Catamount, I am a bit confused. You indicate that you got an idea to upgrade your rear suspension from the 'old' forum. To upgrade your bike with a Blaster rear shock was a ten minute process, but required that a special bushing be made to mate the Blaster to the stock mounting bolt (?).
Actually, you're mis-quoting me. I said that the Blaster shock was 'almost' a direct fit. If you read my post, you'll see that I mention having to have a bushing made.
No where did I say that the process was '10 minutes' from start-to-finish. I said that the 'install' took 10 minutes, which it did.
Since we are on the New Forum, I think it important that we restate a few things for newer members. Did others that used the Blaster shock have the same problem you are having? If they did the same install, they certainly had to do something to deal with this issue.
The other forum member who did this mod did not mention running into this.
Maybe the Blaster shock differs from year-to-year, and his was a perfect fit?
Maybe he bolted it up without a bushing and wasn't worried about extra space?
Maybe he forgot to mention it?
If people want to put an ATV shock on a bike, they should have the willingness to adapt to any fitment problems they may or may not run into.
In my opinion, jacking up the rear so much more than the front may not be a plus. I did the Banshee mod and did not have to deal with the r. brake rod at all. This is not to suggest that my (Rodrey's) mod is better than yours, I am just wondering why/if so much more height is a plus (on one end only).
A better rear shock is a BIG plus, and I enjoy mine. I am not so sure about lifting the back 'that much'.
Only time will answer the question of how well it handles. As you can tell, my bike is not road worthy yet.
I consider this an experiment, and one that I can easily reverse.
I'm not exactly sure why you're chiming in only to say that it's probably a bad idea, other than to rain on my parade.
Could you deal with both issues by drilling a new lower mounting hole that would cancel-out some of the lift? Gerry
I suppose one could modify the lower mounting hole if you wanted to lower the bike. I don't.
I'm starting to see what others have mentioned about this forum not being entirely supportive.
By asking a simple question I certainly didn't expect to have to defend certain aspects of
my build.
You'd think the community would embrace a little experimentation, especially when the experiment is on someone else's bike.
This thread makes me want to keep future modifications to myself.