shocks

elhefa

New Member
i did a search,could'nt find the answer soooooooo.....looking for short shocks. 9.5-10.5 some
where in that neighborhood. eye to clevis. trying to bring down the rear of my cb550,the shocks that i have are 13" cranked all the way down. i know about the rebel 10.5"(thank you search) what else is out there? i realize i'll be giving up the travel but im not a big guy so i can afford to give up some. hardtail was an option but i chose this route first. i've also read about using scooter shocks,any thoughts on this?
 
DO NOT USE SCOOTER SHOCKS!!!!!!!!

Rebel shocks are probobly your best bet unless you want to spend a FORTUNE.
 
Me and a few buddies modded my stock shocks from my 77 and they're workin great! My towns full of rat rods so cut springs are nothing new around here.

Before I cut into my shocks and springs I cut up an old pair i had lying around checked to see if the shock had enough clearance in the internals to compress all the way without bottoming out. Needless to say, they didnt.

We pulled the shocks and cut a half a coil off each one at a time until it sat where I wanted it to. I then took a torch to the spring a 1/2 coil down and heated it till it was glowing hot then bent it down(seen in pic posted). Then we grinded it down until the spring sat level.

Next step was to pull the shock mount off and cut/re-thread the shaft so that the shock would hold itself tightly together like stock.

Lastly we cut the bump stop in half to regain a little travel and put em back together. We pulled em off again and threw on some covers I had from my old '73 cb500 that I had tossed in a box.

The hardest part of this was re-threading the shaft and putting the shocks back together. When you cut the springs it increase the spring rate which will in turn stiffen the ride but in turn also makes it almost impossible to put the shocks back together like you take them apart. My shocks are at 10.5 inches from bolt to bolt and have about 2 inches of travel with the bump stops cut.

Dont mind the cardboard, it was a mock up for the seat but it is completely different now haha.
 

Attachments

  • DSC01229.JPG
    DSC01229.JPG
    511.3 KB · Views: 238
  • DSC01231.JPG
    DSC01231.JPG
    302 KB · Views: 229
  • DSC01232.JPG
    DSC01232.JPG
    1 MB · Views: 235
  • DSC01213.JPG
    DSC01213.JPG
    389.8 KB · Views: 253
havent been on here for a day or two,and i see this post...were you a ghost in our machine shop today? did the same thing with the springs,total of two coils,heated to flatten the cut end,sanded cut end flat. i put some pics up tommorrow,did another mod on mine,i cut the little lock tab for the adj. collar in half and reshaped the ends got maybe another .5 from that. i might pop the mount end off tomorrow wouldnt be to tough at work...
 
Hell yeah! I haven't heard of anyone doing this on motorcycles but we do it all the time to slam old vw bugs and rabbits. I've built custom coilovers before too so this was a no brainer.
 
what is an acceptable angle on shocks? i.e. how far can a guy lean them forward before they become ineffective...? heres the pic off the tab mod as well.
IMG_0030-1.jpg
,did this on all four tabs still need a bit of shaping but you get the idea...
 
yeah and this is my first rodeo with a bike. so does that exclude me from asking questions to gain knowledge(dumb or not)? was just curious thats all. seen them vertical,and layed over quite a bit.
 
build thread will go up later today...and im sure there will be more questions,dumb and all but i feel like i've found the right place for good answers....thanks
 
Swivel... If you dont mind me asking, whats with the constant racial and homophobic slurs champ? Im done arguing with you about your attitude. You are you are, and honestly I dont give a shit anymore, but the "beaner" and "homo" stuff should really be left out of your posts here on DTT. Not trying to be policially correct or any of that bullshit, but really man.
 
Again... Not arguing or implying a respect for censorship of any kind, just... Well, forget it. Youre just going to reply with more nonsense. Say whatever you want.
 
I disagree with a lot that Swivel says but, he is right about a certain segment of 'shade tree/backstreet mechanics'
some of the things Swivel has posted about his 'customers' sometimes makes me think he may be of the same ethnic variety or mindset ;D
Von, you can buy me a wooden spoon if you like ;D
 
to the op cutting springs and heating them up will distroy the temper in the spring not a good idea at all and doing anything that put heat on a shock (cutting ,welding)is a worse idea pressurized oil and heat is a bomb
 
Swivel said:
Yep it's an entertaining little ship this here D T T clipper,me hearty!

bradj ahoy! mizzen the dizzin H'poonz!
what is it that your tring to make up for, i could give two shits about you but the guy just asked a question eather help or dont post. giving a new guy shit will not change the fact that your still a scared little boy hopping a forced blow job is not your punishment for you spilling paint in the basement. So to hide from the pain of rape you would climb in a book to create your own little reality, a place to put your self when daddy has had to much to drink and decides to gets randy with the boys. Now several years later you got the need to talk down to anybody that will listen, that is your only way to feel better about your self. But deep down you are and will always be daddy little warm hole.

Hows your build working out for ya fuck face
 
Heat will weaken the spring but I'm not too worried about it because of how many cars i see scraping around my town and on other forums that I frequent. Also it is very dangerous modding those knotches. I did not know exactly what you were talking about at first but be careful.

I've seen some pretty aggresive shock angles on alot of bratstyle bikes and I haven't read anything catastrophic happening to these bikes yet. But just to be on the safe side of things, don't get too crazy with it. are you going to stretch your swing arm or are you just lowering the shocks?
 
Also swivel is nothing but damn troll so just disreguard anything and everything you see posted by him. There are others here who can answer your question without douching this forum up in the process.

BTW I'm a car guy too and there is a big difference between bottoming out and scraping on 4 wheels than on 2. Keep it ridable man.

I can't wait to see more pics of the bike though!
 
Are you fucking kidding me! dude i dont care about cars in your town this idea is so bad im siding with swivel. Do you know how big a deal that is!

spring steel is tempered and heating it is changes the characteristics of what loads it will deal with befor failure (coil bind or breaking ). you act like rebel shock cost thousands of dollars, buy them.

Heating a coil will relax and lower the spring just like a 22 short bullet will replace a buss fuse in a car. It will work but it very well may kill ya. Im done tring to save the world do what ya want
 
Back
Top Bottom