SteveinSpringHill
Member
- Jul 4, 2006
- 117
- 0
Do not purchase this linkage setup ($225) and expect it to work with any shock you might have. It probably doubles the leverage ratio and will way overwork any conventional shock setup you might have. My boy is 60lbs on a good day and we run a Works Performance shock with a 60-80lb spring on it. Right off the bat I knew something was way different the bike sat about 4 inches "lower" due to extreme sag. It was hard enough trying to get the sag right with this heavier spring. Now I had to put almost 6 turns in it to bring it back close. The shock was sitting half compressed at static and I knew this wouldn't work.
So after jacking the spring to get the height right we went to the track. Before with the heavier spring I had to back the compression down to 2 clicks from bottom to keep it from being too harsh on the landings. Now this thing would bottom out at the slightest bump in the track. So long story short I had to put the compression all the way in to keep it from bottoming. So this left me with an unworkable combination IMHO. So it was time to check into reworking the shock to handle all this additonal leverage the linkage was putting to it. Called Works Performance since it was their shock, at first they really hadn't heard of this linkage setup and didn't know where to start on a revalve setup. After a lengthy conversation on what the bike was doing they felt like they had some ideas and cost was around $175 to redo the shock with a heavier spring and revalve. Being they had never come across this setup I was still a little skeptical on whether they could straighten this out. So I called R&D since he does mention a "shock mod" when running the linkage. Asked him what it would take to get it right and he said send him my stock kx65 shock and $500 and he'd fix it!!
I just wanted to inform any other mini dad's who might be looking for an edge in rear suspension setup to beware of the can of worms you're getting into running this setup.
Right now I've pulled the linkage off and back to stock with the Works shock and am having my local Kawasaki shop try and rework a stock shock to handle the linkage setup.
With the linkage and works shock maxed out the ride was way plusher everywhere (from stock with works shock) until he hit some sharp edge bumps or harder landings off jumps then it bottomed and upset him a bit on the bike.
If I would have known this is what the linkage was going to do I could have ordered the Works Shock with the compression bumped up and a much heavier spring and not have to spend an additional $175.
So there it is a lesson learned and maybe some help for the next mini dad who might try changing the rear suspension setup on a kx65.
Later...........
So after jacking the spring to get the height right we went to the track. Before with the heavier spring I had to back the compression down to 2 clicks from bottom to keep it from being too harsh on the landings. Now this thing would bottom out at the slightest bump in the track. So long story short I had to put the compression all the way in to keep it from bottoming. So this left me with an unworkable combination IMHO. So it was time to check into reworking the shock to handle all this additonal leverage the linkage was putting to it. Called Works Performance since it was their shock, at first they really hadn't heard of this linkage setup and didn't know where to start on a revalve setup. After a lengthy conversation on what the bike was doing they felt like they had some ideas and cost was around $175 to redo the shock with a heavier spring and revalve. Being they had never come across this setup I was still a little skeptical on whether they could straighten this out. So I called R&D since he does mention a "shock mod" when running the linkage. Asked him what it would take to get it right and he said send him my stock kx65 shock and $500 and he'd fix it!!
I just wanted to inform any other mini dad's who might be looking for an edge in rear suspension setup to beware of the can of worms you're getting into running this setup.
Right now I've pulled the linkage off and back to stock with the Works shock and am having my local Kawasaki shop try and rework a stock shock to handle the linkage setup.
With the linkage and works shock maxed out the ride was way plusher everywhere (from stock with works shock) until he hit some sharp edge bumps or harder landings off jumps then it bottomed and upset him a bit on the bike.
If I would have known this is what the linkage was going to do I could have ordered the Works Shock with the compression bumped up and a much heavier spring and not have to spend an additional $175.
So there it is a lesson learned and maybe some help for the next mini dad who might try changing the rear suspension setup on a kx65.
Later...........
