long travel?

[eadwiggi]

i'm fairly new to the world of quads. i bought an '05 450r with houser +2's and a +2 swing arm. it has elka shocks with dual linkage but only the rear shock is adjustable. i sent them back to elka to be serviced and revalved for mx 160lbs. got a ton of questions. answer one or answer them all.

is converting to long travel set up worth it? what are the benefits? how much more travel do you get?

does the +2 swing arm help or not? I don't see anyone on here with an extended swing arm.

my shocks are pretty stiff and beat the hell out of me through anything choppy. are steering dampners worth the money?

THanks,

[yellowzo3]

long travel isnt worth it if your just starting to ride and get into mx. if you are progressing in the sport and are doing fairly well then long travel would be a good upgrade and it would help soak up some of the harder hits. or you could get longtravel from the start instead of switching over. but since you already have the houser/elka setup id stick with it. those are quality parts so you shouldnt have to worry. a +2 swingarm would help keep your front end on the ground better, and is good for duning also. since your getting your shocks rebuilt to your specs that should take away most of the choppiness and bad handling. steering stabilizers are worth it from what people have said. i dont have one myself, but i do like my antivibe stem and notice a difference in that.

[400exrider707]

1) I would say just from your post alone that long travel is not for you. The idea behind long travel is to get more tunability and easier adjustment out of the shock. With most cases you dont really gain any wheel travel, but you gain shock travel. Your wheel travel is still going to be limited by how far your balljoints/heims can travel. This is unless you switch to a pro-traxx type setup. The longer shock in "long-travel" is to make it more tunable. Dont feel bad because more than half of the people I have talked to that own long travel dont even know what they're doing when they make adjustments anyways. I personally have rode on some long travel setups, and although they ride beautiful despite being setup for a different rider, at this point I dont feel the need for it. It depends on a few things though and money is the big one for me:ermm: . Ultimately it is your decision and you should do some research on the topic before jumping into anything.

2) There are quite a few members with extended swingarms, most are +1 1/4 though, +2 isn't very common. It can help, but depends on your riding situations. What type of riding are you doing mostly? MX? XC? Baja?

3) Your shocks beating you up are more than likely because they were not setup for your weight/riding style like yellowzo3 said. A dampener will do nothing to correct this as it is for steering purposes only. A dampener is definitely worth the money though. Remember you get what you pay for though. You buy a $150 dampener and thats what you get, you get a $500 and thats what you get. Both are far better than nothing though. I run a $150 stick styl dampener and love it.

Also as a note I've never noticed a difference better or worse by using an anti-vibe stem, but to each his own