Cascade Components first started as a side project in February 2019. I had broken the rear triangle on my Santa Cruz Nomad and had some downtime. I started looking at putting a longer stroke coil shock on the frame to get a little more travel and a little better small bump. Since I had spare time I decided to make a set of parametric equations for leverage ratio, wheel travel, and axle path. Upon doing this, I realized that the leverage ratio curve was regressive past the stock stroke and not suitable for a coil spring. I began changing dimensions for the lower link to see if it could be made to better suit a longer stroke coil shock.

After choosing a set of dimensions, I quickly machined a prototype to throw on my bike. The performance was even better than I had expected! Fast forward a few months, and the Nomad LT link is available. Today we've grown to producing over a dozen different links, with more links for other VPP frames to come!