Damn, you're just full of questions, aren't you!Steamthief said:
Random thoughts as I read through your post (and FWIW, I think the dw-link is the greatest thing since twist-off tops, am not so fond of the Blur, and know nothing about Yeti):
The Maestro suspension is, if anything, a close approximation of the dw-link (and not the other way around). I truly feel that Giant is trying to rip off Dave Weagle's years of hard work and earned knowledge. But I haven't ridden one, and am looking forward to trying to be unbiased when I demo one at Sea Otter next weekend. (Just trying to give dw a fair shake -- he's a mtbr member who'll be happy to discuss suspension theory with you just for the thrill of it).
The dw-link and the VPP appear similar, but work differently. In my VPP demos, I found the pedal feedback a little annoying and it stiffens up working my way hard up a climb. Fun ride coming down. And they do have a very slick ad campaign, you know.
You probably don't need 4" of travel. I certainly don't, but when a bike climbs well enough that it doesn't factor in to the climbing performance... well, why the heck not?
I hear you on the NRS. After a number of years on a URT, I wanted to be "efficient". That, the NRS was (in the hardtail sense of the word), but at the expense of so much else. I also felt my '01 NRS suffered pedal kickback, which is part of the reason why I feel more efficient on my Hollowpoint. Uninterrupted spin is a powerful mind trick. Not the expected outcome when transitioning from a 3.5" zero sag bike to 1/3 deep into 5" of squish, but that was the outcome.
I'm expecting the 05 dw-link found on the MkIII to be pretty similar in many respects to the '02.5-'04 dw-link. Forum members are telling me to expect better suspension under braking, but that hasn't been a complaint of mine. I wouldn't dismiss last year's Hollowpoints just because this year's linkage has been refined.
I am looking forward to the lower air pressures I'll be able to run on the 7.5" x 2.0" shock. At 200 pounds, I'm currently running 235 psi in my AD-12 on my Hollowpoint, while I needed only 90 psi in the Airo shock on the MkIII Comp I demoed. Not a straight apples to apples comparison, but gives you a feel for the difference -- especially important to a big guy. The beefed-up frame construction is just bonus.
Wrench Science is pretty good, but don't read it as gospel. It's got to make some assumptions as to your riding preferences. That said, I plugged numbers into it for my previous frame, and I used it to create a list of appropriate frames for my wife (one of which she ended up with). As long as you know what's going on with their ETT / stem length calculations, it can be a good tool for comparing frames.