Extending the stock shock

Ok, ground clearance on a stock SV is poor. There is the shorter dogbone trick, but this is limited.

My track SV has an ohlins rear shock, I can tell you for nothing the biggest difference it makes is in where you can adjust the ride-height!! You really can wind the shock up!! But race shocks are stupidly expensive ... and I am not sure the largest gain is actually in the more controlled damping, just in the ride height ...

So this leads me on ... has anyone actually tried extending a stock SV shock? To my mind making longer fork bottoms seem to be the simplest way?

Hey Blue,

I want to change ride-hight by lifting up my k3 a bit on the rear; don't wanna use shorter dogbones. So because my oem shock is still ok I have been thinking of extending the stock shock too, by exactly same way as you describe. have you gone any further in this? I think best would be to produce a U-piece which goes internally into the U at the stock-shock, and then comes out with same width, extending it by say 20mm, so you can drill holes inthere to fit bottom again.

Nope, never did anything ...

Would you weld or bolt this new for metal bit on?

OEM shock isn't rebuildable, so doing internal work may be a bit of a problem.

Shorter linkages are far cheaper and easier to do.

[yorkie_chris]

How much of a difference in length is needed?
Blue seems to come across as a guy who feels he needs an extra bit of length

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Nope, never did anything ...

Would you weld or bolt this new for metal bit on?

Hmmm both I guess: stick bottom planes of the 2 "U"'s to each other, bolt thru the original hole, & fortify with some weld points. I guess this must be a safe construction for 3-4 years to come?

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

OEM shock isn't rebuildable, so doing internal work may be a bit of a problem.

Shorter linkages are far cheaper and easier to do.

True, but then the swingarm angle gets steeper and the chain uses up the swingarm-protector quicker etc....

[yorkie_chris]

Er? You'll have quite a job on increasing ride height without deflecting the swingarm fella

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

How much of a difference in length is needed?
Blue seems to come across as a guy who feels he needs an extra bit of length

That's a good question.
Since I mounted hyperpro springs to the front I have the impression the bike's front is too high. As I also want to keep some rideheight I prefer to get the rear up too. How much? Not the slightest idea

I'd say what most standard aftermarket shorter dogbones do with a K3+: +25-30mm. Though I'm not sure what this distance means: is it the shock which is "pushed up" by that amount, or is it the very tail (ledlights) of the bike which comes up by that distance?

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

Er? You'll have quite a job on increasing ride height without deflecting the swingarm fella

Is it? I thought simply extending length of the shock doesn't influence swingarm angle a lot, clearly not as much as changing lenght of the dogbones.