j-ro said:
Mate i was muckign around with the ID today and im nor sure what u mean
They pedal perferctly right through the travel and have instant centre tracking written on the side of the frame, so then coz i was still doubting, i went downstairs and looked in the broshure and its sure as hell was blowing its horn in there.
To tell the truth (scuse the pun), I'm not 100% sure what it is that the patent covers, or what their theory is. I have heard from far more knowledgeable people than myself, however, that the ICT thing isn't what makes Ellsworths pedal well - in fact, it does pretty much nothing.
What my limited understanding of the ICT is, is that they have set the bike up so that the Instant Centre is always somewhere on a line that would be drawn along the chain. In other words, if you drew a horizontal line that went along the chain, and extended it out in front of the BB (maybe even in front of the bike), the IC at any time would be somewhere on that line (or very close to). As the bike cycles through its travel, the linkage has been set up in such a way that the IC always remains somewhere on that line (because the line moves as the axle moves upwards; the line would point more downwards the further the bike is into its trave). I think Ellsworth believes (Tony Ellsworth isn't any kind of qualified engineer btw - just a guy who wants to make nice bikes) that this will mean that the bike will always be 100% pedal-induced-bob-free. In other words, no pedal power will be put into extending/compressing the suspension.
However, this theory neglects one minor thing: Instant Centres have nothing to do with pedalling. Had this been the Centre of Curvature that tracked the chainline, it might be a different thing - but it's not.
The reason Ellsworths pedal well is because their axle path allows chain tension to exert a slight extension effect on the suspension, which comes very close to exactly counteracting the bob induced by the movement of your body. In other words, it's like any other FSR bike but with a LITTLE bit of chain-induced extension to counter bob.
That is my understanding of their theory and why it's incorrect - whether I am correct in my theorising is another matter. Anyone who really has to know more, go to
www.hcor.net or
www.ridemonkey.com and ask DW to explain it to you.