Long travel extended swing arm

[Larry's Shee]

Looking for any input from any that have done this. Have searched all threads on this. Read Phragles how to caculate it, YZ OTIS, and TATER. If you have done this what would you do different next time? I do like Otis' "adjustable" lower mount. Any help (and opinions) are most welcome. Who has actually done this/ or bought a LT extended swing arm??

One other thing, why does nobody set the 400ex shock up with the lower brg/bushing like stock (minus linkage obviously), other than it wouldn't be as easy plug and play?:-/

BTW any pics would be great I:I

 

[blasterdemon7]

Looking for any input from any that have done this. Have searched all threads on this. Read Phragles how to caculate it, YZ OTIS, and TATER. If you have done this what would you do different next time? I do like Otis' "adjustable" lower mount. Any help (and opinions) are most welcome. Who has actually done this/ or bought a LT extended swing arm??

One other thing, why does nobody set the 400ex shock up with the lower brg/bushing like stock (minus linkage obviously), other than it wouldn't be as easy plug and play?:-/

BTW any pics would be great I:I

I have plans on doing the lower bearing setup. I already have the new lower bearing. Just have to take the time to get it done.

 

[Larry's Shee]

Forgot about you D7. Search linced me to page 35 of your build and I read all the way to the end and never saw anthing else. Shouldn't be to hard. What brg kit did you get? Did you actually do LT?

 

[StrokedTater244]

Looking for any input from any that have done this. Have searched all threads on this. Read Phragles how to caculate it, YZ OTIS, and TATER. If you have done this what would you do different next time? I do like Otis' "adjustable" lower mount. Any help (and opinions) are most welcome. Who has actually done this/ or bought a LT extended swing arm??

One other thing, why does nobody set the 400ex shock up with the lower brg/bushing like stock (minus linkage obviously), other than it wouldn't be as easy plug and play?:-/

BTW any pics would be great I:I

i set mine up with a lower bushing. im running bushings on mine and i also set up whitty's like that. i would do nothing different, they work fine. i think the pics i already have up give a good idea of what needs done to make it happen.

 

[YZ Otis]

One other thing, why does nobody set the 400ex shock up with the lower brg/bushing like stock (minus linkage obviously), other than it wouldn't be as easy plug and play?:-/

BTW any pics would be great I:I

You already answered the bearing/bushing thing Same goes for the swing arm, it's not as easy as it sounds and most peeps don't want to bother with it. I have the arm I modded on our guest Blaster. I'm building another one for the YZ Blaster with a round house carrier and I'll do the mount pretty much same way. I like it, although I've only played with it in the long travel position.. I worked on the spring till I got around 1.5" of sag with just the weight of the bike and 5" with a rider. That way the tires try to stay on the ground when the bike rises but there's a full travel of shock when the bike lands from a jump. The bike sits a little lower than stock with a rider on it. I've got the spring where the preload adjustment actually works, not just backed all the way off and live with it. I believe this setup puts less stress on the rider and bike components.
You won't get much feedback on this cuz common practice is to spend a buncha money on a great shock & put it on the stock mount location. It can also be a long process to dial something in when there's no history. I kinda like makin changes and watchin results.
I ain't a racer or a builder or a brainieack, I'm just an old man so my opinion ain't worth much more than a cold beer ... burp

 

[blasterdemon7]

Forgot about you D7. Search linced me to page 35 of your build and I read all the way to the end and never saw anthing else. Shouldn't be to hard. What brg kit did you get? Did you actually do LT?

Never got started on it but will start working on my list of ideas in the spring. I have some custom stuff to make.

 

[blasterdemon7]

You already answered the bearing/bushing thing Same goes for the swing arm, it's not as easy as it sounds and most peeps don't want to bother with it. I have the arm I modded on our guest Blaster. I'm building another one for the YZ Blaster with a round house carrier and I'll do the mount pretty much same way. I like it, although I've only played with it in the long travel position.. I worked on the spring till I got around 1.5" of sag with just the weight of the bike and 5" with a rider. That way the tires try to stay on the ground when the bike rises but there's a full travel of shock when the bike lands from a jump. The bike sits a little lower than stock with a rider on it. I've got the spring where the preload adjustment actually works, not just backed all the way off and live with it. I believe this setup puts less stress on the rider and bike components.
You won't get much feedback on this cuz common practice is to spend a buncha money on a great shock & put it on the stock mount location. It can also be a long process to dial something in when there's no history. I kinda like makin changes and watchin results.
I ain't a racer or a builder or a brainieack, I'm just an old man so my opinion ain't worth much more than a cold beer ... burp

Your input is well valued by many.

 

[Larry's Shee]

Dang Otis, you make me feel young. You got a couple years on me, and I do mean ONLY a couple .

Do you feel it's worth the effort to use the stock linkage bearing, or just some bushings?

On your "Wacky Otis Mounts" , was there some other motive behind them? They looked awful pretty for just goofing around. Possibly to test shock angles? I:I I just gotsta know??:-/

As to uncharted territory , my friend and I built a sno-mo powered motorcycle for drag. Sorting the clutches out was a nightmare.

In this new age of I want it and I want it NOW here is the linc http://www.blasterforum.com/suspension-130/another-homemade-swingarm-24993/ , enjoyI:I

12-24-11 added this http://www.blasterforum.com/do-yourself-20/suspension-geometry-101-a-11155/

 

[YZ Otis]

Aaaaaahahaha, Larry's Shee is 58 ... no wonder you're lookin for a softer ride ... Yeow!
I made a batch of simple delrin bushings, just change'm out when they wear. Same thing with my a-arm bushings, make a bunch & change'm often. I'll do the same with cheap replaceable tie rod heims. I needed tie rod ends that could take more angle. Don't care about the wear argument, just replace'm at $4 a pop Keep it simple & call it maintenance.
As I stated in that thread, the optimum mount location for a +4 arm with the travel I wanted was right along the bottom edge of the arm tube. You would have to move that location down & forward to use simple weld on tabs and be able to get the mount bolt in and that was a compromise I didn't want to make. That's how it was for me anyway, Might be different for other setups.
The wacky mount was to test different shocks & angles. I had 3 lower shock mount locations on a set of a-arms to complicate things. Also wanted to tweak peeps into going, Hmmmmm. Playing with the wacky mount resulted in a completely different front suspension geometry for the YZ Blaster. Now that's been an entertaining can of worms ... LOL

 

[Larry's Shee]

Worst thing is I won't be 58 end of next month .

Funny thing about the a arms is I had the same thought, was thinking of a DIMWIT arm extension and because I'm no rocket mechanic or mathmajiction I'll need wiggle room. Maybe adjustable upper mounts simular to an RC truck bulkhead.

Thank you for your input. Got all winter to work on it. I:I

 

[Larry's Shee]

Glad to see this is getting lots of traffic. Might be a little while before I actually get to it. Worse thing is that I switch between 20s and 22s.

Edit: Also I will be doing the inner sleeve splice style. Don't know if I'll add extra material to make it smooth.

 

[StrokedTater244]

Glad to see this is getting lots of traffic. Might be a little while before I actually get to it. Worse thing is that I switch between 20s and 22s.

Edit: Also I will be doing the inner sleeve splice style. Don't know if I'll add extra material to make it smooth.

i always drill some 3/8" holes and plug weld that inner sleeeve. probably not actually needed, just how i have always done them. never had a broken one.

 

[Larry's Shee]

Most excellant suggestion for all that are following. What Tatter is refering to is if your sleeve sticks in say 3", you would drill a hole about 2 1/2" in thru stock arm and do a plug weld to the sleeve.

 

[StrokedTater244]

Most excellant suggestion for all that are following. What Tatter is refering to is if your sleeve sticks in say 3", you would drill a hole about 2 1/2" in thru stock arm and do a plug weld to the sleeve.

well Larry i always just go in at least an inch. but i also then add metal over the sleeve for extra strength and the same OD as stock to smooth the tube down to look stock. but if you are sleeving only i would go into each stock tube around 2".