Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
Yup. Total non issue unless you run spindly little coil shocks.
The current stumpjumper has the same issue...
As far as I can see it's the same principle of drilling holes that the cheese grater Mac Pro used?
On the other hand... 160 mm, 180 mm, 220 mm and a 254 mm for whatever reason (10 inches?). And in the middle of it all, freaking 203 mm. Because why do equal 20 mm steps when you can fuck the system with the most widespread rotor size (200/203 size in general) of late.
what would be the advantages other than lazy design? it seems just dumb to use a shock extender that is known to cause premature seal failure, side loading and snaps coil, it doesn't even feel that good. i've had one and it was garbage, a friend had a levo and it went through 3 shocks in 6 months, that's just crap.
Yeah that’s just it. Specialized don’t see the warranty because they push it all to Fox and RS.
And then there’s the shocks that are sent off for service when they could be warrantied.
And even then there’s the riders that just don’t realise there’s a problem
FWIW gen 2 Hightowers Megatowers sideloaded their shocks quite a bit judging by the amount of air in the damper when doing a service. And they don't use a shock extender...
Its quite hard to get a horst link bike to drive a shock mounted on the top tube without using a clevis yoke. Its definitely not impossible, but most of the designs you see with a top tube mounted shock are either VPP(dual link designs, ala SB120, Commencal tempo) or single pivots (or even linkage driven single pivots/flex stays Santa Cruz Blur).
They have prioritised their rear suspension design over a loss in shock life essentially.
Pretty similar how most enduro bikes use trunnion because it packages easier, despite the fact we know its worse for shock wear.
If you had a Stevo and didn’t think it was good then i think you need to look inwards my friend, those bikes freaking rip.
They were designed to use an air shock.. if you want to run a coil then deal with the consequences.
It's quite hard to do a corotating Horst link bike with a top tube mounted shock, much easier to do so when the links are counterrotating. Qed, Bird, Rocky Mountain, Nukeproof (with the caveat the shock is downtube mounted, but could easily be top tube mounted and be better for it due to bottle clearance) and probably quite a few more.
Yeah precisely. And we know that Specialized love their horst link bikes with the seat stay have a rocker connected to the upper/mid seat tube as almost all of their bikes have this configuration (even the prototype Demo that drives the shock from under the BB shell with a pull link). Hell the enduro has his too and drives the shock with its extra link of that pivot.
I think its just the design language for Specialized, so unless they find a really good reason to swap, theyll stick with it so their bikes have a consistent look
And consistent kinematics. While I haven't taken an in depth look at things, generally the counter rotating horst link bikes should be more similar in kinematics to a VPP Santa Cruz bike than to a Specialized. The same link can be made between dw link/maestro and specialized bikes compared to counter rotating link bikes.
i had the 2017 specialized Enduro and it was as beautiful as bad performing ( super beautiful ) i tried the stumpy ST and LT and the Evo all in 2020 and the newest Evo as well, nothing terrific honestly, Offering, Tyee, Hightower, Switchblade, all are way better imo ( tried all not just imagining )
100% wool is where its at with odor. Theres some advantages to synthetics and blends but not with smell.
I think it’s 2024, both frame and shock manufacturers have reeled in the yoke issues and learned from previous mistakes.
Everyone above did a better job than I can explaining the advantages- shock location, leverage rate, appearance etc.
My 2 mountain bikes both have yokes- not too concerned.
An Enduro?
Ask a group of heavier, smashier riders about your assertion that the shock yoke thing is overblown.
There's this funny category of parts that are perfectly reliable, even exceptionally so, for most riders, but flip into guaranteed issues above a certain weight and smashiness factor.
Carbon cranks, long-travel single-crown CSUs and high engagement hubs from the likes of I-9 and King are other examples of this phenomenon.
I was one of the early adopters of the stumpy evo in 2019
I lost count of how many shocks I blew up, I'm guessing 8...
Fox, rockshox, cane creek x 4, EXT.... all ate the sausage. Thanks yoke clevis & Obama.
Kings aren’t really high engagement. Not low engagement either but a decent middle ground. Never had an issue and I’ve broken a few hubs.
Yes times have changed, but not considering the OG high engagement hub to be high engagement is... Something.
I'm also done with Hydras after cracking one drive ring and getting another to spin in the hub shell. I9 stuff is beautiful but built too light.
I love the internet.
I won't speak for David, but I do think its worth pointing out you've probably ridden stuff he's engineered (he's ex-SRAM/Rockshox, specifically a rear shock engineer).
One thing I find really interesting as I get older is just how much harder it is to ascribe real correlation to an event, despite what may seem obvious. Turns out, there are often many variables to consider, and anecdotes by themselves don't hold as much water as we humans wish. In your case, I'd wager heavier/smashier riders go through shocks at a higher rate regardless of application. How much do yokes contribute to this, especially as things get better? Tough to say, especially without real data and large sample sizes.
What I find even more interesting are all the internet trends getting driven by a small vocal group of people, sometimes with merit, other times as snake oil. The power of placebo is a helluva drug, and we certainly tend to see what we want to see.
Don't misread, I'm not saying shocks don't fail or side loading of a suspension component is good, but I would listen to guys like David. Overblown = blown out of proportion. My $0.02 is he's right, especially as materials, manufacturing, tolerances and engineering just plain gets better.
YMMV.
YT will soon release a new long-travel e-MTB. It has been spotted in an Austrian bike park.
I have a lot of respect for Dave. He cracked open up this can of worms and shouldn't have been surprised to get pushback on that statement. Very much to his credit, the Super Deluxe Air is regarded as an excellent product and possibly the most durable shock on the market. I trust it, it's what I run.
"What I find even more interesting are all the internet trends getting driven by a small vocal group of people, sometimes with merit, other times as snake oil. The power of placebo is a helluva drug, and we certainly tend to see what we want to see."
I'm friends with people who service suspension for a living. I'm happy to be part of a small, vocal group pushing for great durability. That's not snake oil.
any idea of the travel and motor choice?
170
Fazua
Ha excellent
I’ve heard its the Decoy “SL” and Bosch
rumor ou sure?
IMO it's hard to argue that there isn't a design flaw when DVO, Fox, and Zoke won't honor their normal warranty on those bikes... VS every other bike where it isn't a problem. And even if something catastrophic doesn't happen with an air shock or "approved" coil shock, the bike is going to wear out parts at an accelerated rate which is a bummer for biggger and or, faster riders.
People also complain about trunnion mount shocks, but I haven't heard of any trunnion bikes voiding warranties as soon as a product is installed. The list below is from the Lost Co as of July last year.
Do you have the link of this image / info?
https://thelostco.com/blogs/blog/riding-coil-shock-on-specialized-stumpjumper-evo
Tell that to owners of older Specialized Enduro and Stumpjumper with Monach Plus and Monarch shocks that have eaten themselves alive. Oh wait SRAM's old warranty response "we have never seen that before".