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I could be misunderstanding, you're an expert, I'm not. But from the article showing a flip chip at the fwd shock mount: "This adjustment at the forward shock mount is not a geometry adjustment but a kinematic position that goes hand in hand with an secondary dog bone link that is specific to the type of shock - air or coil." I know they say it's for air or coil, but maybe it's more? By altering dogbone and fwd shock mount position they could make a more progressive curve and thus have more sag (with same pressure/spring rate), but by...

I would also guess the lack of a need for a dropper post on a dedicated DH frame allowed them to use more of the seat tube for the additional linkage. I'm seconding @Primoz's concern about the high forces going into those dogbone pivots - the upper one in particular has a lot of leverage over the shock link, and I hope they have any potential durability problems sorted if it ever carries over to a production model. Also, I can't say how accurate this is (to my eyes it seems close, even using a photo for reference, but it's...

Direct to dentist

Spotted in Vital's Pit Bits. Looks like the Pivot uses an eccentric mounting between the seatstay and rocker? Guess it's just a way of fine tuning BB height, head angle etc.

Re: Loris and Pirelli, remember that the Pirelli deal is with ALL Trek factory racing riders, which includes DH, Enduro, XC, road, and maybe even CX. This is a big big team deal and, despite being the top dog on the DH team, Loris is small potatoes compared to all the other Trek athletes who have no reason to not run the tires. Re: flex stays, some of the old Felt carbon equilink bikes had flexstays that were neutral at sag. I raced the Virtue Nine with flex stays in 2014. The bike rode fine for me so I don't...

Based on the rough diagram @RonJon made the change in angle between the stays is 0,3°, but I think that is valid only for extreme travel positions? How does it change through the travel? In any case, I think it would make sense to optimise the resting position in such a way that you have the least amount of flex in either direction to lover the overall stresses on the parts through the lifetime (thus lengthening the lifetime). It's usually the cycling of the load that does the structures in, not the absolute highest load, so optimising it for sag...

doesnt the stumpjumper use a digressive damper tune to account for the spring rate of the flex stays?

On Bruni's bike... https://www.pinkbike.com/news/bike-check-loic-brunis-specialized-demo.h…