You really don’t need to. It’s nothing at all like we’re talking about with the AM831.
Firstly, I’m making a comparison to my last bike, a GT Force (LTS V1) there, which has one of the most overbuilt aluminum 4-bar linkages out there. Even that has some movement in it which I always felt was a little uneven side to side in that way almost all 4-bars are asymmetrical to accommodate the chainring and guide/bash mounts. The 1002 is much more even in the movement it has.
The 1002 uses the same linkage as the 1001, so it’s built a little bit on the lightweight side for an AM bike. The rocker arm in particular is daintier than I would’ve designed if I was engineering a 153mm bike of this caliber. When you lean the bike over hard on intense high speed/high-G trails, for someone like me at ~200lbs without gear, that’s mild but noticeable versus a giant hunk of aluminum like the Force LTS V1’s rocker arm. The Force V2 (current model, high pivot 4-bar) actually shed a ton of material from the linkage while keeping it aluminum even though the front triangles are now exclusively carbon.
Now, I was also talking about my 1002 at the end of the season with 725mi on the original bearings which have never been opened up or greased. I suspect they have at least a little rust and play in them by now, which made apparent rear end “flex” more noticeable. It was never a bad problem, or significantly affected handling though I did sometimes find myself wishing I had the money for fresh Enduro Max bearings sooner to see how much it helps.
I’ll be doing that next spring.
In conclusion, all this was as by way of comparison, both to my last bike and to what I’m considering as a second bike to go with the 1002 — the 1002 is an AM bike with a trail bike rear end and I’ve really enjoyed that in most ways but I think a 1003 will be inherently stiffer with only a single pivot and one piece, enduro-weight rear triangle. It will become my big mountain enduro & park weapon with some of the current 1002 parts like a Fox 38, while the 1002 will get new/refreshed bearings, a 36mm fork, and be my daily driver light-AM bike for local trails.
There’s no inherent problem with the 1002 of any kind, it’s just firmly an AM bike and the OEM bearings are probably not quite up to the level of punishment I dished out this year…whereas I’d like to add a really stiff enduro tank to my stable, and this time I will give the bearings a thorough examination/greasing before the build. Might even just install Enduro Max on the main pivot at least.
