Shortened suspension????

[rpduc]

Hey all,

Once a bike has been "lowered" is it reversible?

I've had a '03 250 DE sitting around here since last year about this time that I never got around to rehabbing. (kind of a handy parts source) My nephew recently expressed interest in dirt bikes so I sold it and I'm helping him get it in shape for spring.

I stole the spring off the '03 last fall when I had the suspension reworked on my MC. The springs are the same length, but I noticed that the rear shock is about 1/2 shorter eye to eye than the stocker on my MC.

There are Factory Connection stickers on front and rear and this leads me to believe that this bike was lowered by the previous owner.

Does anyone know how they typically "lower" suspension? I thought I saw somewhere mention of "spacers" and though it seems counterintuitive I guess I can envision how it would work.

Anyway my nephew is 6'-3" and I don't think he needs a lowered bike, so I'm trying to determine if the thing can be put back to stock.

I intend to call Factory Connection but I thought I'd tap the collective wisdom here as well.

Thanks for any info,

Ross

[blitz11]

With linkage rear suspension, one can alter ride height by changing the length of the pull rods. It is possible that the previous owner installed longer pull rods, which results in a lowered suspension.

A less-used approach is to put a spacer on the damper rod which limits the extension of the shock. Is the shock an OHLINs?

If the MC runs a 19" rear wheel, the MC Shock might show less extension to compensate for the larger radius of the wheel. That is pure speculation on my part.

We rode with your nephew (really nice kid) last year, (he's my co-worker's former roommate) and gave him his off-road name. He also crashed my other coworker's KTM pretty hard, breaking the front fender. He fits right in with us.

If your nephew pulls his shock off, we can take it apart, change the fluid, and see whether a spacer has been installed. If it's not ohlins, we can still figure it out.

blitz

[eff]

Yes, if it has been lowered it can be returned to the orginal travel. They use spacers that limit travel as you stated in your post.

I'm planning to have mine prof. lowered this year but having a hard time parting with the $$$ right now.

[rpduc]

Thanks Blitz and eff,

Duh, I guess I forgot to mention it was an Ohlins shock...

With linkage rear suspension, one can alter ride height by changing the length of the pull rods.

No, eye to eye this shock is shorter. The stock length spring is too long. It's a PIA to switch it out because you can't unload it by winding out the preload rings. You have compress the spring with clamps to get the keeper out.

If the MC runs a 19" rear wheel, the MC Shock might show less extension to compensate for the larger radius of the wheel.

Actually 18" and 19" tires have the same O.D., the diff is in the wheel circumference and lower profile sidewalls on the 19" tires.

O.k. so we can yank the spacers in both front and rear susp. But where does that leave us with the valving and springs. I'd assume with spacers one would need shorter fork springs so we need to find some stock ones if we put it back to stock? Would valving be different on a shortened fork or shock?

[blitz11]

Here's where we're at:

1. Short shock. We now know the shock is short, and that they're running a "normal" spring. Maybe the PO was short AND fat, and needed lots of preload to get the sag right. Maybe the PO wasn't, and when they took the piston off to get the spacer put in, they did revalve. My guess is that they didn't revalve 'cause they took the wrong approach to lowering the bike anyway. If there is a spacer, i'd recommend taking the spacer off, measuring the shim stack, and comparing it to stock. if it's different, go back to stock valving.

They didn't CUT the spring, which is good, 'cause cutting the spring increases the spring rate.

When I was even more stupid, my brother and I did this to a set of Curnutt shocks on his AW400 maico. If i remember, that shock had 2 springs. we took the high rate spring off, and it all worked pretty well. We used electrical conduit as our spacer.

MC and EC use different wheel diameters, but have same OD due to lower profile 19" rim. i wasn't sure how that worked out, so that helps out.

2. forks. Again, who knows what's in there. Ohlins or WP fork? If they put spacers in to limit travel, AND they cut the springs, they've really jacked with the spring rate. Best you can do is disassemble the fork, see what you have, and then start from a known good configuration (stock). If i recall, the bikes you have came as a group, and who knows what was done to them.

if you cut springs shorter, you increase the spring rate. w/o looking, you'll never know what you have. luckily, it won't be too much to get it back to stock.

blitz

[Treesmacker]

I think Pobit still has some springs for sale and He is located in St.Paul MN.
http://www.gasgasrider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3842