shocks any (engineers in the house)

[doug]

took the rear suspension apart to grease the bushings and to have a real long hard look at possible shock options. The shock I had in mind is a 46MM Showa same dia as the Ohlins, Penske etc are 40mm. The Showa is 11" long the Ohlins and Penske are 10" so thought I would look at possible mounting options. Pic 1 shows it on the outside of the mounting ears on the swing arm and my concern would be it is in single shear if you run a longer bolt thru the 3 ears of the swingarm I am concerned about it snapping off the mount. Pic 2 shows where the top of the shock would be relative to things it is close to the tank pivot but believe a top mount could be fashioned. Pic 3 shows where the shock would come to using the stock spring mount would mean a new rocker but dont like the looks of the ratio you would get. Pic 4 shows it in the stock uper mount and down to the swing arm with no rocker, the shock would fit but there is no room to clear the frame for a spring in this location unless you permanently hack the frame, might be a solution if you have a cracked frame, but I do not know where TLRs crack the frame if at all. Pic 5 shows the frame problem for spring clearance. Pic 6 I weighed all the stock crap 14lbs.

[doug]

pic 2

[doug]

pic 3 would require a new rocker assymbly but I am not thrilled with how the ratio would probably turn out and I dont know how to calculate the correct spring rate required

[doug]

pic 4

[doug]

pic 5 this pic shows the shock from the stock spring location down to the swing arm and it just does clear the frame ear for the rocker (frame end) but there is not enough room for a spring unless one would like to perminantely carve the frame (not a good solution unless you had a cracked frame any way)

[doug]

pic 6 this is 14 lbs of crap

[doug]

the thinking in pic 1 is to use the stock spring assymbly and turf the rotory damper and just mount a shock as shown on the side.

[doug]

another possibility that I did not take a pic of is to turn the shock upside down and mount it like the ohlins with some aluminum plates, requires to be flipped from the pic shown because the eye end with the rebound adjuster is wider than the opening between the swingarm ears but the other end will fit, the only draw back I see is a slight increase in unsprung weight and the hose which goes off to the remote resivoir would have to flex with the swing arm movement but with a steel braided hose dont think that would be a problem.

[doug]

in the end it looks like either Bitubo, Ohlins, or Penske are the joices also think there is White Power and Maxton but do not know for shure.

[Scrapyard]

Originally posted by doug
another possibility that I did not take a pic of is to turn the shock upside down and mount it like the ohlins with some aluminum plates, requires to be flipped from the pic shown because the eye end with the rebound adjuster is wider than the opening between the swingarm ears but the other end will fit, the only draw back I see is a slight increase in unsprung weight and the hose which goes off to the remote resivoir would have to flex with the swing arm movement but with a steel braided hose dont think that would be a problem.

I think this idea would be your best bet. And really, what are the plates gona wiegh? Half a pound, tops? The idea in pic one has potential but the posibility of breaking something far out weighs the good unless you can get it to line up correctly. Great ideas though. Could be a good budget mod to ditch the door stop.

[Steve TLS]

TonesTLR had a CBR Blade shock fitted to his TLR by Promeca here in Melbourne, not sure if thay had to alter any ratios and such, but it definitely had to have some serious revalving done.

[Steve TLS]

Found a pic

[SDTLR]

But why dont you just buy a shock made for the TLR


Here are 14 more pounds of crap

[ama530]

It is very cool that you are using some serious brain power here. But the problem is that you will spend more time and money trying to retro fit something than if you would just go for an after market shock made for the TLR. You are going to need a shock dyno to figure out valving and you would have to play with the spring rates to get the correct one. Suspension is an ever changing animal. One change can make it great or make it horrible. Go with something tried'n'true and go from there. One thing that we in the engineering field use is the KISS factor. Keep It Simple Stupid. Makes life allot easier. Good Luck.

[doug]

That was the conclusion I came to after a long hard look at the problem I could get the valving right by using a Race Tech gold valve would probably have to change the shim stack 2 or 3 times but I am quite capable of that it just that the 46mm showa is a good shock and I happen to have one, there are cheap to pick up at the wrecker about $50.00 and I have a machine shop so making the brackets is no big deal to mount it Ohlins style, in the end probably will just buy the bitubo just thought that other people might want to see what the problems are. Personally feel that with a bit of tuning and gold valve in the 46mm Showa there would not be a lot of difference from the Ohlins biggest problem would be getting the spring rate correct.