What is a six-bar for compared with a four-bar?

For more design freedom: with more bars you can adjust the leverage ratio, anti-squat, anti-rise and axle path more independently, instead of having to sacrifice one to improve another. The cost is weight, complexity and more bearings.

Is a six-bar worth it?

Only if the design genuinely needs to solve conflicting requirements (for example, e-bikes or frames with packaging constraints). For many bikes, a good four-bar achieves similar results with less weight and maintenance.

Suspension cluster · Systems

Six-bar / DW6: six bars, total control

Quick answer

The six-bar (like Dave Weagle's DW6) uses six articulated bars instead of four. What for? To adjust the leverage ratio, anti-squat, anti-rise and the axle path almost separately, without sacrificing one to improve another. The price: more weight, more bearings, more complexity. Used by Atherton (DW6) and high-end designs. It is the most complex of the systems.

If a four-bar is an instrument with four knobs, the six-bar has six: more control, but more things to tune and maintain.

Six-bar / DW6: six articulated bars with several pivots that allow tuning each parameter almost independently — More bars = more degrees of freedom for the engineer.

What it gains and what it gives up

For

Maximum kinematic freedom: meets conflicting requirements better than a four-bar.

Against

Complexity, weight, cost, packaging and more bearings with possible play.

Used by

Atherton (DW6, additive manufacturing), Nicolai/Geometron and other high-end brands; also useful in e-bikes.

It is not "more of the same": the design space of a six-bar is much larger than that of a four-bar, so the result depends critically on model-by-model optimisation. A poorly designed six-bar can behave worse than a good four-bar — the number of bars guarantees nothing on its own.

Frequently asked questions

What is it for?

To adjust LR, anti-squat, anti-rise and axle path more independently, without sacrificing one for another. It costs weight and complexity.

Is it worth it?

Only if the design needs to solve conflicting requirements (e-bikes, difficult packaging). For many bikes, a good four-bar is enough.

Torn between systems for your next bike?

Tell us how you ride and we'll tell you which kinematics actually suit you. Message us on WhatsApp

How suspension works → Single pivot vs multi-link → Horst Link / four-bar → DW-link →

© 2026 BikeLab Studio. Content under CC BY 4.0: you may copy, translate and publish it, even for commercial purposes. Citation is mandatory. Without attribution, the license terminates automatically (CC BY 4.0, §6.a) and the use becomes copyright infringement: we request the removal of the content and its deindexing. · Design and ownership: Carlos Ravello Joo

BikeLab-pedia · Suspension cluster / Suspension kinematics explained / Carlos Eduardo Ravello Joo · BikeLab Studio · Trujillo, Peru

Six-bar / DW6: six bars, total control

What it gains and what it gives up

Frequently asked questions

What is it for?

Is it worth it?

Related