shocks

[Happy Eeyore]

Does anyone know the length of standard rear shocks center line to center line of top and bottom mounting bolts?  What is the longest people have done?  Any in excess of 325mm?

[Barry]

Standard shock for type 248 R45/R65 is 325mm 

Other contemporary type 247 Airheads e.g. /7 are 340mm

[Happy Eeyore]

Thanks Barry.   Do you think a 340 would work or would that make the drive shaft in more of a rotational bind.  My uninformed opinion is that a 340 should work just fine but I am often wrong, particularly about stock market movements.

[dogshome]

Are you taking the R65/45 offroad? I'm 6'3" and far too fat. I very rarely have an issue with bottoming the shocks, and never an issue with clearence, Clarence, on road. The driveshaft will probably take it (like GS models do), but why?

[Happy Eeyore]

Dog   I live in the north Georgia mountains  and we have lots of gravel roads. During heavy rains the gravel gets pushed off and there are deep ruts formed.  I do not like to drag.  I do not use the R65 on single track trails and have a Yamaha xt250 that I ride on a lot of rough stuff.  But the R65 now has about 4.5 inches of clearance which is very low and I have Hagon shocks ordered to replace the brick like, too short shocks now on the bike.  The R65 currently rides as hard as a Morgan Plus 4 which has about as much spring action as a skate board. It sits so low I find it impossible to put it on the center stand.  Gotta fix that problem.

I also have an old basement find 1995 R1100GS which I have brought back to life if I want to get the speed up a little. That bike has great clearance.  It also does not have the ABS mess and was made without ABS.   This is my 3rd R1100 and I have been able to get the Montronic fuel injection system to work pretty good.  The problems with that system is that the Hall wire insulation  simply rots and the electrons wander around on their own. 

The R65 is running pretty good now with the Seibenrock pistons and jugs and rebuilt heads.   

[Barry]

Thanks Barry.   Do you think a 340 would work or would that make the drive shaft in more of a rotational bind.  My uninformed opinion is that a 340 should work just fine but I am often wrong, particularly about stock market movements.

I haven't tried the longer shocks but I do find the bike feels a little cramped so I prefer to run the stock ones on the middle pre-load setting even solo and I weigh next to nothing.  The preload adjustment easily raises the ride height by that 15mm difference in shock length.

The other variable though is the spring rate which may be different for the 325mm and 340mm  shocks.  Stock 325mm shock springs are dual rate at approx. 105/145 lbs/in