar and has four bars is actually a fake bar, meaning it's a fake four bar. Now the horse link became famous thanks to its FSR suspension many moons ago, but the patent actually ran out. and many other companies adopted this design so you may see them used a lot by companies like Canyon who actually use it for most of their rear suspension designs such as torque, spectral and neuron so that the hor link has a pivot. in the chainstay, that means the rear axle is not directly connected to the kingpin and therefore the kingpin is not consistent.

Like the twin link, there will be a virtual pivot point around which the rear axle moves and, like the twin pivot. That means suspension designers can effectively adjust the braking forces and pedaling forces that affect the suspension. You may have noticed that there are five sections in this video. Although I have said that there are only four main suspension designs and that is because this is an advantage. section because high pivot is not technically a suspension design as such, you can have a high pivot single pivot, you can have a high pivot hor link, so high pivot is just a variation of these suspension designs, however, Raising that kingpin and making it higher changes the characteristics of those different designs, so let's explain what a high kingpin actually is.

A high pivot simply means that the main pivot point is higher than the rear axle, the suspension can still be a single pivot or horizontal link for example, but we focus on the high pivot part because this changes the shape in which the rear axle on the bike moves as the bike sinks into its suspension the front of the bike and the rear axle move away from each other, this actually means the rear axle has a rearward movement. Now, the benefits of a rear axle path is that it promises to provide a magic carpet feel as the rear wheel moves away from big hits on technical terrain.

The problem with this is that as the bike sinks into its travel and the bike grows in length, it would put tension on the chain and this would give it undesirable characteristics like suspension firming or pedal kickback. This is why later designs started to come with that high pivot idler and this jockey wheel or pulley as it is often known, will take up the slack from a longer chain and allow the bike to grow without putting the wheels back on. Additional effects of chain tension on the bike. The clever thing about the tensioner pulley is that suspension designers can move it and change the chain tension on that rear suspension. and that can effectively disconnect things like pedaling or braking forces, so there we have it, there are a lot of subtle changes to the rear suspension designs that give them subtle changes and whether you would notice them or not is perhaps another question, but I hope have done it. whether it has given you the confidence to identify these main designs on a future or potential bike you are looking at, whether you would be able to analyze how that bike rides or not is also another question, there is only one way to find out and that is to go out and ride it , but anyway let me know what you think of this video and if there is a favorite suspension design that you let me know in the comments below and maybe I'll take a look.Look at your own bikes and see if you can.

Identify one of those four main suspension designs. Thanks for watching.