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Very true, none of our Reactor models would be considered "extreme" or win a game of Top Trumps. However we put a lot of of effort into the engineering, R&D and testing to ensure they perform for riders in the real world on the trail. So far most riders, racers and media seem to enjoyed riding them (check Vitals review the other week). But happy to accept that they may not be for everyone- the beauty of the bike industry is there are a lot of brands to choose from.

hot damn that was a beautiful response. and necessary

Great question Brines. I'm totally bought into the spring as the more important system. I think you should do 90% of your tuning with the spring and let damping do the last 10%. I learned this the hard way in 2014 at the Leogang World Cup. I was getting destroyed by the high-speed chatter and constant small to medium-sized holes on the track. I couldn't hold a line anywhere and I could barely hold onto the bars. Turns out that growing up in Oregon where all the DH trails are smooth and flat didn't help me set up a bike...

A couple things to add in no particular order some relevant some maybe not: 'wide open' does not mean no damping, it just means the least restrictive end of whatever damping range is available in your fork/shock. If you really want to know what wide open feels like take your fork cartridge out, but good luck trying to ride on anything but pavement. The best damper in the world cannot correct for a poorly set up spring. You really do want to be using your available travel, but that doesn't mean bottoming out a specific number of times. 'mid stroke...