dirt-klaud

@Rocksled: The amount of thread on the other side has basically nothing to do with it. The bending stress at the left side of the axle is orders of magnitude higher than when in a typical fork, and you now have combined loading with the axle in bending, shear and tension due to the axle nut preload (If I'm understanding the stackup correctly, similar to a typical car spindle/axle nut), and all those loads are typically spread across the same cross sectional area when in a typical fork (among other differences). Aluminum is not only impossible to get to a higher strength than heat treated steel alloys (think 4340, but there's tons out there, and even 7075 Al won't get you close) and you can't ever design aluminum to have "infinite" fatigue life, so if you're close to yield on any hard hits, it's only a matter of time before it snaps and you go face first. This is not to criticize, because I support your effort and think that people just trying new experiments and prototypes is awesome, but there are a few key elements you may want to "properly" engineer just from a safety standpoint, and that's a big one. I could also guess that you could optimize the swingarm quite a bit to increase rigidity without adding much weight, just looking at the very open center section. There's probably someone out there who would be willing to do some free or cheap FEA just to get you some high-level input that might help prioritize changes in your re-design efforts. Hand calcs would get you a long way on the axle sizing, because you can easily baseline a normal fork that pretty much never will break an axle. Good luck! You clearly have the right attitude towards this project, and are ignoring the haters. Go for it!

I'm honestly more of a moto guy than a MTB guy, but they are my two passions. I totally agree with you here. I go elsewhere for moto news/videos/tech. At least when we're talking about "front page" posts, I see no reason why this should be on Pinkbike.

@Voreis: your social media stuff is inspiring, as a soon to be 40-something big kid, who has little kids and no time, who just wants to play on his dirt bike and mountain bike. Currently recovering from a non-riding injury makes things even worse...now on the couch looking around for 2-wheel sports-related stretching and training guidance because I no longer can just walk out he door and huck it. Yoga is for sure on my list. What about other off-the-bike training focused on "longevity in the sport" as opposed to pure strength or endurance? I just wanna have endless fun like you, outside of my day job ;-)

@nation: This is quite possibly the best comment I've ever read on Pinkbike! In all seriousness, you've captured the truly important part here. While Brook's comments above were pointed mostly at the helicopter, and rightfully so given what actually happened, but the real key issue here is safe and efficient transport to the hospital. All of the things related to helicopters and possible delay should've been super obvious in the planning stages, and either the heli would've been already staged closer, or the team would've taken action on the backup plan of moving him in the manner you described, much more quickly and with little to no more risk. I hope I correctly interpreted your point, but all your additional commentary is actually really enlightening.

@justanotherusername: totally...I am an idiot. Was thinking of dirt bike headsets while furiously typing since that's my first true love. I will totally admit that brain fart. Baahhh...oh well, my intentions were good. Headset bearings have a very different bearing-to-race contact angle/configuration than a regular bushing or roller shock bearing since it's designed to take a moment load, so my last sentence stands :-)

@fluider: headsets are tapered roller bearings, and need to support huge moment loads while rotating smoothly. Pretty different use case than a shock bushing/bearing. The rollers give a lot more distribution of load (in terms of Hertzian contact stress) than ball bearings, even full complement. I think the point you're making is probably that this shit is more complicated than people's broad generalizations, and dependent on actual engineering calculations and data on loads in the joints, bearing specs, etc,...which if so, I totally agree.

@Rageingdh: Cool! That would make sense...not manitou, that was a weird subconcious typo.

I feel like the unique stock Scout front end geo already gives it more stability and control than other 27.5 bikes, and adding a 29" wheel and less travel would not be a huge gain. The stock Scout already has a long wheelbase, etc, and rips through rough stuff like it has more travel and a bigger front wheel than it does, and defintiely doesn't need more weight. All that said, I'm not against it. Would be super interested to ride it since I love the Scout so much. Did they ever say if they used the reduced offset Manitou to keep in the same vein as the Transition "giddy-up" geo design? If so, I missed it.