Review: 6 Months on the Trust Message Linkage Fork

It's been a long time since there was a product that stirred up the sort of responses that came with the Message's debut, many of which pointed out its rather large price tag, all of its pivots and eighteen (18!) bearings, its unconventional looks, and the dubious history of linkage forks. Us mountain bikers love to get caught up comparing numbers, but while the Dave Weagle-designed linkage fork might not beat telescoping forks on paper, can it do it on the trail?

---

The Claims

I polled a bunch of the people I ride with and it turns out that roughly 90-percent of them think the Message is either ''funny looking,'' ''too strange,'' or ''from a future where robots have killed everyone but the robots are either blind or have no fashion sense.'' As for me, I think it looks great on the right bike, but I have some questionable fashion sense, and maybe I'm preparing for our robot overlords. Besides, getting stuck on how it looks would be missing the point entirely: The Message (or any linkage fork) looks the way it does because, much like your bike's rear-suspension, it's designed to control pedaling support, stability control, and bump absorption through its linkage.

Do you know who's designed a bunch of proven rear-suspension designs? Dave Weagle of the dw-Link, Split Pivot, and Orion layouts. And do you know who's behind the Message's linkage? That same Weagle guy.



Think of the Message's trailing linkage design as a sort of rear-suspension that's been put up front, and the location of the pivots and length of the links are used to control how the suspension performs. Again, just like the back of your full-suspension bike.

Consistent Handling: Trust claims that the linkage creates more stability, which I take to mean more consistent handling, by increasing the trail number as the fork goes into its travel. Because the axle path isn’t a straight line like it would be on a telescoping fork, the Message's offset changes as it goes into its travel. That means that the trail grows, too, which will kinda feel like your head angle is getting slacker, or at least not getting steeper... And that would obviously make your bike feel less twitchy when you’re doing things like braking hard, landing a jump or drop, or nosing into one of those roll-the-dice kinda chutes.




That's exactly the opposite of what happens with a traditional telescoping fork, though. They want to compress when you stab the brakes, too, but it makes your bike steeper and twitchier, which can be unsettling when it happens at the wrong time. Telescoping forks depend on the spring and compression damping to stay up in their travel, while the Message is said to use the geometry of its linkage to not only help it do the same but to also preserve the handling when it does go into its travel.

Consistency usually equals control and speed, and that's what Trust is aiming to create with the Message. In their own words: ''To put it simply: handling remains the same even when the head angle changes - early in the turn, at the apex, and at the exit, climbing or descending, your bike always steers the same.'' Your bike's geometry and how it handles isn't everything, but it's easily the most important thing; more than your bald-ass tires, far more than how much travel you think you need, and even more important than how you've set your suspension up, although that last one can have a massive effect on handling.

If Trust's big claims ring true, they could really be onto something with the Message.

What's on the Outside?

Carbon Fiber Chassis and all the Bearings: As if a linkage fork wasn't out-there enough, this one is carbon fiber from top to bottom. Trust has used the expensive black stuff for the Message's tapered steerer tube, uni-crown and both legs, and all of the links, although it clearly wasn't to save weight: The Message weighs bang-on 2,000-grams on my scale, or only around 20-grams less than a 160mm-travel Fox 36, making it relatively porky for a 130mm-travel fork.


The large diameter carbon legs are oval-ish in shape and are angled out in a way that makes the bike look much, much slacker than it is. If you take a second look, you'll see that the axle is on the vertical link and well back of the legs, but it tricks a lot of looky-loos into thinking that the bike is rocking at a 58-degree head angle. It's not, and the Message's axle-to-crown height is 535mm, a few millimeters shorter than what my tape measure says the 130mm Fox 34 comes in at.





Trust could have dropped a load of weight by going with bushings instead of sealed bearings, but would anyone take the fork seriously if they had? Probably not, even if there's a case to be made for bushings, so there are eight bearings on each side of the fork (two at each pivot) and one at each lower eyelet for eighteen bearings in total. I know what you're thinking, but the Message does come with a lifetime warranty that covers all of them. Also, bearings sure are easier to deal with than traditional fork bushings that are pressed down into the lowers.

All of the pivot hardware is aluminum and has the recommended torque laser etched onto it, and each one also has a tiny steel push-pin that slides through the hardware to keep it from backing out on the trail. It's also worth pointing out that there aren't a bunch of annoying washers that fall from each pivot when you undo the bolts, unlike so many full-suspension bikes out there.





Without a stanchion tube for a sag-o-meter o-ring to slide on, Trust used a rotating gauge at one of the pivots (a lot like Canyon does on their bikes) to tell riders how much travel they're using.

Another detail worth mentioning are the two molded-in brake line guides (more on those later, too) and the zillion different plastic clips that Trust includes to sort out your cable routing. There's no built-in way to install a fender, but that's nothing that a handful of zip-ties couldn't solve.

What's Inside the Message?

Thru-Shaft Damper: The Message's twin-tube, thru-shaft damper sits inside the right leg and has roughly 50mm of stroke that's topped off with a conical bottom-out bumper, and the fork's linkage works off that to provide 130mm of travel. An air cartridge sits atop the damper, with the whole thing sliding out from the bottom of the leg as a single unit. There's an air cartridge inside the left leg, too, but no damper - that's all done within the right leg.

With a relatively short stroke, a sealed bearing at the bottom eyelet, and a low-speed rebound dial (w/ 20 clicks) poking out like an anodized red nipple, the damper looks a lot like a strange rear shock. Then there's that bright red disc that sits on top of the damper and has the high-speed compression shim stack underneath it; there's a separate ''blow-off stack'' for the Medium mode so that they ''don't need to compromise both with lockout and each can be tuned independently,'' Weagle told me.

The fork's thru-shaft damper uses a twin-tube layout that's similar, at least in principle, to other things out there. Picture a tube in a tube, with the oil passing from one to the other, as well as through the damping circuits, and you get the idea. When compressed, oil is forced out of the main tube and through the compression circuit before ending up behind the main piston via bleed holes that join the inner and outer tubes. Can you guess what happens when the shock rebounds? Yup, the opposite but the oil passes through the rebound circuit this time thanks to check valves.




Speaking of the fork's Medium compression mode, this is where you'll find the 3mm hex adjusters for that and the Open setting, with them hidden beneath a rubber cap when the fork is put together. The bottom dial tunes the fork's Open compression via 20 clicks, whereas the top dial offers 5 clicks to alter the Medium mode's action. That's easy enough to remember (there's a big 'C' on the rubber cap, too), but I'd like to see each dial's function labeled as well.

Plastic Gears: What about that strange looking arrangement of plastic gear wheels and that long rod that runs the length of the air cartridge? Trust needed the three-position compression lever at the fork crown to reach the damper, and that's how they did it. The Message is said to be relatively unfazed by pedaling and changes or where the rider's center of gravity is sitting, which is largely true in practice, and Trust debated about whether they needed this cheater switch at all. ''Trail fork consumers are used to some form of adjustability and lock-out feature and, as such, we felt we needed to include it to not be too alienating,'' Weagle admitted when I questioned the need and execution. ''That said, we might find that future iterations don't need it.''




If you're looking at those plastic gear wheels and wondering how long it'll take to wreck them, you're thinking exactly like I was. The stops are built into the underside of the aluminum compression lever, though, so you shouldn't ever be able to apply too much force to the plastic bits down inside the fork.

Not User Serviceable... Yet: When the Message was first released, word was that the damper would be user serviceable by anyone with the skills and tools to do the job. That's not quite the case, though, with the dampers in first-year forks not intended to be opened up by anyone at home.

Weagle cites two reasons for this approach: ''First, we want to make sure in our first year that we're seeing everything that happens to the suspension in a variety of real-world conditions. Seeing this enables us to build-in service efficiencies and address common consumer needs in a way that only strengthens future product development. Second, we're actively building out our worldwide service network, training staff and developing a suite of service videos that our distribution partners and service centers can use to properly service the Message.'' I get that, sure, but I still want to take it apart at will.




Oh, and there apparently are also some proprietary tools that require some kind of training, but those aren't available to the consumer yet. While I'm of the opinion that everything on our bikes should be easily serviceable at home with a set of hex keys, average intelligence, and some patience, I can also understand why Trust would be exercising caution on this front. That said, I'd want my $1,975 USD fork to include its proprietary tool kit and anything else I might need to work on it for the next five years.

Air Spring: The black cylinder that sits on top of the damper is the air cartridge, and the valve aligns with a port in the carbon leg when you slide the whole assembly home. There are a few things to note here, including that you'll need a shock pump with a long-head on it to reach the aluminum valve; many shock pumps are this way regardless, but I'd like to be able to use any shock pump on this fork.

Trust does ship the fork with a pump that works with the Message, as well as a bunch of thread-on volume spacers so you can tinker with how it ramps up later in its stroke.




And did you note the very strange shape to the top of the cartridge? That bit mates to the corresponding shape up inside the leg and, get this, the whole damper and air spring assembly swings in an arc slightly as the fork goes through its travel, just like the shock on your full-suspension bike.

That means that the cartridge's top mounting bolt, the one just above the valve, is a pivot of sorts, and it's also why the Message's carbon legs flare out slightly from top to bottom - to provide room for the cartridge to swing.




Trust's first suspension fork provides endless technical talking points, but we should really be talking about how this thing performs. Is the Message yet another linkage creation that promises to blow telescoping forks off the trail only to end up fading into obscurity like all the others? Or is the very expensive, very strange looking Trust Message the one that proves stanchions and bushings aren't the best way to do suspension?

It's Challenging To Set Up


Part of my struggles came down to me trying to get it to act like it has stanchions and bushings, which the Message is just never going to do, regardless of what air pressure you're running. It was specifically designed not to, of course, so it's silly of me to expect it to act like a 34 or Pike on the trail. Instead, riders will need to decide what camp they're in: The one that puts comfort high up on its list of priorities, or the one that knows comfortable suspension doesn't usually equal speed. It took a few months to figure out, but the Message definitely lives in the latter camp.




In the end, I've gone up to 160psi and added three thread-on tokens to the air cartridge. The fork's low-speed rebound dial is backed out 12-clicks from fully closed, the Open mode compression is 16-clicks out, and the Medium mode is 4-clicks out.

Speaking of modes, there's a big difference between the three, and while I can sorta, kinda understand the firmest setting when you need to crush a gravel road climb, I found the Medium mode to be near useless as the fork does a good job of controlling its travel without reaching for that band-aid.

The Carbon Fiber Chassis is Shockingly Rigid

When it comes to numbers, there's going to be some justified grumbling about the weight. After all, it's a 130mm-travel fork intended for trail riding that weighs nearly as much as a 160mm-travel Fox 36, so I can see the issue. Having ridden the Message quite a bit, I can also see that the carbon chassis is incredibly overbuilt and robust. You want torsional rigidity? The Message has all of it and then some more just for good measure. It feels a lot like a dual-crown downhill fork rather than something meant for trail riding.




This was underlined, bolded, and then put in italics during back-to-back testing of the Message and Fox's 130mm-travel 34 on the same sections of rough trail; a traditional telescoping fork feels delayed in its turning response and less precise in those rocky bits of trail where it's more a game of pinball than mountain biking.

In truth, I'm not a big guy and a fork's torsional rigidity usually isn't a big factor for me, but I have no doubt that larger riders will benefit from the improved steering response. That said, in rough sections of trail when the bike was angled over I felt more chatter passing up through the massive fork legs and right into my hands than I would have preferred.




A few other things to note: It's a bit finicky to get your wheel in and the axle lined up, but I am glad that Trust went with a thread-on 15mm thru-axle instead of some hokey semi-quick-release abomination. I'm not sure what the fascination is with getting your wheel off without needing to use a tool, especially on a fork like this that isn't made for racing, but I'm happy they didn't go that route.

Also, with the carbon bottom links hanging down below the axle line, I thought they might be vulnerable to rock strikes, but there were no issues on that front. There are a few marks on from where they scraped against something or other, but nothing to be concerned about and I don't think it'll ever be.


''In the instance you don't have them and need to use a zip-tie, make sure the zip-tie spans along the top to get some purchase on the cable. Otherwise, when you pull to cinch, all that energy is directed in a way that the just guide isn't designed to take,'' they explained. Regardless, a cracked cable guide isn't good, especially at this price.

The 250-hour service interval on Trust's damper is more than twice as long as what Fox or RockShox suggest for their comparable forks, which tells me that they have some serious confidence in how it performs. On top of that, you'll never have to drop the fork's lowers for a cleaning and new lube oil, unlike anything out there with stanchions and bushings. The sealed bearings are still smooth, and they should last a long time, too.

The Message's Air Spring is Very Linear

Each of the air valves gets an aluminum cap, and a 4mm hex key is used to unscrew the caps as they're also recessed a bit inside the carbon leg. It's a nice touch, but I had a bit of an issue straight out of the box as one of them was screwed down so tight onto the valve that it backed the entire thing right out of the cartridge. The sudden and very loud loss of air might have made me pee a little bit, but it was an easy fix; the inside of the Schrader valve accepts a 5mm hex key, so I just screwed it back in. Trust admits that they've seen this with a few early production forks but have since sorted it out, so no one else should have to change their underwear.

As mentioned above, setting the Message up took much more time than usual, largely because I was looking for less harshness on high-speed compressions and no amount of dial turning or shock-pumping was giving it to me. I needed a far more progressive spring rate, too, with the Message being surprisingly linear out of the box. At 150 psi, which is in the neighborhood of where Trust says to start, I didn't need much of a hard impact to find the end of the stroke.

Just 10 psi to each leg makes a big difference, though, as does the thread-on volume reducing tokens that help the fork to ramp up later in its stroke. Adding a few helped remedy the bottoming, but I'd like to see more progression built-in to the air spring. I'm not a big guy and my glass ankles mean that I try to avoid smashing into terrible landings, so I can only imagine what a 200lb+ rider with much more courage would think...




Your traditional fork's stanchions slide in and out on (hopefully) slippery bushings and, as you'd expect, the tolerances between those two are of the utmost importance. Too tight and you'll have a buttload of friction and oil won't be able to get between the surfaces to provide lubrication like it's supposed to. But too loose and get that annoying play that feels like your headset is rattling, only it's a much pricier fix.

Without any bushings, and sporting sealed bearings at every single pivot, the Message has inherently less friction than a normal fork, and it's very, very supple because of that. It's most noticeable when you're just pushing on the fork with your hands, but it's probably most beneficial when the Message changes from compressing to rebounding; this is often referred to as stick-slip and the goal is always to have as little as possible. There's no doubt that that supple action improves traction, too, a boon when the trails are wet or dusty and loose.

But What's it Like to Ride?

Here's where things get a little interesting. With a traditional fork, it's pretty easy to figure out what the damper is up to if you pay attention; it's a 1:1 ratio and, well, you're practically holding onto the damn thing. But with the Message, you've got a short-stroke damper compressed by a linkage that not only applies leverage to said damper but also does some pretty neat things with your bike's geometry. In other words, there are more factors at play.

Unfortunately, one of those is that the Message acts like there might be too much high-speed compression damping for my liking, with more harshness being transmitted through to my hands when passing over rough, chopped up ground at speed than I'd expect. While it's not even close to being unrideable as some other reviews have stated (talk about wild exaggerations), it's certainly noticeable if you're comparing it to a top-tier traditional trail fork like the Fox 34 that I did back-to-back testing with. At first, I was convinced that my spring rate was too firm because that's sort of how it was acting, but the action didn't improve much as I lowered the air pressure in search of more compliance.




When running into the type of things that cause high-speed compressions - pointy rocks, tall roots, flat landings, and square edges, all at a good pace - it felt a bit like the Message wasn't absorbing them as well as it should. But the same time, I was in more control and riding faster than ever, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense until you remind yourself that geometry and handling are the real keys to speed and control, not gooey suspension that turns the ground into your personal safe space.

''The footage may seem to suggest that there's less impact absorption, but the Message rider will likely have a better ride experience at critical inputs: the handlebar and tire contact patch,'' Weagle told me when I described the fork's action while filming for the video review. ''Keep in mind, we don't need to make the Message overly soft or compliant to make up for stiction issues,'' he went on to explain.

But was it actually too much high-speed compression damping that I felt? I'm far from the only rider who's come to the same conclusion, but Trust says that's not the case. ''Low hysteresis suspension systems often feel like they have more damping compared to those with higher levels of hysteresis,'' they say on their website. ''This is because the suspension is uninhibited by lag and able to react to impacts faster, increasing traction and improving control.'' Sure, that might be true, but it doesn't change the fact that the Message does transmit noticeably more feedback - more harshness - to the rider than a traditional fork does, regardless of the cause. After a few hours on rough singletrack, my body was more tired when using the Message, ride after ride, and flat landings felt especially severe.

The thing is, for a lot of riders out there, it might be worth it.

I installed the Message on a few different bikes, but something interesting happened across the board: With the Message up front, every bike turned into the best handling bike I've ever ridden. I kept stringing together some of the most impressive corners of my life while using the Trust fork, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't me getting any better - I rarely get better at anything. So while I felt like the trail was rougher, I was actually going faster while being in more control. Over and over again. Geometry > Everything else.

Okay, so I can't quite bring myself to refer to it as the ''Trust Effect'' with a straight face, but I can confirm that the bike feels more stable and is easier to ride quickly through pretty much any type of corner. The steeper or rougher the corner or the lead-up to it is, the more the Message outshines a traditional fork. But it's a strange sensation as the trail does feel rougher, no doubt about that, but you're also in more control and are probably more relaxed.


Spend some time on the Message, though, and a normal fork can feel like it's forcing you into a front-end down, ass up riding position that doesn't exactly help you out.

Because of the increased control, it never feels like the Message is using too much of its travel too often. In fact, I often got the sensation that the opposite was happening, hence the two-month-long search for more compliance that was ultimately just me chasing my tail. I wanted it to act as if it runs on stanchions and bushings but without the drawbacks that come with that time-proven layout, and that just isn't going to happen. That is, however, exactly what I think happened with much of the early feedback that I heard and read about the Message.

If I had jumped on the Message and put two weeks of riding on it before writing this review, I guarantee you that I'd have come away from that thinking it's a hot dumpster fire disguised as a carbon fiber linkage fork. It's far from perfect, and I can see many riders not gelling with the performance, but the handling benefits of the design are undeniable.

Is The Message Better?

Yes, the Message can definitely out-perform telescoping forks, but certainly not in every way. Trust's fork is torsionally stiff enough for the angriest silverback gorilla of a mountain biker, but that's small beans compared to the handling benefits that the linkage system provides. There's a huge improvement in how a bike turns with the Message bolted to the front of it, and I consistently found myself cornering faster and in more control than when I was using a traditional fork. In a world where many of us have zero issues with spending nearly $3,000 USD on wheels that do next to nothing besides making your wallet lighter, I wouldn't have to think that hard to justify the Message's price tag.

Let me put it to you this way: After spending a lot of time on the Message and then having to ride a normal fork, it feels as if the bike's geometry is a decade old while using the latter, at least until I get used to it again.

The Message isn't the Holy Grail of front suspension, though, and there are issues that need sorting out before Trust's message will ever become gospel. The most notable is the fork's lack of compliance during high-speed compressions, something that'll be hard to live with if comfort matters to you. Weagle is adamant that what I felt isn't actually too much damping, though. Straight from the horse's mouth:

''We’ve found it hard to compare the Message to a telescopic in terms of feel, they function so fundamentally different that some characteristics just “feel” different to us. Measurably, the Message has less high-speed damping than a telescopic—it just has it more of the time. And the reason we have more frequent damping is because the Message’s thru-shaft damper nearly eliminates hysteresis. Less hysteresis means controlled damping after fast changes in damper shaft direction which leads to less load variation at the tire and ultimately more traction. In the end, on the trail, the Message seems to coax riders into pinning it in a way we haven’t seen with other 120-130mm travel trail bike forks. Normally you can’t go faster or feel more controlled with less traction so there’s something more than immediately meets the eye going on here.

''We definitely don’t have all the answers, or maybe even the questions. One question I keep asking myself is how much does expectation change over experience gained, and how does that reform what “feels good” to people. A very subjective measurement built almost entirely on past experience. What I do know is that we’re going to keep trying, testing, tweaking new ideas and developing new designs so that everyone gets to experience that “feel good” feeling we get from the Message. And, hopefully, that gets more people having great experiences on mountain bikes enjoying the world around them and the sport that we love so much.''

I'd like a more progressive starting point for the spring rate as well, as it feels far too linear for a fork that's best ridden at ten tenths. There's also no way that a zip-tie should ever be able to crack the fork's cable guide, especially one as pricey as the Message.

That brings me to the numbers, which don't exactly go in Trust's favor, do they? I mean, it literally costs twice as much as the best trail riding forks from RockShox, Fox, and all the other guys, but it's not twice as good. Not only that, but it's also considerably heavier. All you need to do is read a comment section under any review to know that numbers matter, regardless of some pretty big performance gains, so I see Trust having an uphill battle with a lot of riders on that front.

Is the Message for you?

Trust's first fork offers some real benefits, but the improvement in how the bike handles, especially through pretty much any type of corner, is by far the most notable advantage. The steeper and rougher the corner, the more you'll gain an advantage from the Message; it really is that noticeable. What it isn't, however, is ultra-plush and supple on the trail in the way that the latest from Fox, RockShox, and the rest of them perform. If your ideal suspension erases every impact no matter how small, and comfort is above speed on your priority list, you probably won't be happy with the Message.

The ideal Message owner is someone who enjoys riding their trail bike fast, and who knows that handling and geometry matter more, at least to them, than having the gooiest suspension. They're probably also just fine with having a fork on their bike that has other riders asking what the hell they're using because that's going to happen every ride.

Pinkbike's Take

---

---

Posted In:
Reviews and Tech Videos Pinkbike Originals Reviews Linkage Forks Forks Trust Performance Mike Levy