On that Beautiful RM 500. Is there no Rear shock? looks like a solid bar on there. Am I missing something?
It is an interesting design in that is compresses the shock at both ends. Hence the "full floater" name. They actually work very good.
I recall Suzuki's Full Floater suspension to be the favorite of all the rider reviews of its era. Then it went away. Then I read somebody sued saying it was his design? I liked the early days of single shock suspension when you would see the name on the swing arm. Pro Link, Mono X, Uni Trax, Full Floater. What were the others?
I like Husky's above the swing arm linkage. But you don't need linkage at all if you design the suspension correctly.
Ktm called their design "pro-lever", maico called theirs "dual control" The bikes of the 70's and 80's were pretty cool!
Must be more to it then that. KTM's the only major manufacturer to use it with their PDS system and people (read: magazines, etc.) still gripe about it. Seems like KTM is back-pedaling with that idea by putting linkage on their XC line now. I'm no pro racer so I can't speak to that, but the PDS system seems to work just fine for me......
Maico had Alfa control 1 on their first single shock CAGIVA had soft damp When I was a kid if it had single shocker it was awesome
I never read it myself, but I saw several places where someone said that McGrath said just before he quit ktm "They will never win a sx title with pds" ... Not sure if he is the messiah or not, but RD5 proved him right.
Husky has linkage because that's what Husky customers want. Husaberg has been the premier brand of KTM and had highly developed pds. McGrath is a great rider, known him since we were teens. He is very set in his ways. I find his statement a bit precarious. I rode Ty's fully tuned Husaberg pds and it was amazing. Ty's opinion on the pds was that if you were going to jump forty feet in the air racing at a supercross event, then it may be necessary to have linkage. But if you are racing sx, you are going to have a special setup anyway. For the rest of the 99% of Husky riders, the new pds would be beneficial. The new Huskys have linkage, but they didn't have to have it to be great bikes.
New FLOW red plastics for KTM's from Acerbis. Kinda interesting, maybe they are trying to make ktms more like Italian Huskys?
