The less rotating mass thing is just moronic. Yes, technically one less idler gear has less rotating mass but it's a small diameter and that extra gear is only worth about 1% in efficiency change. Temperature has a greater effect than that. I used to design drive systems for oil drilling so I laugh at what some people believe vs what is.
In regards to the front kick, lets say we have arms with no kick, so level. If you move the wheels up and down, keys say 2" in total travel. If you lean that suspension back 25° but then move those arms the same amount, you will not have the same amount of total wheel travel. You'll have less. You'll need to physically move the arms over a wider total angle to obtain the same wheel travel vertically. By lengthening the arms to compensate, you can maintain the total amount of movement the arms make in regards to how many degrees they move in order to maintain the same wheel travel vertically. Obviously we get to a point where it's impossible. A 90° take would equal no vertical movement. The reason this is important is because the roll center changes would stay the same front to rear with suspension travel. They don't currently.
Last edited by fredswain; 01-18-2015 at 05:39 PM.