oliverracing

So some of you may know me as the hooligan who built a carbon xc frame in my garage over on singletrackworld - but now I fancy a new project, and in one of those how hard can it be moments I decided I would give an XC full suspension frame a go, as I have aspirations of competing in the BC bike race sometime in the next few years, and fancy something a bit more comfortable for long/marathon races.

I plan for this bike is for it to be built up with 26 inch wheels for the time being, but in the future be able to change either the shock mounting point, a linkage or some other method to turn it into a 650b machine. (the arms will be built with enough clearance to start with)

I'm aiming for 90-100mm rear travel, a almost hardtail feel when locked out and not too many linkages, I would also like it to be reasonably efficient when not locked out too. It must also contain NO sections where it relies on the carbon flexing to give it the travel (so no scalpel-esk designs) I would also like front triangle based design for simplicity - as monocoques are quite tricky to home jig!
The current design I'm liking is something like the rocky mountain element - as it seems to get good reviews as being fast and efficient. Does anyone have any feedback they can give me one what works/doesn't work with this design - and where they crack/fail (if it's a common problem)



The guys over at STW have pointed me towards linkage for suspension design, and I've had a play with that so it seems that you can get quite an efficient bike from his design, but I'm after general feedback from people that have tried their own full sus frame projects, and how well they have worked/badly they failed.