Rear suspension has been a subject which tended to polarise opinions. There were those for it and those against it. In our off-road world it was long thought only a fixed or rigid rear end on a motorcycle could offer any hope of grip as a rider battled the conditions in a scramble or a trial. Works riders who, perhaps for political reasons if their employers produced road bikes with suspension, went against this thinking were often pitied by their peers and their successes reckoned to be gained despite the suspension rather than because of it. There were of course more enlightened riders contracted to factories who knew rear suspension was the way forward and its problems were more to do with a lack of understanding of how it worked rather than it being unsuitable for the off-road world.
Rear suspension as a concept has been around almost as long as motorcycles have existed but it wasn’t quite so easy to make a frame with bits that moved as it was to make a rigid one. There was a cost increase too and in a period when price was a major consideration to a maker’s success, redesigning a machine’s rear end may well price the company out of the market. Concerns about rider comfort were dismissed
