To prove this, he has brought his R3ACT suspension system to the table (the name being an homage to Newton’s Third Law). The idea is to reduce the responsibility of the shock and instead increase traction through the balance of forces.

If you want to know the minutiae of how it works, you’re out of luck. Darrell is deliberately obtuse, even when asked directly about it. He says: “If I were to explain every detail of design or how the kinematics were tweaked, would that change your perception? I want to eliminate all this tech talk and keep it about riding. The industry has been so caught up in marketing acronyms and not wanting to miss the next wheel size variation that suspension design has stagnated and we’ve forgotten how good it feels just to ride.”

In short though, it’s a modified four bar system where the secondary link is placed below the primary link. In the stay is a 43mm slider that adds stiffness but also connects the front and rear frame structures. As this slider changes angle, it keeps the rider on a plane, apparently providing a better platform from which to pedal as the head angle isn’t changing as you change gradients.

Novel, new and something he believes will be revolutionary. This is a man who wants to provide that “one bike to do it all” experience but is doing more than simply designing a “longer, lower, slacker” bike to do it.

Suspension

So, is this all pixie dust, or is there something going on here? Well, as it stands, the bike runs the Float X2 with 60 per cent less damping than the lowest currently on offer from Fox. In fact, you could argue they should be even less restricted as we ran them wide open with no room for adjustment. It’s also worth noting that, while we weren’t on the most challenging terrain, nobody (including Mick Hannah and Kurt Sorge) bottomed out the shock on the whole trip.

Limitations

For British conditions, I have concerns about the amount of rear wheel clearance, especially underneath the integrated mudguard. It got clogged up multiple times while pushing through snow and I also caught a pine cone in there during one run that had to be bashed out. There is currently 20mm but it’s worth saying that smaller tyres will be specced on the production model than the 2.6″ Marys we were using.

The bottom bracket is also super high at 354mm (-3mm drop) when we’re used to the corner shredding antics of bikes such as the Radon Swoop running a -21mm drop and 170mm travel.

Verdict

Polygon set out to make something new and different, and they’ve achieved it – there will be no mistaking this bike when you see one in the flesh.

This is without doubt a great bike – in the first two days I played a strange game of trying to convince myself it didn’t have 180mm of travel – whether it will be the revolution that Polygon claims it will be is yet to be seen.