There’s nothing here that’s so new it’s revolutionary, necessarily. Other bike brands have experimented with minimal pivots in their suspension designs, and using struts in place of shocks (a strut is essentially a shock that also acts as a load-bearing structural component of a vehicle, not just suspension). Not very many, mind you, but, well, remember the 90s and early 2000s when bike makers were experimenting with any and all ways to add squish?
Anyway, this new bike, well, frames, from Digit is definitely not that. It’s simple, it’s clean, and we kinda love it.
Digit bikes was started by longtime bike and apparel designer Tim Lane, and it still lives in Kickstarter mode only, though it’s already funded, so these bikes will be hitting trails next year at some point. Digit is built around Lane’s suspension design, called ANALOG. Very simply put, it’s a strut that fits in the top tube. A couple pivot points attach the strut to the seat stay and the bottom bracket, with three actual pivots in total. You get 140mm of travel, along a linear path.
That means fewer rotating parts, which, Lane says, reduces chances for system fatigue and error, saves as much as a pound from traditional four-bar linkage systems, and requires less stuff to make, saving resources.
Having the strut inside the top tube keeps that front triangle big and wide, so you can fit two water bottles in there. Plus, it means the seat tube can be straight as an arrow, so you can cram as long a dropper post in there as your heart desires. The whole thing is motivated not to be a radical kinematic departure, but to make a full suspension bike more easy to work on. Actually, more than that—to make it less necessary to wrench on would be more accurate.
“As an ex-mechanic, the prior-art shortcomings which most drove me to this were over-complexity and under-reliability,” Lane said, in a review of the bike at Beta. “These are closely related – there are bikes on the market with rear suspensions that use 22 bearings and 14 pivot axles. Each offers an opportunity for mechanical lash, stripped threads, dirt ingress, misalignment, being too loose, being too tight, being f’d up from the factory, breaking, seizing, wearing, being heavy… Anyway, if you roll 22 dice, you stand a 1,100 percent higher chance of getting snake-eyes than if you only roll two.”
Hell yes.
The strut is 12 inches long—huge!—so it has more space for oil and a larger air volume. It will also be easily serviceable, according to Lane, with tools most at home bike wrenchers will have in their workspace. It will also be easily adjustable, through dials and ports on the top tube, not visible in the Kickstarter prototype.
The frame is aluminum and it requires a 29-inch front wheel, and a 27.5-inch rear. Mullet only for the Datum. The idea is to one day have multiple frames with multiple travel lengths, so perhaps wheel size capability will also change. But first, the bike has to take off.
For now, you can order only the frameset. Lane didn’t want to saddle customers with the absurd wait times for components these days. So you can buy the frame, then kit it out with parts you have on other bikes, or can find in stores (ha). The simple suspension design is doing the real work here, so despite different forks, drivetrains, and wheels, the same experience should be had among all comers.
We don’t normally plug gear still in crowdfunding mode here, because unless we can try it ourselves, we can’t vouch for it. But this bike looks so promising, we couldn’t help ourselves this time. The Kickstarter page is also just plain fun to read. Lane’s got a crapload of data in there, and you will come away from the page thoroughly understanding exactly what it is their bike is meant to accomplish.
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I think it is time I reintroduce the URT concept to the mountain bike world and make my millions. They say a bike consumer is born every minute….or was it a suc…..In all seriousness, this looks really clean and pretty cool but the issue is I loathe situations where you are absolutely married to a set of parts or a proprietary design in the main function or center piece, i.e. shock inside the top tube. My fear is it will end up in a situation like you had with Pro Flex elastomers…crappy parts you are kind of stuck with, or at least limited replacement or upgrade options.
As Justin mentioned above, the strut has been designed for improved reliability and easy servicability. I encourage you to check out the section under the “INTEGER Strut” heading at DigitBikes.com , it addresses your concern.
Cool. I checked it out and it looks pretty clean and well designed. But my concern could be broken out into two parts. 1) the same as my stated concern, it is a proprietary part I assume and the owner is beholden to using this and only the strut/shock that comes with the frame. If that is true and it doesn’t break down or have a weakness or low threshold fatal flaw, then cool…as long as it is infinitely adjustable which brings me to more of a marketing concern I would think 2) bike snobs are notorious for customization and wanting to change parts, tweak, alter, you name it. Are thy going to be happy with a frame that marries you to one and only one strut? Again, I think this frame looks rad as hell, but if you shell out thousands and there is even a minor issue or concern that bugs the rider, what are the remedies? Good luck in your pursuit here, much respect and everything looks really professionally done.
Let me address your concern K,
1) Proprietary parts also must be available for every e-bike, derailleur hanger, shock link and pivot screw on other bikes. Maintaining availability for shock parts is no more of a problem than these.
2) The Integer strut IS the upgrade shock. As described at DigitBikes.com, it can be completely revalved; if you wanted to you could make custom pistons and customize to an even greater extent, but with less effort than with even the available boutique shocks.
I’ve been riding and tuning prototypes, and the result has been test ridden by BetaMTB, MBAction and others (the reviews are online), all have agreed that the suspension is outstanding, and that the frame design delivers on the lofty goals.
1) Don’t get me started on e-bikes 🙂 As for hangers, links, etc. those are usually somewhat minor parts that are easy to get right, but yeah, you are correct and make a great rebuttal. I once had a custom MTB frame built that had a terrible aluminum hanger. Almost ruined the build, but the builder got smart and switched to stainless…of course that caused potential issues with frame failure versus a hanger doing its job but I digress. 2) My point is a strut or shock is a lot harder to get right but sounds like you got yours right. Really I could have said less and just said I am leery of “integrated” systems. Usually in the bike world integrated comes off as something you would market in an in-flight magazine that sells all those gadgets. Usually things that are answers to questions that haven;t been asked. Again, good luck!
I give him a high five for calling out the “million pivots are more betterer” brands.
That said, crowd sourcing to me says you couldn’t convince anyone to actually loan you money.
Simple answer? Buy a Lenz Sport or some similar, simple, bomb proof single pivot bike, do away with the BS claims of near nirvanic performance (that will be outdated and passe’, next model year) and just freaking ride.
Also, mullet set ups are 2004. Make it 29+ compatible, and then let folks choose what wheel size and geometry they prefer (disc brakes are awesome like that), clearance costs and weighs nothing to build in, and choice is a better sales pitch than “we got it perfect this time, we promise”.
I didn’t go to the bank for a loan, in fact I could have simply funded this out of pocket. Kickstarter was chosen as it is an excellent platform for market research and launch publicity.
I plan to build out a complete line of bikes with all the popular wheel sizes and travel options, but I started out wit this mullet because it’s perfectly suited to the riding I do.
Happy trails, Tim
I have a carver mullet. Ti. 29/26 hard tail. Amazing bike. And have had two Santa Cruz hecklers . Still have one. 26” wheels single pivot. First one I replaced the main pivot bearing once. In 25,000. Miles.
I agree, a few sturdy pivots is better than many tiny pivots.
Most ‘single-pivot” bikes actually have one big pivot, and two tiny pivots (at each end of the shock). The Amalog system has two big pivots (attached to the rear triangle), and one huge pivot (where the lower link is concentric with the BB); and all of them are ball-bearings, not simple bushes like on conventional shock eyelets.
David H, I’m still rocking a ‘12 SC Superlight single pivot over here. One bushing change in thousands of miles!
Justin, your writing is excellent. In a world where people simply cut and paste press releases, you’ve done a great of disecting the message to find the aspect which are relevant to the adventure community.
Thank you and well done.
I like it, hope it takes off. I’ve heard some E-bikers refer to non-E-bikes as ANALOG, wonder if that went into the name choice.
That was certainly rattling around in my mind. Mostly I liked the way it pairs with Digit/Analog, and the strut performs an analgous purpose to the upper link assembly in a typical 4-bar suspension.
Way to go Tim! I love your approach to sustainability via a simple design with fewer components. I think about this a lot as a product developer and try to implement it into products.
There is a compounding positive effect with using fewer parts: less virgin material used, less energy required, smaller assembly lines, fewer parts bins, smaller warehouse space, reduced spare part shipments to consumers, less complexity which yields higher quality- which leads to arguably longer product life. All of this has measurable impact!
The fastest path to sustainability in the bike world is quit making non-essential bikes and pushing for a quiver of 14 different types of bikes depending if you are riding small gravel, large gravel, pebbles, slick rocks, loose gravel, semi-packed gravel, etc. etc. It’s like the question of eco-friendly houses….Do you know the most eco-friendly house is? Answer – the one that is already built. To try to say this bike is some accomplishment in sustainability is a farce. Only in our current spoiled world do we think such rubbish.
Indeed. I’ve never understood people who own a fleet of bikes, most of which inevitably are in a state of disrepair, and are often so specialized that when they show up to a ride they regret that they brought the wrong bike. An existing bike, or any product is the better environmental choice, but if you are going to make a new one, and sometines new ones will be made, you can do so with regard to sustainability.