Oz rear shock length

[Dennis]

oops, I think I ordered the wrong length Fox Talas R rear shock for my Oz.
can someone please tell me what the correct length and travel should be?
thanks.
[smiley=groucho.gif]

[kiwi]

8 1/4 i beleive with about 2 in travel???

[Oz-SUB]

I go with OP here.  Thers is a lot of tosh written about how a bit more or less length on F or R shocks changes the way a bike feels.

The XLink fork was definately way too low, and if anyone has fitted a longer travel fork the front end will be pushed up quite a bit, which means you want to go with a longer stroke shock at the rear to compensate.  So I'd recommend not going for anything less than the NR-2 stock length of 209mm.

After taking advice from OP, I put a 8.75" i2i Fox Van RC on the rear with 2½" stroke, which is really the max you can get away with, provides 6½" travel.  I had to file a small section from the swingarm shock bracket so the Van would not interfere on compression.

I notice no change in handling, if anything the bike inspires confidence to go harder/faster.

A good compronise would be a 8½" i2i with a 2" stroke, this would give 5.25" travel, to match a 125 mm Psylo or Float.

[Matno]

I don't have any experience with the X-link forks, but few forks are any taller than the Chubbie's that came on some of the original EVO's like mine (1998). Personally, I don't think a bike could be better balanced than mine is (for me at least) with its 4" X-vert and 5.7" Stratos (actually, I'm not convinced that I get that much travel in the rear, but I never put an O-ring on there to check and a zip tie won't fit). I'm more of a technical trail rider than a downhiller or XC racer, but for me the combo works perfectly. I tried a Psylo recently (see my previous post regarding the Trek Liquid) and it felt best in the 4" position. 5" was just a little too tall (except on the rough downhill sections of course). With 4" I can climb without lifting the front end off the ground but still feel confident on the downhills.

As for rear shock length, mine's 7.875" and it works beautifully. Honestly I don't really notice a difference in geometry between that and my Astro 5 or my old Smart Shocks (all 8.25"). I'll bet the 8.5" Fox Vanillas are also close enough to not make much of a difference (and they're easy to find and usually relatively cheap compared to a Stratos). On top of that, they have more travel, which would allow you to ride with more sag and still get the same overall height anyway...

[Simon]

Standard length i to i 209mm with 1.5" stroke.Simon

[Carbon_Angus]

oops, I think I ordered the wrong length Fox Talas R rear shock for my Oz.
can someone please tell me what the correct length and travel should be?
thanks.
[smiley=groucho.gif]

Dennis, just a question, why not the new Swinger Air 3way

[Dennis]

ok, so it seems the stock shock length is 8.25 inches (209mm).
What is the stock travel? is it 1.5 or 2 inches? or some other number.
why no swinger? well, I like the ability to adjust travel with the TALAS system (it works great on my TALAS fork), it matches the fork, and I like the quality of Fox products.  plus, the new shocks have what the call pro pedal technology which is supposed to reduce bob, and the reviews have said that it works as advertised.
thanks again for the info,guys.
[smiley=groucho.gif]

[Simon]

Just measurered the stroke of an Nr2 off an Oz and an Nr4 of a 4500 they both stroked at 1.5" without fully compressing the bump stop but it seemed to be as far as they'ed go.Simon  

[Old Proflexer]

the 98 model with a listed 4" of travel had a shock with 38 mm of travel (1.5") and the 99's with 4.7" of travel had the "long travel" version of the shock at 48 mm travel (1 7/8")

to the best of my notes from conversations with the guys in the tech department

OP