Structure Cycleworks SCW 1

First glance at the Structure Cycleworks SCW1 and you realize this isn’t your traditional mountain bike. The suspension designers threw out years of traditional suspension forks and opted for a linkage-style suspension.

“The telescoping suspension fork has been highly refined over the past quarter-century, but will always suffer from two major drawbacks: instability under load and friction,” Structure Cycleworks CEO Loni Hull tells us. “The former is a result of all three principal measures of steering stability – head angle, trail, and front-center length – decreasing as a conventional fork compresses, making the bike least stable when the rider needs it most.”

The SCW 1’s front suspension has 150-mm travel and the new design improves head angle, maintains a more consistent front-center length, increases trail, and minimizes brake dive by about 40-percent.

All of this goodness comes at a price however – fork, frame, and shocks will sell for $7,000 (complete bikes will likely be over $13,000). Ouch.