Alright, this is related to Zedro's anti-everyone thread p) that mentioned his bike having a "spike" in the stroke (I'm guessing progression had something to do with it; please don't take offence to this thread Zedro). I had a ride of a bike with a big rising rate the other day (Avanti d8/Keewee cromo8, same bike), and there was quite a noticeable bump about 2/3, maybe 3/4 of the way through the travel, which fits the description of the spiking mentioned with regards to Zedro's madcore machine. Then a while ago DW mentioned that one of the improvements he made to the SGS's was to remove some of the "undesirable leverage rate progression characteristics of typical 4-bars" or something like that. I also remember Jm_ (I think?) posting something ages ago about some bike with a rising rate linkage AND a progressively-sprung shock that he said was too progressive. Kidwoo also mentioned something about the "god-awful rising rate" on his DHR (these aren't exact quotes mind you).
So this leads me to ask, how much progression is too much? What exactly is a desirable shock rate (also, is this something I can find out by reading up about it in engineering/dynamics textbooks?)? Do any of the shock-tuning guys (Darren @ Push or Craig @ Avalanche) have anything to say here? Or am I asking people (eg DW) to spill too many secrets here?
So this leads me to ask, how much progression is too much? What exactly is a desirable shock rate (also, is this something I can find out by reading up about it in engineering/dynamics textbooks?)? Do any of the shock-tuning guys (Darren @ Push or Craig @ Avalanche) have anything to say here? Or am I asking people (eg DW) to spill too many secrets here?