Spot Mayhem 140 Review: Technically, It’s a Titanium Full-Suspension – Travis Engel | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

This is more than just a review of the Spot Mayhem 140. It’s an exploration of what suspension does, what we want it to do, and what happens when a small company throws a small chunk of titanium into the works. It’s also an excuse for Travis to talk about leverage curves.

I’m always suspicious of any bike considered an “all-rounder.” It’s fine for a bike to be versatile, but it has to make choices. I like it when designers are willing to sacrifice one aptitude to serve another. That’s why the lofty claims around the Spot Mayhem 140 had me intrigued, but skeptical. I’ve experienced Spot’s unorthodox Living Link suspension before, but only on shorter-travel bikes. I don’t often get along with bikes in the 140 mm category, no matter the linkage. You can kinda huck them, and you can kinda flick them. But they don’t huck like a 160 mm bike and they don’t flick like a 120 mm bike. I’d rather pick a side, and given the scarcity of hucks in my local mountains, I usually pick the 120 mm side.

Canyon Spectral 125

Short-travel bikes feel supportive. There’s a predictable, firm platform to push against, allowing the bike to react when I react. To twitch when I twitch. But there are methods for retaining some of that support even on longer-travel bikes. And the method du jour is often a thoughtfully designed leverage curve.

Leverage Curves and You

A leverage curve partially illustrates how supportive a bike’s rear suspension will feel at each point in its travel. It’s purely a function of linkage design, unrelated to shock configuration. The X axis displays the travel, and the Y axis displays the ratio of rear-wheel motion to shock compression. A downward trajectory indicates increasing support because the rear wheel is beginning with more mechanical advantage over the shock, and ending with less mechanical advantage. In simple terms, this is considered a “progressive” leverage curve.

These days, bike designers are trying to hold a moderate and steady rate of progressivity throughout the mid-stroke. Meaning that the middle section of the line still trends downward, but it’s less arched and more straight. This helps create a predictable, firm platform. It also can widen the suspension-setup sweet spot, serving riders who might prefer a slightly softer feel or a slightly stiffer feel.

Modern bikes have gotten pretty good at this. The quest for straighter leverage curves is a big reason why Santa Cruz went to their lower-link VPP setup. It’s also part of the motivation behind Yeti’s Switch Infinity. An interesting outlier is Evil’s DELTA Link, which has a sort of S-shaped leverage curve. There’s a bit of a suspension-feel arms race going on, and it’s resulted in some pretty cool stuff.

Spot’s Living Link

In 2016, Spot Bikes debuted their Living Link platform on their debut full-suspension bike, the Rollik. It’s similar to a dual short-link concept like DW, but one of the lower pivots is replaced by a leaf spring, initially carbon but now titanium. Since 2009, Spot has been helmed by Andrew Lumpkin, who, along with his father and Avid Brakes founder Wayne Lumpkin, helped acquire the brand. Wayne, now retired, brought innovations in belt-drive systems to the iconic single-speed bike brand. So, it’s no surprise he came up with an equally innovative suspension design. While I was getting the run-down on the new Mayhem 140 from Spot’s chief engineer, Andy Emanuel, I asked him why Living Link was the direction they chose.

“The suspension bikes we liked to ride the most were the dual short-link bikes,” Emanuel tells us. “Ibis, Pivot, there was a Canfield floating around. We liked what we could do kinematically with that concept. We looked at all those bikes, and we saw that one of the lower bearings barely moves. What if we just replace that with something that flexes?”

Eliminating a pivot that “barely moves” makes sense because those ball bearings (they’re usually ball bearings) rock back and forth just a few millimeters, often causing premature wear. On top of that, this is a part that sees lots of water, mud, and torque. Potentially, it could even add lateral stiffness and shed weight. That was the initial motivation behind Living Link, but it can do much more.

What the Living Link Does During Compression

The Living Link’s leaf spring plays an active but seamlessly integrated role in the suspension behavior. At top-out, it is under slight negative tension that works like a negative air spring to soften touchdowns. This negative tension is unique to the Mayhem 140 thanks to an innovation I’ll talk about later, but the bulk of Living Link’s behavior is shared among all of Spot’s Living Link bikes. After that first bit of travel, it starts to flex, introducing positive tension. Once you’re at sag, this does something really interesting.

Air shocks are naturally progressive, but much of that progressivity is concentrated in the end-stroke. Flexing the Living Link gives that progressivity a head-start, introducing that coveted mid-stroke support. Of course, a designer could just build that early-stroke progression into the linkage design if they wanted, but it would probably continue to be progressive. Then, the mid-stroke would feel harsh, not supportive, and the late-stroke would be difficult to engage.

At about 50% of travel, the Living Link starts to relax. That dials back progressivity, and eventually gives the shock a little extra push, allowing you to use more travel than you otherwise might. The air spring’s natural ramp-up then swoops in at the last minute to limit bottom-out, and all is well.

What the Living Link Does During Rebound

There are also benefits in reverse. An air shock’s return force is naturally strongest in the late stroke, when recovering from big hits. But the Living Link’s flex gently resists late-stroke return force, which should help you maintain control. When recovering from small hits, the shock’s return force is naturally weaker, but then it’s being aided by the leaf spring. So, you get more calm recovery from big hits and more rapid recovery from small hits.

The Spot Mayhem 140 and the Inverted Living Link

The new Mayhem 140 made a significant change to Living Link, which Spot is calling “Inversion.” All previous generation Living Link bikes fixed the leaf spring to the rear triangle, and then connected it to the front triangle via bearings. As you might have guessed by the name, Inversion fixes the leaf spring to the front triangle instead, while the bearing-end is at the rear triangle. That allowed Spot to change the ride quality in interesting ways, but let’s pause for a sidebar to talk nuts-and-bolts.

Spot Mayhem 140 Quick Hits

140mm rear travel, 150 or 160 mm front travel (150 mm tested)
Carbon frame only
29” wheels only
Four sizes, SM thru XL
32.7 lbs as tested (size XL, XTR build, no pedals
Living Link suspension platform
Starting price: $5,999 (on sale for $4,999 at time of writing)
Frame-and-shock-only price: $3,799
(Custom XTR build tested)
Limited spec customization available
Assembled-to-order in Colorado
Sold consumer-direct

That titanium plate means there’s only six bearings in the Mayhem frame. Or if you want to get pedantic, there are no bearings in the Mayhem frame. They’re actually all in the rocker links. So, when time comes to replace them, you’re not pressing anything in and out of carbon. You can just pull the links off and do it on a workbench. And the main pivots use a clever locking system. After the pivots are torqued down, you bolt a teardrop-shaped “cap” over the splined head and into a matching recess in the frame, keeping the pivot bolts from ever loosening up.

The non-pivot bolts that hold the Living Link to the front triangle are refreshingly overbuilt. They’re surrounded by a lot of meat and a lot of surface area. Cleverly, two of these big hollow bolts are pierced by two smaller longer ones to fasten the bottle-cage mount. Spot claims this mount can be used to hold a pump or pump-shaped object. After experimenting with it, I decided I could make it work if this were my bike, but feared it might leave more scratches than I’d want on a borrowed frame. It’s the only on-bike storage solution except for the under-down-tube mounts. But that’s what aftermarket frame bags are for. There’s plenty of room behind the head tube, especially on my XL.

And about that horizontal tube parallel to the shock. Specialized has done something similar. It helps beef up a frame with this type of horizontal shock configuration. Normally, a lot of extra reinforcement is required when the shock is mounted against the center of the down tube. That’s usually where a carbon frame can save a bunch of weight, but not if it’s bearing the brunt of your rear-wheel impacts. So, the extra horizontal tube helps take care of that. It’s a light, strong, smart way to add support.

Spot has done some interesting things with cable routing over the years. The Rollik stuck with external when that was already unfashionable. Earlier generations of Ryves and Mayhems, as well as the current generation Rocker hardtail, have “grooves” that hold housing semi-externally like how a bun holds a hot dog. The Mayhem went full internal, but unguided. Spot tells us that fully guided (AKA “tube-in-tube”) routing isn’t as great as it’s made out to be. They say, understandably, that embedding a hollow tunnel into the wall of a carbon frame can create weak spots. It’s also a potential source of manufacturing blemishes, which leads to waste. So, the Mayhem 140 uses a single large-diameter foam tube to silence the brake hose and/or derailleur cable. The cable-port covers aren’t quite so old-fashioned, though. Instead of being bolted directly to the frame, they’re bolted to a replaceable insert on the opposite side. That means fewer easily stripped tiny threads on your $3,000 frame.

Spec and Value

In my case, that frame began its life as my Shimano XTR test mule, but that build isn’t currently on the menu. In fact, neither is the Fox rear shock that eagle-eyed readers might see in these action photos. That was only on there for my first two days on the bike. Spot prefers RockShox, which I’ll cover later. The off-the-shelf build options begin with cable-actuated Eagle 90 Transmission build that, as of publishing this, is on sale for $5,000 but will normally go for $6,000.

Yes, we’re covering another bike that won’t let you in the door for under $6K. There are other consumer-direct bikes that, on paper, give you more for less. But the Mayhem wasn’t made by a major player like Canyon or YT. Spot is, and always has been, a small brand. Before your bike gets built, you’ll likely have a real conversation with someone at Spot. They’ll make sure you get the dropper length or bar width you want, and can answer any questions you still have about Living Link. Plus, Spot bikes make any sort of comparison difficult. I’d say the same of a couple other members of the $6K-and-over-club, the Forbidden Druid and Yeti SB135. The Spot Mayhem 140 can do things that no other bike can.

Anti-Squat and You

A great example of what sets the Mayhem apart is how Living Link—specifically Inversion Living Link—relates to anti-squat. Briefly, anti-squat refers to how your pedaling forces impact suspension. It’s mostly a function of linkage design (much like leverage curve), though things like gear ratio, center of gravity, and where you are in the travel also play a role. A high anti-squat design harnesses chain tension to keep you from sinking (squatting) into the travel. But generally, you don’t want your drivetrain to have too much influence on suspension. You want the chain to turn the wheel and you want the suspension to track the ground, although there are limits to what’s possible. Most bikes will have high anti-squat early in the travel and low anti-squat later in the travel, hopefully hitting their desired sweet-spot somewhere around sag. But the inverted Living Link allowed the Mayhem 140’s anti-squat curve to be arch-shaped. So, instead of reaching optimal anti-squat just once throughout the travel, the new Living Link lets it linger.

This allowed Spot to tune a slightly more supportive peak anti-squat value because it’s unlikely for the rider to experience too much anti-squat anywhere in the travel. Also, according to Emanuel, it widens the sweet spot for setup, giving riders more freedom in how they want the Mayhem to feel. “It’s more of a plateau at the top of that curve,” Emanuel explains. “So, it will still deliver really efficient pedaling performance at 35% sag and it won’t feel that different in terms of anti-quat at 25% sag.” And given my skepticism about finding the right feel on a 140 mm bike, that’s a great jumping-off point to finally talk about how it rides.

Spot Mayhem 140 Ride Impressions: Climbing

Spot was the first brand to open my eyes to the logic of steep effective seat-tube angles. And they’ve stayed true to the cause. Although Spot uses a common method of measuring effective seat-tube angles that is a peeve of mine, their seat tubes are not wildly kinked. So, my XL test bike’s claimed effective angle is 77.5°, and at ride height I calculated mine to be 77°. That made it ideal for long days of motivated but not race-pace pedaling. I’m kicking off my climbing impressions on the topic of seat angles because it plays an important role in how supportive any bike will feel. The Kona Process 134 and Canyon Spectral could have avoided some compromises to their all-rounder prowess if their seat angles put me further over the pedals. Even without Living Link, I reckon the Mayhem’s geometry alone would have made it a respectable climber. With Living Link, it’s actually changed how I think about certain climbs.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like lockouts. I ride flat pedals, so I mash more than spin. And a lot of my climbs are smooth, but I’ll always unlock for sustained rough sections. One of my favorite big climbs has three or four such sections, and the smooth bits in-between are long enough to justify immediately locking out again. But the Mayhem is one of the rare long-ish-travel bikes that I’d almost always leave wide open. That’s not to say its suspension feels stiff on the climbs. The Yeti SB140 and the updated Ibis Ripmo feel stiff. The Mayhem is more of a magic carpet. The “carpet” is a thin layer of surface tension that kept me high in the travel. As for the “magic,” I still think the Forbidden Druid, Norco Optic, and Revel Rascal are better at staying supple during forceful cranks in rough terrain. But the Druid and Optic have high-pivot downsides, and the Rascal may not feel supportive en0ugh for some. The Mayhem’s magic is in how alive and responsive it feels when pedaling. Sure, the suspension would yield under sharp downward forces like leaping out of the saddle or preloading to unweight over a rock shelf. But sustained forceful spins on the Mayhem are just as efficient and aaalllmost as encouraging as they are on my 120 mm bike.

This is where I think Spot succeeded at “picking a side,” at least with regards to climbing. The Mayhem seems to favor speed and support. And I’m all for it. The Scor 4060 and aforementioned Canyon Spectral and Kona Process 134 were supple and comfy on the climbs, but they kinda just got the job done. The Mayhem gets the work done. And that was true even with my relatively deep sag settings, which I came to after learning what I liked about how the Mayhem descends.

Spot Mayhem ride impressions: Descending

The Mayhem will work with a 160 mm fork, but I tested it with a 150. That puts the head angle at 65.2°, which must have been perfect because I never really thought about it. I’d call the Mayhem’s handling “intuitive,” meaning it was more direct and less damped than other all-mountain-leaning trail bikes. Here’s where my “pick a side” doctrine starts to come into play. The Mayhem is Spot’s longest-travel bike at the moment. With that in mind, some brands may have tried to appeal to the enduro crowd with some enduro geometry numbers. But the Mayhem is not an enduro bike.

I felt more engaged during high-speed maneuvers than with bikes like the YT Jeffsy or even the Forbidden Druid. It was surprisingly easy to break the rear end loose when lining up to exit a turn. And it never required much effort to get the front wheel off the ground. I’m on an XL frame, so some of this may only apply to taller folks with more mobility when leaning back, but I liked seeing relatively short 435 mm chainstays, even in the larger sizes. It paired well with the Mayhem’s skill at responding to quick decisions. But I’m kinda burying the lead with all this geometry talk. The Living Link is really what set the tone for how the Mayhem descends.

Regardless of how helpful mid-stroke may be on the climbs, I value it most on the descents. Especially when I wade deeper into long-travel categories. I’m not out there racing. I’m out there having fun. It’s far more rewarding to carve a bonus line onto the high side of a traverse than it is to blow past it a half second faster. The Mayhem is made for the bonus lines.

The downward forces required to initiate a jump or flick are much more impactful when there’s something to push against. That’s why I like my overbuilt downcountry shredders. But the Living Link gives you something to push against, without giving up travel. We understand that more capable bikes require more effort to throw around. And that’s fine. They’re often meant for trails that are either too serious to safely throw a bike around, or that include man-made features to do the throwing for you. The Mayhem is much more inviting to user input.

The Living Link cheats the system with the subtle but predictable ramp-up that happens just past the sag point. It blends harmoniously with the rest of the travel. In fact, I could pretty much blow right through that support if I was doing a parking-lot party trick like bunny-hopping up a three-stair or something. But that’s not how my style of trail jibbing works. Ideally, it’s a subtle judo that redirects momentum vertically or laterally. The Mayhem offered all the help I needed to pop off—or across—the ground for a second. It’s a milder version of the excessive pop Spencer experienced on the shorter-travel Spot Ryve. On this bike, it wasn’t as distracting, but you can turn it up a bit if you like.

For my first couple weeks on the Mayhem, I leaned hard into its flickability strengths. At my pretty standard sub-30% sag, my on-trail creativity was at its peak. And yet, I still got the perks of the bike’s extra travel. But only when I needed it. Like when I picked a particularly bad line or picked a particularly rowdy trail. Now, that could be a good thing, which is how I presented similar behavior on the Ibis Ripmo. But on my home mountains, few trails demand that extra travel. The rest of the time, I would want a 140 mm bike to just float. To give up its travel more easily. So, I dropped the pressure slightly, netting me a hair over 30% sag.

That sacrificed some flickability, but surprisingly little. If this were a traditional 140mm bike with a traditional effective leverage curve, my plush settings would come at greater cost to mid-stroke support. But softening the shock spring doesn’t soften the Living Link. The platform was still there, enabling my last-minute decisions to carve a high side or gap to a transition. And if any of those last-minute decisions proved ill-advised, harsh bottom-outs were rare. This is why I pointed out the RockShox / Fox suspension-spec discrepancy in the action photos. RockShox hydraulic bottom-out is an excellent companion to the Mayhem’s wide adjustability. It introduces much firmer damping at the very end of the stroke. It helped make my settings possible. I didn’t have to reach ludicrous speeds or make bad line choices to truly take advantage of a bike in this travel category. I’m not out there bashing boulders, which is why the short-travel category has always worked fine. But the Mayhem gets me a taste of that overbiked life without losing touch.

Of course, that’s just one of the Mayhem’s personalities. If I lived somewhere with rowdier, rootier trails, I probably would have stuck with that sub-30% sag. Same if my climbs were more technical, more steep, and if I were more motivated to ascend them at race pace. And the Mayhem would shine there, too. But I don’t think that means it falls into the same all-rounder trap as other bikes in this category. It favors active, engaged descending and moderately high-effort climbing. The Spot Mayhem 140 makes choices. It just happens to let you make some, too.