Nothin’ new in t’ world - linkage forks...

[danson67]

Only ever seen that scanned press photo, annoyingly with no caption, apparently Interbike October 1994, presumably MBA, so someone must have a copy.

I'm not up on the red Kestrel one, but those logos on the sides of the pivot look pretty similar to the Monolith one.

Kestrel composite parts with Monolith Suspension and machining?
Monolith was Spencer Owyang, wasn't it?

All the best,

 

[SF Klein]

Company from Germany offering an updated take on front suspension…

https://www.laufcycling.com/products/components

 

[yakboy]

Company from Germany offering an updated take on front suspension…

https://www.laufcycling.com/products/components

I think Dan already has a pair on his self built bike.

 

[danson67]

I do have a set...light and just about take the edge off things by flexing a bit, but that's about it.
Not much travel, no real damping and flexy on corners, brake mounts needed serious prep and facing to get them properly aligned...sounds like a lot of early forks which we love so much

Icelandic company actually, despite the German name.
https://www.laufcycling.com/our-story

I'm changing them for a set of Trust Message forks...real modern trailing link forks.

All the best,

 

[regan_ev]

TL;DR all comments but some weird and wonderful stuff here.
I can, however, say that the Trust Message I briefly had installed on my modern semi fat tyred modern hard tail is simply astounding. Sadly I had to remove it for aesthetic reasons and revert to the OE RockShox which despite being top of its class for a standard fork when compared to the Fox equivalent travel model, is just nothing like the Trust.

 

[2manyoranges]

woah regan - just googled those - seriously interesting....

https://www.upgradebikes.co.uk/Catalogue/Forks/hidden/archive/Trust/Message-Suspension-Fork

 

[B3]

The Trust will be a collector's item for sure. They didn't make that many and were unable to find any more investors so last year they went into receivership. That's not to say they'll make a comeback mind.

 

[Bcxbcx]

https://m.pinkbike.com/news/are-specialized-and-dave-weagle-developing-a-linkage-fork.html
Are Specialized going to have linkage forks on future bikes?
Looks like they bought the Trust IP and have applied for patents on it. Cynically I wonder if it's just so they can sue people already producing linkage forks, as they dont seem to have sued anyone else recently.

 

[danson67]

Thankfully, this only covers the existing gas spring arrangement for the Trust linkage forks, and is a straight cloned assignment to Specialized Inc of Weagle's own 2018 patent for the same thing: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20200094912A1/en?assignee=TRVSTPER,+INC.&page=1
So no real change other than the assignment to Specialized.

More worrying, perhaps, for the future of other linkage forks (and frame suspension design progress in general) is if Specialized have purchased Weagle's entire patent portfolio of 109 patents, presumably including the DW Link/ VPP stuff, too: https://patents.google.com/?assignee=Trvstper%2c+Inc
It includes the 6(!) subtely different versions of the main patent for the fork's cosmetic design: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD860061S1/en?inventor=David+Weagle&page=1
Except this one Assignment to Specialized, they are all still listed as being assigned to a Trvstper Inc, (The parent company of Trust Inc.), but that might get updated soon.

I feel a whole slew of litigation threats pretty soon now that those patents are apparently in the hands of a deep pocketed litigious corporation.
The business model so often in the US seems to be from the MBA class, rather than engineering and design department. 'Scattergun patent everything that moves whether you make it or not, sue any competition for patent infringement or charge them for a license, then sell the patents as financial assets', rather than investing in developing, making and selling a better product than them.

All the best,

 

[Bcxbcx]

Thankfully, this only covers the existing gas spring arrangement for the Trust linkage forks, and is a straight cloned assignment to Specialized Inc of Weagle's own 2018 patent for the same thing: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20200094912A1/en?assignee=TRVSTPER,+INC.&page=1
So no real change other than the assignment to Specialized.

More worrying, perhaps, for the future of other linkage forks (and suspension design progress in general) is Specialized's apparent purchase of Weagle's entire patent portfolio of 109 patents, presumably including the DW Link/ VPP stuff, too: https://patents.google.com/?assignee=Trvstper%2c+Inc They are all still listed as being assigned to a Trvstper Inc, (the parent company of Trust) including the 6(!) subtely different versions of the main one for the fork design: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD860061S1/en?inventor=David+Weagle&page=1

I feel a whole slew of litigation threats pretty soon now that those patents are apparently in the hands of a deep pocketed corporation.
The business model so often in the US seems to be 'Scattergun patent everything that moves, charge others for a license or sue the competition for patent infringement' rather than investing in, making and selling a better product than them.

All the best,

Is this history repeating itself? didn't they own the now expired original DW link US patents (or was that the horst link?), which meant some European brands couldn't sell bikes in the US? It could be bad for anyone who uses DW link type suspension.