Need some smart suspension peoples input

[aroracer72]

Hello guys,
I have a very nice and mint cannondale rear shock sitting for my spare dale frame/chassis..and i have my 450r being put togetehr any day now.....and ive worked out some ideas and dimensions but need the assurance of someone that knows linkages and suspension on how to make the geometry correct with my desgin.

This shock is about an inch longer eye to eye, is set up for a 375pd quad..soo teh valving should be fine.....just need to make a correctly designed linkage. At first i was gonna stay simple and use steel plates and make linkage till i can have a billet aluminum set made.

So, in order to run this inch longer shock..with maybe slightly stiffer spring.....what would i have to change linkage wise. I can make both linkage pieces with no problem, just need to know how to position the shock and what dimensions each linkage piece should be.

Heres some pics, i was gonna use the stock rear link piecfe...and then use to steel plates(represented by cardboard strips in pics) as the front linkage piece and bolt the shock and plate ends in the "fork" of the stock rear linkage. But i worry that this will be all teh wrong leverage.......

So..what do you think???
CHAD
(also....a pic of a stock linkage next to a LT linkage would help a ton)

[aroracer72]

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[aroracer72]

Soo...what do you think?
Chad

[K_Fulk]

I think you should put your 450r shock back on.

The dale shock is built for a no link setup. And if your gonna get one rebuilt it might as well be the 450r shock.

[Yamahauler_04]

I know, not think, you need a cad program to correctly design a link like that.

Between that and the Cannondale shock being set up as a no link, you are set up for much more work than it is worth.

For the cost, pay someone who has done it already.

[aroracer72]

Well,
I only wanted to try this cause it would only cost me the material for the steel plates..which would be cheap....and then i would have a 900 dollar mint shock for almost free.......its in teh exact same angle, exact same pivot-mounts dimensions(as when on the dale)...soo all leverages on teh shock willl be same as if it were on the dale.

And all i was asking was someone who knows this stuff a ton, and knows torque and physics and etc to chime in and see if it MIGHT work....im not expecting it to work for shure...just was wondering if it seems pliable.

I guess the only real way is to just try it and see if it works. But i wont spend more then the price for the steel plates on this project...soo only 10 dollars will go to waste.
CHAD

[K_Fulk]

Don't know if you read these articles or not, but ere they are anyways.

http://www.gtthunder.com/Suspensions.htm

[aroracer72]

Nope..never saw that before...thanks for the link!

And i realize this is a far shot...but my dad and as im finding me, have a strange ability to make thigns work and have odd STRANGE luck at wierd things working out.

For example.....my dad had a damaged stator plate were the one way starter bearing rides on, and it JUST SOO happens that this old gyro-plane motor he bought years back and has been sitting in the corner of our basement has the EXACT same stator, one way bearing, plate...and magneto!!!!.....TALK ABOUT FREAKY!!!....soo he had a nice mint all enw assembly in his basement all along and didnt know...but he found it a week before his part came in..and now he has two sets of everything.

But im not one to quit when it seems impossible or unpliable....im gonna try this..and if for soem reason it works.....im gonna post my results with instructions on how to do it. Because the dale rear OHLINS are 800-1000 dollar value..but can be bought on ebay for 150 NEW>.....LOL.....and i mean this gives you LT suspension with a ohlins fully adjsutabler race shock...pretty neat.

And BTW i use CAD in school and did rough/quick drawings of this all and is very VERY close to being identical...thats why im soo hyped to try it.
CHAD

[aroracer72]

OHH and btw....putting the bottom shock mount in the rear linkage piece locks in the pivot point/leverage point of the shock....soo leverage will be consistently even just like a no link swingarm.
CHAD

[Yamahauler_04]

Looks like you have thought it through.

For 10 bucks, give it a try.

I'm much more used to seeing people post that are determined to run something because they have it, and having no idea if it will work.

Try it, but be careful the first few rides.

Now running your old Blaster stock front shock as a rear....:D

[aroracer72]

nahh....i just run my john deere shocks...handles like a dream
CHAD

[yamablaster24]

Well seeing that i have done the same thing sort of with my blaster I will give my input. The shock you are using was developed to work with no linkage or motion involved. They are designed to be at an angle (quite steep i might add) and far up the swingarm. I would reccomend starting with a steel swingarm and make a cr500 link like i did. This gives you up to 13-14" of rear travel (I pulled 12.75 out of my stock 400ex rear shock) It was then revalved for the different leverage ratio and this thing worked awesome.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/yamablastermx/blaster2-27-05011.jpg

sagged 3 inches when the weight of the quad was put on it. An additional 4 1/2 when i sat on it. (it sat low and under accel squated like no other rarely bringing the front end off the ground)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/yamablastermx/blaster2-27-05007.jpg

basically if you get the valving rates and leverage ratio correct you can have one hell of a rear suspension.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/yamablastermx/400exsms003.jpg

[ajr400ex]

Definately read the link that was posted. More travel isn't always better. This may very well work but how well will depend on the details. The extended and compressed lengths need to be setup right then a linkage designed to achieve the correct motion ratio profile. This could require revalving depending on how different it is from the Cannondale setup. Alot of effort was put into designing the rebuilds and linkages that are available to achieve the correct setup. For around $300 you can get a pretty good setup for the 450r with the stock shock. I am pretty impressed with mine.