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Rulezman, Jan Heine, PVD, Grant Peterson... cycling seems to perversely reward people with big egos, big opinions and questionable applications of scientific principles.
Ah yes, the famous Absolute Black method 😬
add dougal to that list now, Hes completely ignoring physics because he believes.
What are you smoking brother? Jan completely changed the entire road and gravel categories. Grant’s bikes have inspired an entire new and ever-growing category of alt-cycling. I can’t speak for the others but confidently going against the grain, having some kind of evidence of why their ideas are sound, and then having the cycling industry learn more and more each day how right they are doesn’t seem like a problem. I don’t even ride those kinds of bikes anymore but game recognizes game.
It's not a knowledge or concept problem. It's an attitude problem.
PVD is TOXIC.
Now? I've been on MTBR long enough to witness the crash outs 10+ years ago.
always remember, you are wrong, will always be wrong and you don't know shit about anything when it comes to suspension grand wizard Dougal (doctor, engineer, inventor, ONZ)
Soooooo, anyone got any rumors or should we rename the thread to "Hot takes and arguing"...?
Who’s PVD and what does he believe?
Who’s Douglas and what did he do?
The lightest hand of moderation would be wonderful to keep us all on track sometimes
Welcome one and all to the sewing circle.
Rumour - new Canyon enduro bike coming? I wanted to check out the Strive geometry after the latest Jack Moir video and noticed the current model is no longer listed.
I once sent PVD an honest question by email about a technical drawing on his website and he answered : "What your asking falls into the 'that's a stupid question' category. Only a terrible person would answer a stupid question."
Such a nice guy
There’s a name I haven’t thought of in ~10 years. Not since his bizarre Nomad V3 setup.
the guy reached out to me after 3 years of silence to ask if ive learned anything since our last chat. . .
hes just mad cause i use Reach and Stack on my geometry when i design bikes
Best guesses on what that Linear XL does? In all the shots I've seen it looks a lot like a brake reservoir. Could just be a simple diaphragm that expands in the same way as internal pressure increases on the spring leg side. Seems like the easiest way to do it while keeping the current lower leg design language, no moving parts or added complexity, simple to cast and assemble at scale, no change to air spring architecture, and no additional tuning or service required by the end user. Ticks all the boxes from that standpoint anyway.
my best guess that it is a tunable cartridge of the air spring, giving the airspring negative (?) more volume, like on their shocks.
You can buy "LinearXL" air cans for the super deluxe, so I assume this is the same idea.
These forks should feature "air preload", whatever that is.
Screenshot from new mondraker DH bike listing:
Edit: This tech has been seen featured on the next gen Zeb as well.
It's for more volume (presumably adjustable/swapable piece) in the lower leg to reduce/control casting ramp in longer travel 38mm stancion forks. The Zeb in 170+ has been known to be very hard for people to bottom. This will help that. This, coupled with the rumored adjustable bottom-out, is likely trying to make the forks more coil-like and have the desired increased mid-stroke support.
As has been said before in this thread, likely an integrated/smaller version of this: https://vorsprungsuspension.com/collections/all/products/secus-fork-air-spring-upgrade-kit-fox-rockshox-forks-2021
Those are really two different things. The Secus also increases the negative spring size significantly.
Given the shape, specifically that it's not round, and the relatively small size, I doubt it's connected to the main air spring or functions at all like the Secus in that regard. I'd expect it to sit much lower towards the foot bolt (and use a different foot bolt) if there was a port to the air spring shaft and for it to be much larger to have any meaning full impact on performance. Not impossible but seems like it would be unnecessarily complicated in the current location.
Also the Zeb protos seem to have the adjustable bottom out integrated into that same space, which would require a lot of creative engineering to package and seal both features reliably into such a small area.
On their rear shocks 'Linear XL' refers to air sleeves with added positive chamber volumes, not negative volume. Would make sense if it was increasing the positive volume of the lower leg space. Would be an odd choice of branding otherwise.
The Mondraker spec referenced above with 'adjustable air preload' just refers to adjustable air spring pressure, as in air spring vs coil spring. They use the term on all their bike spec sheets, as do a few others brands.
From a manufacturing standpoint they'd want a specific performance difference with the simplest possible solution; the least number of new parts; ease of production, assembly, and QC; and minimal requirement for tuning, servicing, or even understanding by the end user. If it's more complex than an expandable diaphragm i'd be pretty surprised.
I wonder if there even will be a new Strive
Remember, there is a seal between the bottom of the negative air chamber and the lower leg. That area also contains air. Either this is to give some extra room or potentially let's it blow out? A different way around a bleed valve perhaps?
There is patent that references two (or more) positive chambers, and the use of protruding attachments on the lower to reduce spikes in pressure. Not sure I fully understand it, but maybe worth read.
https://ppubs.uspto.gov/api/pdf/downloadPdf/20260021867?requestToken=eyJzdWIiOiI4YWUzNWVlZS0wMzIyLTRiZDktOGNkMS0wNzQ4NGY1MjYyMTMiLCJ2ZXIiOiJiZGFhNjcxZS0wYzY5LTRmMjktYTUwOS05OTVmYmNmOWIyYTQiLCJleHAiOjB9
Good find, hadn't seen that one. It spends most of the time describing what seems like a fork-based design similar to the Fox/Specialized Genie rear shocks. Two or more positive chambers overlapping (tube-in-tube style) where the total system volume is reduced when the piston closes a bypass in some way to cut off access the the additional chamber.
But there's another aspect described farther down that specifically addresses what they call 'casting ramp' and sounds a lot like the Linear XL cavity. No mention of a seal or expanding diaphragm, just additional space perpendicular to the casting. In which case the black cover is just to seal it after manufacturing the lowers (and probably made in such a way that it can't fill with lower leg oil).
From patent app:
As used herein, a casting volume capacity or a sealed residual air space means a total fixed volume or a non-expanding volume. In other words, a casting volume capacity or a sealed residual space disclosed herein is defined by one or more cavities defined by one or more walls of a structure. Extension or expansion cavities or chambers disclosed herein means that the extension chambers contribute to a total volume capacity (e.g., a total casting volume capacity) or a closed, fixed volume of a suspension component (e.g., to restrict pressure increases or pressure spikes in the closed volume). The casting volume capacity and/or a sealed residual space disclosed herein can be provided by a plurality of internal regions or cavities or can be provided by varying a dimension (e.g., a diameter or area) of a lower tube of a fork suspension.
In an embodiment, a lower housing or casting may include an increased supplementary or casting volume in a space radially outward of a space defined by a tube inserted into the casting. For example, the radially outward space may be increased in a perpendicular cross section of the lower taken below a bushing when compared to a radially outward space of a perpendicular cross section taken above a bushing.
Who is pvd?
Sorry, I over complicated my previous response. I shouldn’t have included the Seccus because (you’re right) it does more/different things.
The purpose of the LinearXL thing will be to expand the volume of the casting below the air spring. That space contains air and when the fork compresses it produces unwanted spring force, AKA casting ramp. Which makes a fork more progressive. By having this extra space on the back of the fork, which is may be tuneable, you can reduce the progressiveness of the fork. Hence LinearXL.
I suspect Peter Verdone (Ver Done?)
https://www.peterverdone.com/archive/bikesuspension.htm and https://www.peterverdone.com/
Old timey site (first one) used for looking up/comparing oil cST values back in the day.
I don't know the man, have used the first site, interesting that the second site lists itself as 'iconoclastic views on bicycles'.
Kind of a self-glaze (as the youth say) like if I was making bread and yelled out to my wife 'legendary loaves of bread over here, make way!'.
If PVD and Rulezman had a dance off or lip sync battle not sure who to root for there.
We are having a new Mondraker DH bike? What, where, when?
EDIT: Oh it's just an aluminium version of Summum with Rockshox set I guess.
Yeah, they just releasing the one they’ve been racing for the past year.
All this effort to simulate a coil, why not just run a coil
Ease of use and less SKUs. An air shock or fork adapts to everything from an XS to an XL rider with a shock pump by the average user. Changing coils is more involved, requires a workshop for the fork at least, different sizes come with different springs so you have 4 or 5 SKUs. And it's heavier. And more expensive as you have to buy another spring. Air is free.
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