Here's a wild one! This 140mm travel trail bike uses a ballistic carbon fiber leaf spring in place of the traditional main pivot with bearings. Spot calls it the "Living Link," which was designed by Wayne Lumpkin, the founder of Avid and father of Spot's founder.
The leaf spring is unloaded when the bike is unweighted, flexes midway through the travel and returns to an unloaded state at bottom out. Spot originally used a Titanium plate, but the move to carbon improved durability in a big way. They claim they "haven't been able to produce a fatigue failure in years of testing and many thousands of ride miles." In combination with the one-piece rear triangle, the Living Link design substantially improves lateral stiffness.
Other features include the use of a new Metric-sized shock, Boost 148 and 110mm axle spacing, internal routing for the shifter and dropper, and external routing for the rear brake. The bike has a super steep 76-degree seat angle for improved pedaling performance. They also make the stays a tad longer on larger frames.
Spot is selling the bike as a complete for $6,499 as shown here, or for $2,999 as a frameset.
Comments