Hi all. I haven't been following this threads for more than 2 years due to nice family reasons, so I stayed a bit surprised by topics that are mainly being discussed here these days and I doubted if I'm still going to post it.
I feel very shameful, it's not going to cover any of the new super-plus-boost world-saving mega standards as I do realize that bicycle (not even out of carbon) from pre-Boost-Plus-Air-Spring era doesn't fit in this universe anymore. It seems, that even He, The Internet is going to make us forget about those ancient times.
I decided last summer that I was going to design my own suspension linkage parts running on ball-bearings for my good old hook, 1st gen Banshee Rune that I have been more or less seriously riding since 2010. I was sick of the sticky bushings, that I was not willing to service after each ride, didn't want to throw the frame out and I still hadn't had enough free time to be spent by riding so I spent it at CAD, drinking wine or beer.
After 2 months of CADing I was lucky to get response from a Chinese CNC milling company who were willing to make a single batch for me at a for me reasonable price. I gave it a go, and at the end of november 2015 I received a tiny super light cartoon box from China, containing all the linkage arms, axles and washers. ENDURO MAX bearings came from wychbearings.co.uk. Unfortunately, damn bushings did make a damage to my frame and I wasn't able to prepare them by hand for the new pivot axles. Fortunately, my uncle saved me and professionally hand reamed the pivot holes in main frame and pressed new precise sleeves in there to fit with new pivot axles.
I managed to construct entire assembly on 17mm pivot axles. Both lower and upper pivots use pairs of 17mm bearings, chainstay axle runs on 10mm bearing and seatstay axle uses flanged 8mm bearing (not ENDURO). My main requirements were as large pivots as possible for overall stiffness, ease of manufacturing and maintanence, and many-years long durability.
Everything is made of 7075-T6 aluminium without surface treatment (I hand sprayed it with some matte laquer, but it doesn't hold), except for standardized stainless bolts.
After that, things were again easy. I used several types of washers here and there, assembled it and was stoked how smoothly entire suspension worked. There was no sticky friction, no thresholds to overcome. Just one beautiful smooth rotations at each pivot. Simple beauty.
Another surprise came during the first ride on my favorite trails including some more technical sections. While I had been using very small damping settings previously on the bushings, I now had to add more compression and even rebound damping and I still haven't set up my DHX5 finally. Previously I used only 3 clicks of rebound damping, and 4 clicks of compr. damping. Now, I am experimenting with twice harder damping settings.
The overall feeling from riding the new linkage is quite natural, the linkage movement is very responsive and smooth. There are no thresholds, no lagging. As for lateral stiffness I am very happy as well, I'd say it's noticeably stiffer sideways than before. I'll see how it holds up during the time, whether some misalignment or play arises, but now it made the bike completely new. The frame may not have the super popular geometry, but it still can climb and descent very agilely. With oldish Lyrik with travel increased to 170mm there is 67° head angle. The Lyrik is 2stepAir chasis converted into Coil UTurn with MissionControl damper.
I feel very shameful, it's not going to cover any of the new super-plus-boost world-saving mega standards as I do realize that bicycle (not even out of carbon) from pre-Boost-Plus-Air-Spring era doesn't fit in this universe anymore. It seems, that even He, The Internet is going to make us forget about those ancient times.
I decided last summer that I was going to design my own suspension linkage parts running on ball-bearings for my good old hook, 1st gen Banshee Rune that I have been more or less seriously riding since 2010. I was sick of the sticky bushings, that I was not willing to service after each ride, didn't want to throw the frame out and I still hadn't had enough free time to be spent by riding so I spent it at CAD, drinking wine or beer.
After 2 months of CADing I was lucky to get response from a Chinese CNC milling company who were willing to make a single batch for me at a for me reasonable price. I gave it a go, and at the end of november 2015 I received a tiny super light cartoon box from China, containing all the linkage arms, axles and washers. ENDURO MAX bearings came from wychbearings.co.uk. Unfortunately, damn bushings did make a damage to my frame and I wasn't able to prepare them by hand for the new pivot axles. Fortunately, my uncle saved me and professionally hand reamed the pivot holes in main frame and pressed new precise sleeves in there to fit with new pivot axles.
I managed to construct entire assembly on 17mm pivot axles. Both lower and upper pivots use pairs of 17mm bearings, chainstay axle runs on 10mm bearing and seatstay axle uses flanged 8mm bearing (not ENDURO). My main requirements were as large pivots as possible for overall stiffness, ease of manufacturing and maintanence, and many-years long durability.
Everything is made of 7075-T6 aluminium without surface treatment (I hand sprayed it with some matte laquer, but it doesn't hold), except for standardized stainless bolts.
After that, things were again easy. I used several types of washers here and there, assembled it and was stoked how smoothly entire suspension worked. There was no sticky friction, no thresholds to overcome. Just one beautiful smooth rotations at each pivot. Simple beauty.
Another surprise came during the first ride on my favorite trails including some more technical sections. While I had been using very small damping settings previously on the bushings, I now had to add more compression and even rebound damping and I still haven't set up my DHX5 finally. Previously I used only 3 clicks of rebound damping, and 4 clicks of compr. damping. Now, I am experimenting with twice harder damping settings.
The overall feeling from riding the new linkage is quite natural, the linkage movement is very responsive and smooth. There are no thresholds, no lagging. As for lateral stiffness I am very happy as well, I'd say it's noticeably stiffer sideways than before. I'll see how it holds up during the time, whether some misalignment or play arises, but now it made the bike completely new. The frame may not have the super popular geometry, but it still can climb and descent very agilely. With oldish Lyrik with travel increased to 170mm there is 67° head angle. The Lyrik is 2stepAir chasis converted into Coil UTurn with MissionControl damper.