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With front suspension forks, when changing the travel, you also change the axle-crown height by the same amount (whether that be spacers or a new spring assembly)
I once got told it was possible to shorten a shocks travel, but leave the eye-to-eye length unchanged
Is it possible to change a shocks travel AND its eye-to-eye length by the same amount. Complete top of my head thinking, if there some travel spacers inserted into the air chamber perhaps? What can of worms would this open? Can it be done?
Reason being, I have a 2007 stumpjumperFSR frameset that still sees occasional use. Being a specialized it of course has its own bizarre dimensions, namely i2i=193.7mm, stroke=41.3mm (lifted from the frames handbook). Which is obviously nowhere near any off the shelf shock size
The Xfusion made specialized brain shock has never been right and even turned to its most off position, its damping feel is pretty dated. It never matched the damping feel of any motion control/blackbox forks I paired it with. The only one it felt close to was a 2003 marzocchi .. Squelchy might be the word. It also weighs over 450g with the brain that I never use, its not active enough. It feels sticky and always has pre/post service
Anyhoo I am shortly due to be breaking up my less aged, but still knackered 6" full suss that has a decent condition shock on it. Its a Fox RP23 HV BV 216x63 (or 215x64 depending on the imperial conversion they derive from)
If there were a way to add 22mm of i2i and stroke restriction, it would bring it to 194x41 (or 193x42) which is within 1mm for each dimension
By going a third of the way into the RP23's travel I wonder how the action of the boost valve would affect it, as I believe the boost valve kicks in somewhere around this point of the shocks stroke? Whether it would mess with the initial small bump sensitivity?
Would it have a harsh top out thud?
Would it try ramping up much earlier?
Is this a starter or a non-starter?
The spacer hack is pretty much what manufacturers are doing when offering metric and non metric versions of the same shock.
If it was a 200x51/57, I would use offset bushes to lose the overall length, then fit an internal spacer to limit the travel. At 216x63, it will need new parts, as the negative spring balancing port would more than likely be in the wrong place if you were to shorten the shock internally.
Ok thank you. I'll have a quick look about for negative air ports if/when I get it in bits.
I converted the measurements (back) to imperial; my rp23 is a 8.5x2.5", the spesh brain is 7⅝x1⅝". So a ⅞" spacer would reduce exactly. But as mentioned, other issues could arise