Overstroke shock travel...hypothetical of course.

[A06]

Of course doing so would void your warranty but who has dared to try to edge our a few more mm of travel?

My RM Powerplay Altitude came with a Bomber coil shock with a spacer to reduce the travel to 160 vs the shocks full stroke of 170 (on the bike).

The spacer on the bomber disintegrated and I didn't realize it until I had a couple of rides on the bike. It was just a cheesy plastic spacer under the bump stop. Once I realized what happened I inspected everything and it looks good, I even removed the spring and aired down tires to see if there was any potential clearance issues and again everything looks good.

I was planning to swap over the DHX2 from my slayer and had the correct travel reducing spacers so thats what I ultimatly ended up doing but it got me wondering if running the DHX2 without the travel reducing spacers would be ok.

Unofficially my dealer said off the record that most of the guys at the shop run their bikes overstroked but they said be smart and verify theres no chance of clearance issues before doing so.

So what are the thoughts on this from the forum collective? Anyone throw caution to the wind to gain some travel?

 

[Robstyle]

Shit yeah. Make sure nothing hits,( in all geo positions too) good to go. I increased my '22 Powerplay to 65mm stroke, it's absolutely fine.

 

[Doomanic]

Ran my Rail for 2500 miles overstroked with no ill effects.

 

[A06]

Shit yeah. Make sure nothing hits,( in all geo positions too) good to go. I increased my '22 Powerplay to 65mm stroke, it's absolutely fine.

Yeah its only 2.5mm at the shock going from 230x62.5 to 230x65 so it really doesn't seem like much. Ideally since my acoustic Slayer is 170/170 it would be nice if my Altitude were the same vs being 170/160.

 

[Alexbn921]

Most suspension linkage can handle being long shocked. Especially if it has a flip chip. Most are 3mm of stroke length.
For example my Kenevo has a 3mm flip chip. I run it in high with 3.5mm of extra stroke for 190mm of travel. It's still within it's normal range.

Check for tire and linkage clearance when going custom.

 

[A06]

Most suspension linkage can handle being long shocked. Especially if it has a flip chip. Most are 3mm of stroke length.
For example my Kenevo has a 3mm flip chip. I run it in high with 3.5mm of extra stroke for 190mm of travel. It's still within it's normal range.

Check for tire and linkage clearance when going custom.

OK that got my brain spinning a bit. So the RM has two flip chips, the 4 position ride 4 which makes the bike more or less slack on the bottom positions and the top positions which makes the suspension more or less progressive. The other is on the rear axle and changes the wheelbase (chain stay length).

So when increasing shock stroke I assume I would want to run the ride 4 in one of the less slack positions to increase the BB height correct? No idea how the chain stay length play into this but I have only run it in the shorter position so far.

 

[irie]

If all clearance are good then why not?

My '22 alloy rail with all air out of of the 230x57.5 shock still had 25mm clearance so if I wanted to, given the ~2.6:1 ratio the current rear Ohlins TTX22m.2 could be increased to 230x65 by removing the three 2.5mm spacers increasing rear suspension from 150mm to 150+(7.5x2.6) = 169.5mm.

Also have a ZEB A2 160mm which can be changed from 160mm to 180mm.

 

[Robstyle]

OK that got my brain spinning a bit. So the RM has two flip chips, the 4 position ride 4 which makes the bike more or less slack on the bottom positions and the top positions which makes the suspension more or less progressive. The other is on the rear axle and changes the wheelbase (chain stay length).

So when increasing shock stroke I assume I would want to run the ride 4 in one of the less slack positions to increase the BB height correct? No idea how the chain stay length play into this but I have only run it in the shorter position so far.

Nah the geo remains the same as the eye to eye length of the shock remains the same. So no change in Bb if you're using the same ride 4 position.
Pos 4 or the steepest setting gives the most travel though.

 

[A06]

I should be GTG then as I use position 3. Much appreciated!