Mountain Bike Suspension Consult needed

My mountain bike is a 2007 Specialized FSR XC Pro - a bike I've had nearly since new and that I love dearly. It just seems to fit my riding style and trails. I'm starting to have some issues with the rear shock, a Fox Triad. The Triad is basically the same as the RP23 from the day, but it is a Specialized-only version with an odd size. It has a an eye to eye length of 7.00" and a stroke of 1.5" I may be able to have it rebuilt if nothing is majorly damaged internally, but it will set me back $150. I've been looking at options for a newer replacement and not finding anything with the same length/stroke. You can find plenty of 6.5x1.5 shocks, but that will make it a low rider.

My question to those of you who work on these things - Fox makes a Float in 7.25x1.75. Assuming I could get the extra .25" of travel in the linkages to get it mounted initially - Could I run a lower pressure so the shock operates .25" lower in it's travel? Since is .25 longer but has .25 more travel, I would end up with the same travel as I have now. Essentially increase my sag by .25" Any idea how this might affect the pedal platform and the compression profile?

It would make the bike taller when getting on, but I could probably get around that.

Yes, if you can fit a slightly longer shock with the same stroke, you're ok. The problem is that the longer stroke might allow the linkage to move past intended stop points. There are ways of limiting shock travel as well.

Shock tuning in a situation like this is very difficult as the frame wasn't designed to work around such a long shock, and typically shock tuning is done by looking at leverage curve and other kinematics that in this case aren't changing, but the length of shock is. Could you guesstimate and make it work? Sure, but you won't have it perfectly tuned for maximum efficiency or performance.

Personally, if I had an older full suspension bike that needed shock work done, I'd be looking at just upgrading the entire frame/shock.

(or getting a hardtail)

Do they even make decent rigid bikes anymore? No? That sucks.

having a front suspension mountain bike.. I would never go back to full rigid. I do not mind the "hard tail" on my Trek.. but the front suspended forks make riding so much nicer

Risse Racing is the go-to place for rear shock repair/replacement/upgrades on no-longer-supported frames, or anything with a hard-to-source dimension or attachment hardware.

http://www.risseracing.com/

Otherwise I would rebuild the existing shock if you can since you like the bike.

Hope that helps in some way!

Wow, yea, Risse would be the way to go if you didn't mind spending some coin on the ol'girl.

Or, get a Surly Instigator 2.0 frame and run the fattest 26" tires you can. I imagine your fork could probably fit 2.6 wide tires and the Instigator can fit a 3.0, that be a pretty soft ride.

Yeah, with an oddly sized proprietary shock like that I'd lean towards getting her rebuilt to be honest.
Also worth looking into would be buying a kit and rebuilding it yourself, might save some scratch going that route.
Both those things being said, with enough monkeying I'd wager you could get the 'wrong' sized shock to work out... though how much money/time you'd save might not be worth the hassle.

mad_machine wrote: having a front suspension mountain bike.. I would never go back to full rigid. I do not mind the "hard tail" on my Trek.. but the front suspended forks make riding so much nicer

Someone had to be "that guy" I've had all three and when riding by myself I'd prefer a rigid but if I had to keep up with people on faster trails/fire road type things then I'd go for my full suspension bike.

I've had no issue with making suspension have more travel than the manufacturer accounted for. This on a URT style rear suspension. On a linkage, as long as nothing binds or can go over-center, I say go for it.

And then there was the time I took a cheapo Showa front shock, put in some long hardware store springs, replaced the throughbolts with a bungee cord from the cable hanger to the handlebar, and turned a 2" travel fork into a 6" travel fork. (This was when a "long travel" "DH" fork had maybe 4") Until the bungee would overstretch so the brake cable would get out of the hanger, which allowed the straddle cable to grab the front tire's tread... Fun times.

Also check out xfusion. They offer a lot of dimensions and styles. I have a vector air on my 2008 big hit and it's like buttah compared to the van-R it came with.

Also, the bushings from the van-R fit the vector perfectly and the OAL and travel were the same. This specific van-R had a different travel length than the standard fox item - kind of the situation you're in.

ECM might be able to answer some questions for you.

I'll say that for those of us who are enthusiast mountain bikers enamored as much with the technology as the excercise, spending much money on an old bike is difficult. There has been such big leaps since 2007 in wheels, tires, suspension, brakes, that even at the low end you can really benefit from that newer technology, even if you're riding a rigid bike.

Specialized are tough when itcomes to proprietary parts and shocks. A friend of mine with an even newer Enduro FSR ended up buying a new bike (Santa Cruz Nomad) because Specialized Customer Service refused to send him replacement parts directly as he's in Ethiopia right now on long term assignment. At least you don't have one of the Brain shocks or you'd really be stuck. Cannondales are even worse.

Anyway, I'd suggest contacting one of the 3rd party rebuild services such as Hippie-Tech to see what they can do for you. You can also go to a dealer and see about getting a replacement shock.

Personally, I'd be hesitant about fitting a longer shock. The shocks are designed to run within fairly specific parameters. Running lower pressure for more sag to keep the geometry correct means it will blow through the travel on just about every impact. Plus, the platform damping will be all sorts of wrong due to being out of the correct sag position.

Engineered obsolescence in full suspension bikes is worse than in cars. Hell, even hardtails are getting tough. Try buying high-end 8 spd (or even 9 spd) drivetrain wear items right now (cassettes mainly). It's brutal.

Knurled wrote: (or getting a hardtail) Do they even make decent rigid bikes anymore? No? That sucks.

I don't know if you see them off the shelf so often but you can certainly build them up that way. I ran into 3 Cat 1/Pro MTB racers on Saturday training on their singlespeeds. 2 were riding fully rigid.

PHeller wrote: I'll say that for those of us who are enthusiast mountain bikers enamored as much with the technology as the excercise, spending much money on an old bike is difficult. There has been such big leaps since 2007 in wheels, tires, suspension, brakes, that even at the low end you can really benefit from that newer technology, even if you're riding a rigid bike.

This was the case even in the mid 90s. By the time you upgrade everything, a new bike with similar components was about the same price.