ohlins moto shock machined down?

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joep1219 · #1 Post by **joep1219** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 3:20 am

anyone ever herd about machining down stock front moto shock bodies for added travel?

peterock · #2 Post by **peterock** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 4:08 am

I'm sure Steve will chime in. Probably not worth the time though if using the stock cannondale arms as I believe there is an issue of ball joints binding and tie rods hitting the frame with any added travel.

2000ex · #3 Post by **2000ex** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 2:10 pm

Machining down the bodies would increase up travel however as Pete said you have other issues with that. Ball joint bind, tierods hitting the frame, etc.

The only room for any sort of improvement with our front end setups would be if you could run a longer shock. The down travel (shocks at full droop) is the only thing that could be changed, however then you have the problem of ball joint travel and tierod end travel that will probably limit that.

The old Protrax setups on the 250R's had some INSANE travel numbers but it was all in the down travel so they had to run a HUGE amount of sag (like 5 inches) when at ride height. It surely would make pulling the front end in the air a hard thing having to go through all that travel before the wheels could come up.

joep1219 · #4 Post by **joep1219** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 4:11 pm

the moto-xperts out of Lafayette Indiana told me they had done this to a hand full of moto's and had no problem. they have my bike now, and were planning doing this after the first of the year. what you guys said really makes sense! i think i better tell him to hold off with the extra travel, and stick with a revalve and respring.

cannondale27 · #5 Post by **cannondale27** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 7:31 pm

Its true.Even the early Motos had more travel than the later ones.Travel was limited in the later Motoshocks because of the issues mentioned.They shortened the Late Moto travel by about a 1/8in. Yes that little bit tells you how close to the max they were running.

joep1219 · #6 Post by **joep1219** » Fri Dec 25, 2009 5:14 am

QUOTE (cannondale27 @ Dec 24 2009, 07:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Its true.Even the early Motos had more travel than the later ones.Travel was limited in the later Motoshocks because of the issues mentioned.They shortened the Late Moto travel by about a 1/8in. Yes that little bit tells you how close to the max they were running.

that really sucks! when my front end is fully compressed, i still have over 5" of ground clearance. i was hopeing to use up a little more of it towards the travel. the only other thing to do is swap out the whole front end a-arms and shocks? and if so what front end for mx?

cannondale27 · #7 Post by **cannondale27** » Fri Dec 25, 2009 1:50 pm

Okay that makes sense.There is more room on the compression side.Depends what tires you run and when the tierods will hit frame while turned and compressed.You could start by cutting the bumpstop down or replacing it.After that a shorter main body would work but then you would need a longer shaft to get the same full droop you had before.

2000ex · #8 Post by **2000ex** » Fri Dec 25, 2009 4:05 pm

5 inches of clearance? How are you measuring that? What you should do is put on the tires inflated properly that you will be running. Remove all shock springs both front and rear. Let the shocks compress down against the bumpstops and take your ground clearance. The bumpstops can be further compressed by someone standing on the front bumper. You want to have 1.5 inches of clearance from the frame to the floor. This will be "safe" so the tire flex at bottoming will not allow the frame to bottom into the ground.

cannondale27 · #9 Post by **cannondale27** » Fri Dec 25, 2009 4:34 pm

Good catch Wes!5" is huge.Something isnt right.2000's recommendations are right on the $ and are MANDATORY for safety.Almost nothing worse than your frame hitting the ground especially in front.We usually test this with a 2x4 under quad.Compress suspension and then JUMP on front bumper.If frame hits 2x4(which is 1.5 thick)you have to much travel.

joep1219 · #10 Post by **joep1219** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 6:41 am

QUOTE (cannondale27 @ Dec 25 2009, 05:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good catch Wes!5" is huge.Something isnt right.2000's recommendations are right on the $ and are MANDATORY for safety.Almost nothing worse than your frame hitting the ground especially in front.We usually test this with a 2x4 under quad.Compress suspension and then JUMP on front bumper.If frame hits 2x4(which is 1.5 thick)you have to much travel.

is that obtainable with the stock moto front end running 20" fronts and 18" rears? really haven't messed with it much. what started this suspension stuff was last week i brought one of my friends LTR's down to the moto xperts, they seen the moto in the trailer and started asking how i liked it. i replied that i was happy with everything other then i thought that the suspension could be a little more plush! that's when they came up with this idea of getting more upward travel out of the front end by machining the bodies and taking out part of the internal bumpstop, and a revalve and respring.

so what i'm getting at is i don't necessarly want to reinvent the wheel here, i just want close to what i had on my yfz with laegers and PB1"s. i know the revalve and respring will plush it up, but can i get the ride hight lower?