FAQ-Shock cycling video

[david58]

http://www.desertrides.com/video/tech/shock_cycling.wmv

Now that your suspension is ready for cycling, bolt your shocks to the lower mount on the spring plate. Here is the heart of this entire project......finding the upper shock mount. There are several things to keep in mind during the cycling. For one, you want to use the entire shock stroke of the shock while using all of your wheel travel. This implies that the shock must be mounted at a certain angle and point in space that is nearly compressed at full suspension bump, and fully extended at full suspension droop. You can't just decide on a random angle and place, the suspension has to be cycled to determine these points. We devised a rather nice way to find this point without tedious trial and error. First we securely attached a wood panel along the frame rail that ran roughly parallel with the area we estimated the shock would be mounted (it is very important that this panel does not move). Then we drooped the suspension fully and extended the shock which is still mounted to the lower shock mount on the spring plate. Putting a pencil through the upper shock eye, we traced an arc on the wooden panel. Along this arc are the possible mounting points that would allow the shock to be fully topped out while the suspension is fully drooped. After that, we fully compressed the suspension, axle to frame (you will need to remove your bumpstops for this). Then we fully compressed the shock, leaving about 1/2" uncompressed. Using the same method, we put the pencil through the upper eye of the shock and traced another arc on the wood panel. This will determine the possible mounting points that will have the shock fully compressed at full suspension bump. Now you will notice something interesting, these arcs intersect. The point at which these arcs intersect is the one point that will allow the shock to be both fully extended at full suspension droop, and fully compressed at full suspension bump.