{"id":35,"date":"2025-07-07T18:50:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/?p=35"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:04:16","slug":"full-custom-full-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"Full Custom Full Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photography by Adam Gasson for Bespoked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photography by Adam Gasson for Bespoked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photography by Adam Gasson for Bespoked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My showpiece for Bespoked 2025 was a full-suspension MTB prototype. This was something of a study and an exercise in design principles. Intentionally ignoring industry trends, I decided not to hop on the treadmill of building something to outdo last year\u2019s model or incorporate a new technology. Instead, I set out to focus on what makes a bike work for a rider. I believe that any rider can have their cake with no compromises.

Alongside this priority, I also set out to build something beautiful. As much as aesthetics are a matter of personal taste, I find something enduringly appealing in the slender tubes and clean, straight lines of a steel frame. In much the same way as classic car has a timeless shape that continues to simply look good<\/em> long after it was created and its era has passed, I seek to build bikes that will never go out of fashion.


Here is how this mountain bike puts the rider first:

Perhaps most importantly, a made-to-measure frame from me grants full freedom to define geometry within the platform. This allows a rider to have, within reason, any combination of steering behaviour, contact point locations and wheel positions. The suspension has been designed to deliver identical kinematics independent of the structure of the rest of the bike. There is no 29er or mixed wheel or -specific version. There is simply your bike and it will fit you, no matter your size or proportions, because it will be made for you. I do not believe that full-custom should only be for road, gravel, and touring riders. In fact, I think that technical riding ist the last place where reach and stack, or steering angle and axle height should be tied together by standardised sizing that is necessary for series production.

Customisation is available all the way down to the last detail: want extra reinforcement, a certain tube-set or any other thing to set your geometry-personalised full suspension MTB apart? It can be done.


Beyond this, I set out to solve universal problems in the parts of the frame that are locked in between different geometries:

A low stand-over height makes finding the ground at a halt easy (and painless), and a straight, maximum length seat tube gives unequaled post insertion. A bike for technical riding should give its rider as much freedom as possible to move around on it.

As this is a rider\u2019s bike, ease of maintenance is also important. All frames run a full length shock, avoiding durability issues common with trunnion-mount. A single type of bearing is used across all pivots, and is sized with a generous strength margin for the loads it is required to carry. Cable routing is fully external, held neatly into a \u201ctrunk line\u201d down a single frame tube by bolt-on guides. Pivot axles and pins are sensible stainless steel off-the-shelf parts. All part sizes are common, and all standards modern and sensible.


The final elephant in the room is, of course the transmission. A gearbox means many things: to some, it\u2019s more weight, to others, it\u2019s better weight distribution. To some, it\u2019s added cost, to others, it\u2019s never buying a replacement derailleur again. To some, it\u2019s an unfamiliar pedaling sensation, to others, it\u2019s having the exact same anti-squat no matter what gear is selected (I personally find this extremely cool). Whatever your opinion might be on the matter, this bike takes a gearbox. Derailleur compatibility is part of the plan and will be developed.

I\u2019m not trying to sell you a new bike every year. I hope, in fact, that any bike you have from me will be the last of its kind you own. To this end, I have designed this frame with forward compatibility in mind, and any future modification or development on the design will be backward compatible. I do not believe in obsolescence, and I design for forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Reynolds main frame (853 DZB \/ 631)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Columbus \/ 25CrMo4 swingarm<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • 6082 and 7075 rocker link and shock mount hardware<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Stainless steel pivot axles and pins<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Suspension layout decoupled from frame geometry. Each frame is a unique, custom 6 variable fit: reach + stack, steering angle and front axle height, rear axle x + y. Fixed 79.5\u00b0 \/ inline seat tube, fixed suspension pivot locations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Full forward compatibility: I’ve taken pains to make the design as accommodating as possible to future changes and improvements, with the ideal case being that the very first frame \/ swingarm should be compatible with the most current frame \/ swingarm. All updates will be planned with full backward compatibility in mind<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Single pivot swingarm (for now), flex stay, linkage shock drive<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Gearbox-focused layout. Derailleur compatibility in the future<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Frame travel up to ~170mm (65mm shock stroke)
    Minimum rear centre ~440mm 27.5″, ~460mm 29″
    Maximum reach ~550mm at ~680mm stack \/ ~64\u00b0 HTA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Key features<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • Low stand-over height<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Long seatpost insertion (~310mm at 400mm ST length)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Full length metric shock<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Oversized bearings (one size for whole frame!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Lots of tyre and mud clearance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      • Horst \/ VPP swingarms and rocker links<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Smartshift wiring harness \/ on-frame storage<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Stainless frame<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Short travel frame<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • High pivot frame<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        I’m keen on expanding the range of offerings and further developing this platform. If any of the items under “Future” interest you, or if there is something you are keen on that isn’t there, get in touch!

        Understanding your interest helps me know what to work on next. A version 0.2.0 of this bike is in the works!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        My showpiece for Bespoked 2025 was a full-suspension MTB prototype. This was something of a study and an exercise in design principles. Intentionally ignoring industry trends, I decided not to hop on the treadmill of building something to outdo last year\u2019s model or incorporate a new technology. Instead, I set out to focus on what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-post","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}