farmertan said:
So the TALAS would be better over smaller stuff like roots? That would be a good thing for me. I like good small bump compliance. I ride in Florida and have lots of small roots. Then I do lots of trips up to Pisgah and north Georgia.
All else being equal, a linear (or falling rate in a rear suspension design) will be worse on small initial impacts. This is because you will need to use more spring (air pressure) to to reach the same spring force at bottom out to prevent bottoming and overtravel. The falling rate was tried with frame design about 10 years ago. The idea was better/firmer pedaling 'platform' (less bob or suspension movement) due to the higher initial rate. Unfortunatley what resulted was bikes that were harsh over small impacts, and bottomed excessively over any larger impacts. Increasing damping to prevent bottom out results in worse bump absorption, Decreasing damping does the opposite. Not surprising, falling rate designs pretty much no longer exist.
That being said, ALL air springs are progressive to some extent, it just happens that the TravelAdjustLinearAirSpring is
more linear than some designs.
Anytime you add more complexity(travel adjust, lockout, etc) you will have a higher probability of 'issues'. Adding more seals, o-rings, etc (air spring) will add to the posibility of additional friction as well as more 'wear parts'.
The talas has both of these going on, so though it is a great fork that offers some very nice features, it will always have more points of possible failure and will likely take more 'looking after' than a more simple design.
