@Sacto Mitch posted:... As for personal safety, I believe it was Stan himself who recently scolded that unless we live life on the edge, we're not really living it. And what could be closer to the edge, figuratively and literally, than not knowing for certain just how we're going to exit any given corner? Swing axles just naturally make every breath we draw on this earth that much more precious. We may not live as long, but we will have truly experienced the tree or bridge abutment that takes us out.
IRS smacks too much of the safe, certain, and predictable. It is modern, nanny engineering depriving us of the freedom to be wild and free.
I wondered when my apparent contradiction (regarding risk) would be pointed out, and I love that it's my friend from Sacramento doing the pointing... as it was his parable of the cow which set us clucking like hens regarding buffhoonery on the public roadway. But here he is advocating for a suspension system he knows to be fundamentally flawed, precisely because it's flawed, which sets up an interesting (to me at least) discussion.
I don't think either of us are being intellectually dishonest, but think each of us are picking our respective poisons. The nuances between the approach of the antihoons and my own is that I'm not embracing a known flaw - I'm thumbing my nose at rules created for the lowest common denominator among us. I know things could go sideways, but it won't be with my equipment. My kit is solid.
I can't hoon in any kind of "good conscience" (as if that were possible, but stay with me) if I'm trying to "stop worrying and learn to love the bomb" by embracing a bad design. Mitch can, and does so with eloquence.
As such, it makes sense that he would advocate for antihoonery, because in running an uncontrolled swing-axle it is enough for him to feel like he's living on the edge - because he IS living on the edge in a contraption with known (but perfectly fixable) flaws.
I'll happily put my life on the line, but would prefer that the device I'm using not be the reason for the "iffy" state of things.
I'd get limit straps or a camber compensator if I were Mitch... but then again, I'd probably remodel the kitchen and convert to IRS.