short shock

[jgilemtb]

I am replacing the shock on my 85 RS and am considering going with a short version. My understanding is that the front has to be lowered to match the drop in the rear. I would assume you loosen the triple clamps, steering stem etc. and slide them lower on the forks. any other info on doing this would be great.

[deilenberger]

I am replacing the shock on my 85 RS and am considering going with a short version. My understanding is that the front has to be lowered to match the drop in the rear. I would assume you loosen the triple clamps, steering stem etc. and slide them lower on the forks. any other info on doing this would be great.

IF you have the stock RS bars - it's not quite that simple. What is normally done is to loosen the clamps holding the fork legs in the upper and lower triple-tree-clamps, and slide them up. If you look at the location of the RS bars in relation to the top of the fork tubes you'll see why it's not quite that simple.

What you can do - that works, but costs you some suspension travel is to put in shorter spacers in the fork tubes. There are tubular spacers above your springs that setup the preload and sag on the forks - shortening them will lower the front end, at the expense of some suspension travel.

Another option is to go to a lower profile tire on the front.. you can lower it about 1/2" with a lower profile tire (same width). I don't recall exactly the sizes, but I used lower profile tires on my '85 K100RT from Bridgestone (BT45's).

[98lee]

Another option that does not sacrifice travel, is to install bar backs and then lower forks in the triple clamps.


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