rifu

@gnralized: ah I see, my opinion about AS and PKB might be skewed because I just rode the new Polygon. It really has high AS (to the point of making the bike ride higher in its travel) with no noticeable PKB. I don't know what the marketing people of Polygon thinks, introducing it as Variable Suspension Kinematics will make people understand it better than some leet names like R3act-2play. Reading about compromises, Gwin's chainless run and Canyon's custom freecoaster mechanism also came to mind. For frames with good AS but with potentials for its PKB to hinder suspension movement, a freecoaster mechanism on the freehub to make the bike feels like it is chainless is like the opposite approach of a climb switch. A climb switch is arguably more intuitive to use though. Or.. we can couple the freecoaster mechanism with seatpost height adjustment. Slamming the seat down will open up the suspension, freeing it from PKB. You can't add speed just before a jump though. Back to that VSK (has anybody patented it yet?), what about Kona's Magic Link?

@gnralized: the way I see it, we can "switch off" the anti-squat simply by not pedalling. Coasting on the downhill will free the suspension movement, pedalling on the uphill will firm it up. Anyway, frame designers can adjust the amount of AS accordingly, just as much as what is needed. At some point, a small enough AS will not induce a noticeable PKB.

The Pinkbike remembers

@VTwintips: nice argument on efficiency and power vs flow!

@triptex: yes, without some kind of empirical data from powermeters we can never be sure. That is why I use the word "assume". Educated guess from available data. ;)

But how fast can you go before you got a flat or a crash? If you go really fast and got a crash, is the time gain still enough to be in the lead? Is going really fast worth the risk? You can see in stage 3, Sam Hill was gaining time (going really fast) before maybe he got a crash, and then going really fast again before maybe got a crash again. Data like these shows which part of the stages where you should back it off a little or you played it too safe.

@triptex: we can assume relative power output using time gap and elevation. Oton (and Maes) got a big gain on Callaghan at stage 5 which is flatter than other stages.

Was about to ask the same question.