bad shock angle

[IRISH-RACER-14]

seen this online and it looks like the shocks are at a different angle than most quads.why is this so?

[bmerriman12]

they are just extended aarms bud...

[Scro]

All Outlaw/Predators have a shock angle like that. It seems like it would make for a less progressive curve, as it would get harder to compress the shock the closer you get to bottoming out. In my opinion, the shock would be straight up and down in a perfect world. But, that's what valving is for and that setup can be made to work relatively close to any other setup. I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad shock angle, but rather it just needs to be taken into consideration when building the shock.

As for why Polaris designed it that way...See low the upper shock mount is on the frame compared to, say the Honda? If they were to make the lower shock mount closer to the frame, the shock would be much shorter. Shorter shock = less tunability. Same concept as long travel vs. standard travel. Just a guess though.

[deathman53]

those look like Long "body" a-arms anyway. The shocks are too long to be a standard body. The word long travel is a big selling gimmick. They really should be called long body or long shock, as they don't have much more travel or the anymore travel than standard shocks. The body is longer, holds more oil, more nitrogen, doesn't fade as quickly and is more progressive to valve. Moving the shocks inward to the frame somewhat is an idea that started back in ~1990 by JP. Later on Roll, Laeger and walsh copied the idea. Polaris started using a similar system with extended bottom shock mounts and inward upper shock mounts in their snowmobiles ~late 90's.

[fearlessfred]

i think u hit the nail on the head when u said bad shock angle. when the shocks are laid down that much, the rising rate is to steep,just like dustin said.to get enough spring to hold the bike at ride hieght,makes them to stiff at full bump. there is a rule of thumb that allmost all offroad builders use for shock angle,and that is if u draw a line thru the lower a arm pivot and the lower shock mount and then a center line thru the shock when u are at full bump,those lines should be just shy of a right angle. if u go past a right angle the rising rate would get softer at the very end of the travel.

[m0t0xk1d]

those are not long "body" shocks. the predator comes stock with 18.5inch shocks

[fearlessfred]

those are extended arms? are the stock lower shock mount that far out ward