We’ve been chasing a picture of this for ages, but here it is, the first pics we’ve seen on the Internet (though they are in one German magazine) of the new Paul Turner Maverick suspension bike.

Paul Turner set up Rock Shox, and Maverick is his suspension bike company. Don’t confuse it with David Turner, who makes DH bikes with rockers (that Kona used to use). That’s another story.

Anyhow… The shock is developed by Turner as a structural part to save weight. The theory behind the system is that the linkage makes the rear wheel travel almost vertically upwards when striking a bump. This optimal system usually means that the distance between bottom bracket and rear wheel significantly lengthens, giving pedal feedback as the chain extends (and vice- versa, chain tension activating the suspension). However on this system the the bottom bracket moves backwards also, eliminating the pedal feedback.

We showed it to our mate Ade who knows a bit about suspension, and this is what he reckons…

“I think as the link comes up the bb comes in line with the swingarm, I think as the sa moves up the chain gets longer, so it will have some degree of feed back, to stiffen the rear end while on the gas, so it does what the I drive does , in a nicer way, and may allow power wheelies. Thing is, with the top strut of the swinging arm feeding into the rear shock (possibly made from a modified m/c fork) at the joint of the two sliders, wont this be introducing a large bending load causing stiction?

Possibly a better solution would be to pivot the top member on or near the dropout and forming a double wishbone type horst link. As for the wheel travel being vertical I think it is more j shaped, as the initial movement comes from the shock pivot then as the link comes up comes more into effect causing the more vertical movement.

I did some stuff on j shaped rear movement, and the ride was great, you could run soft springing as as the initial movement is to the rear, so rider weight on the bike does not compress the initial movement as much but bumps do as they are in the direction of the wheel path, brake forces do , but as this induces some squat this may help braking. All in all a clever novel design but I would worry about the bending load induced at the shock ,

Oh, in my opinion ( had to add that bit ) ;))”

Ade

What do we think? Well, Paul Turner’s been round suspension long enough to know what works and what doesn’t. It’s actually quite close to the rear suspension design tested by Rock Shox a few years ago, which worked along a sort of parralelogram-mounted URT design, but never saw production. Tomac tested a Giant with the system on, but it never made it out of the garage and into the shops.

We’ll be watching for this, but with only 400 being made, it’ll be a long wait till we find one…