Help: Oz shock fitting question... URGENT

[Carbon_Kiwi]

hey guys,
have a custom fox rp3 ready 2 fit 2 my oz. thing is the guys at the bike shop reckon i'd be better off modding the carbon plate rather than the swingarm mount.
any thoughts? anyone done anything like this?
would make sense - as far as the pro-pedal lever being up top, rather than at the bottom...
this is gonna happen tomorrow [one way or another] so you're feedback would be really sweet
they seem pretty confident that the structural element will not be affected.

[shovelon]

So what is happening exactly? I reckon that the body is too fat to reach the holes.

Personally I would rather modify the shock than the bike.

Is it an air shock?

Terry

[Kevins19]

You are refering to the two carbon plates bonded to the frame for the sock mount right? I would NOT modify the carbon platew in any way. Anything you change on the carbon portion of the farme can severely comprimise its structural integrety. Even the swingarm shock mount should be left intact as much as possible. The most I would say you should do is I have seen people make tiny notches (.125" or so for shock clearence) Normal shocks can be placed any dirrection... i.e. resivour / levers can be either up top or at the bottom without any problems. I assume the Pro-Pedal air shocks are the same?? (Can someone verify this)

Why exactly do you need to modify anything? We would need to know to accurately help you. Are the fox pivot spacers wrong? If I were you would modify the pivot spacers that come with the shock.. If they are too wide grind them down... too small, add washers / make or get wider ones.

[Carbon_Kiwi]

yes - it is the carbon plate i'm referring to.
it needs to be modified to get it to fit. either the plate on the swingarm or the carbon plate.
can't say i'm too keen on the carbon plate idea either. i'm about to head down to take a look at things myself. either way, it would not take much to get it to fit. many people have indeed taken a couple of notches out of the swingarm plate to get the newer shocks to fit - without any ill effects, so i'm more inclined to go this way.
will keep you informed...

[Matno]

thing is the guys at the bike shop reckon i'd be better off modding the carbon plate rather than the swingarm mount.
any thoughts? anyone done anything like this?

Thing is, the guys at the shop are probably totally unfamiliar with the Oz frame. I know my LBS that carried them knew next to nothing about them.

I'd be willing to bet that more than a dozen regular posters on this forum have made mods to the swingarm end of things with zero failures. A couple have successfully modified the aluminum frames (which is really scary to me since there are gaping holes around the mounting hole on the aluminum frames...) Don't know of anyone who has modified the carbon plates, so unless you want to be the first to try it, I wouldn't recommend that route. On the other hand, the mounting hole is not nearly so recessed on the carbon plates as it is on the aluminum ones. (Several shocks fit the carbon frames without modification that won't even come close to fitting on the aluminum frames).

The downside to changing the swingarm end of things is that the shocks look cooler mounted with the shock body up (purely my opinion). Functionally, I don't think it matters one bit.

Good luck! Be sure to post detailed pictures!  

[jazclrint]

Hey what ever happened?  I wish I had been paying attention.  I make a really light weight adapter that required no mods to my Float or the frame, and made the lock out lever easier to get to.  Look at my pics.  Man I wish I had been paying attention.  How was your R3 custom?

[jazclrint]

Hey what ever happened?  I wish I had been paying attention.  I make a really light weight adapter that required no mods to my Float or the frame, and made the lock out lever easier to get to.  Look at my pics.  Man I wish I had been paying attention.  How was your R3 custom?

[Old Proflexer]

go slow
take your time
make the right decision

check out some pics in my gallery -

notched the metal base plate on the swingarm to fit a few shocks and havent' had any problems ever.
http://idriders.com/cgi-bin/album_k2.pl?photo=Old_Proflexer/IMG_0012.JPG

don't touch the side plates - mount the shock upside down if you have to.

OP

[shovelon]

Hey OP,

How's that 5th been treating you. And I don't mean the Jack Daniels.

I've been bouncing back and forth between my 2 inch stroke air, and 2.5 inch stroke coil swinger. Each has advantages.

I would race with the air shock, and freeride with the coil shock.

Terry