{"id":35,"date":"2025-07-07T18:50:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T16:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/?p=35"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:12:01","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. Ignoring industry trends as noise, I set out to build a bike that put the rider above all else. Instead of building something to outdo last year’s model, I decided to ignore the treadmill to focus on what makes a bike work for a rider.

Some “problems” can be considered to be universal: nobody ever complained about a dropper post ever being too long. Others are much more personal: series production items must have enough standard sizes in their range to account for the differences in body dimensions or risk not fitting riders, but even then they run into the issue of “locking in” important variables like steering angle and axle height, and also tying others together (like reach and stack) where less common combinations might be desirable.

I believe that any rider can have their cake with no compromises.

First and perhaps most importantly, there is full freedom to define frame geometry with this platform. This allows a rider to have, within reason, any combination of steering behaviour, contact point locations and wheel positions. With the suspension packaged carefully out of the way of the main frame tubes, the kinematic and ride are completely unaffected by the fit of the bike. There is no 29er or mixed wheel or <thing>-specific version of this bike. There is your<\/em> 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. Want extra reinforcement, a certain tube-set or any other thing to set your geometry-personalised full suspension MTB apart? It can be done.

For standard features, further concessions are made to ergonomics: a low stand-over height makes finding the ground at a halt easy (and painless), and a straight seat tube gives unequaled post insertion. As this is a rider’s bike, ease of maintenance is also important. All frames run a full length shock, which is far more durable than 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 “trunk line” 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’s more weight, to others, it’s better weight distribution. To some, it’s added cost, to others, it’s never wrecking a derailleur again. To some, it’s an unfamiliar pedaling sensation, to others, it’s 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’m not trying to sell you a new bike every year. I hope, in fact, that any MTB 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 \/ 631 DZB, the works)<\/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. Ignoring industry trends as noise, I set out to build a bike that put the rider above all else. Instead of building something to outdo last year’s model, I decided to ignore the […]<\/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":252,"href":"https:\/\/mwoon.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/252"}],"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}]}}