Kona Abra Cadabra - Magic Link System...

crimsondynamo

Is anyone else intrigued by the above?

I was out with a pal at Innerleithen last week who was testing the Whyte 146 Works, and it opened his eyes (and mine) to the possibility of long travel XC.

Singletrack had a tantalising review of the 2010 mk2 Abra Cadabra stating that one day maybe all bikes would be like that, and by mk3 they might have it dialled.

Has anyone ridden the 2011 mk3? MBR had a brief preview but nothing more. I'd be keen to understand what the max/min angles of the bike are. Someone should do a test on rollers (assuming it's all pedalling force activated).

Anonymous

crimsondynamo wrote:

Is anyone else intrigued by the above?

Nope. It's a convoluted solution to the wrong problem, which in turn causes problems of it's own.

crimsondynamo

What's the right problem? Braking/pedalling independent suspension?

I've never ridden variable geometry, but I understand that it seeks to eliminate compromise, or at least broaden the bike's sweet spot. Automating the variable geo as per the magic-link seems to me to be the only way to go. Singletrack's biggest criticism of the mk2 was that it required crucially accurate set-up.

Anonymous

Well, it causes considerable effective chainstay growth, which in turn causes masses of pedal kickback. It's also far more complicated to maintain, and heavier, and takes a hell of a lot more time to set up.
It's time they retire their nonsense rear suspension platform and design it again from scratch.

supersonic

Not looked in depth at the system, but how much chain growth are we talking about? I'll see if my linkage programme has the system uploaded.

doggegg

I am intrigued by it. Kona stuck to a known formula for years and now they're trying something new and I watch with interest.
If nobody tried new things...well we'd all still be on rigids.

I like the geometry aspect, but I see it being an AM thing rather than a trail or XC thing...and I don't buy the maintenence argument at all. Everything needs maintenance when it comes to bikes. Chain growth...interesting.

Raymondavalon

doggegg wrote:

If nobody tried new things...well we'd all still be on rigids.

^^This^^

rockmonkeysc

I test rode one, didn't like the rear suspension at all. Has all the disadvantages of long travel & short travel in one overweight bike. Giant reign felt much better for XC & hard trail riding, even the Trek Remedy felt better & I didn't like that much either (though I have been told that the Remedy needs carefull suspension set up)

fungus_the_muffin_man

I have a 2010 Cadabra but don't know enough to help you lol.

All I can say is that I don't notice this pedal kickback that people keep going on about and Ive gone down some proper ruff stuff in the peaks and the back has been plush and not bottomed out. As for the weight It's comparable with most bikes in it's range. I have a mate who rides a 5, has been riding for a good few years, used to do a bit of DH competing and he was really impressed with what he felt was a gimmick until he tried mine out.

Thewaylander

Fungus The Muffin Man wrote:

I have a 2010 Cadabra but don't know enough to help you lol.

All I can say is that I don't notice this pedal kickback that people keep going on about and Ive gone down some proper ruff stuff in the peaks and the back has been plush and not bottomed out. As for the weight It's comparable with most bikes in it's range. I have a mate who rides a 5, has been riding for a good few years, used to do a bit of DH competing and he was really impressed with what he felt was a gimmick until he tried mine out.

Yeh but hte 5 itself is an overweight tub of lard made of girdirs and a suspension system that date backs to the dawn of full sus bikes it's not much in my mind to compare to :P