Can I upgrade the travel of a rear shock?

nollieman50

Hey! I have a GT Helion Comp bike and the travel is 110mm(4.3") front and rear. The rear shock is an X fusion 02 rl(I read bad reviews on the company and expect it to break later and just have to upgrade anyways. I've been riding some intermediate trails and notice that the travel is lacking on the downhill sections specially on the technical dh sections. I found a new Fox rear shock in the size of 7.25" which converts to 184.15mm and has 1.875" travel. Its pretty cheap considering it has kashima coating, adjustable rebound, and lockout(just needs a remote). It's brand new and it's priced at $175 something that is crazy cheap.

So the question is should I jump on the deal? or will this make my bike's geometry so messed up that it's not enjoyable riding?? Has anyone done this before?? Will it fit? Any feedback would be appreciated Thank you!

rockmonkeysc

If you fit a longer shock your bike will become very twitchy, less stable and ride like a sack of crap. You can fit a better shock which will improve things a bit but it sounds like you have the wrong bike for the job, it's a fairly average cross country bike not designed for aggressive riding on rocky trails.

jimothy78

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19625454#p19625454]nollieman50[/url] wrote:

Hey! I have a GT Helion Comp bike and the travel is 110mm(4.3") front and rear. The rear shock is an X fusion 02 rl(I read bad reviews on the company and expect it to break later and just have to upgrade anyways. I've been riding some intermediate trails and notice that the travel is lacking on the downhill sections specially on the technical dh sections. I found a new Fox rear shock in the size of 7.25" which converts to 184.15mm and has 1.875" travel. Its pretty cheap considering it has kashima coating, adjustable rebound, and lockout(just needs a remote). It's brand new and it's priced at $175 something that is crazy cheap.

So the question is should I jump on the deal? or will this make my bike's geometry so messed up that it's not enjoyable riding?? Has anyone done this before?? Will it fit? Any feedback would be appreciated Thank you!

There's two questions here, really, so lets treat them separately:

1) Can I upgrade the QUALITY of my rear shock?
Yes - a "better" model with the same dimensions (eye-to-eye length and piston travel) should bolt straight in. However, bear in mind that whilst a "better" shock will almost certainly give a smoother response and more control, different compression and rebound "tunes" may change the suspension behaviour in unexpected ways.

2) Can I mess about with the shock's SIZING?
You can, but unless you really know what you're doing you may cause yourself a lot of trouble. You have to consider the the effect of the two variables both individually and together. And consider whether there's anything about the frame itself that interfere with the new range of travel.

For instance:
Shortening the Eye-to-eye length of the shock will be a bit like increasing the sag - the bike will sit back a bit, slackening the head- and seat-angles and dropping the bottom bracket. Lengthening it will have to opposite effect.

Increasing the travel of the shock will increase the travel of the frame, but this may take it beyond safe limits, and there could potentially be nasty effects if the travel means that the frame can make contact with itself, or is forced beyond limits it was designed to stay within. It's worth bearing in mind that to increase travel, you may also have to increase eye-to-eye length at the same time, which may well have a detrimental effect on the geometry as stated above.