How to measure wheel travel

[thebig450es]

how do it measure my front end wheel travel. all i see is like 4 inches of shock shaft.

[Shawthy33]

Geometry....

4 inches of shock shaft stretched out to the arch of the a-arms may end up being 9.8 or whatever the stock 400ex front end is.

The only true way to measure would be to measure the point where the center of your wheel is at full expansion and where it is at full compression. The length between the two points gets you your travel.