Rear shock mounted upside down???

[j_freak]

I was cleaning the air filters for the first time today on my new 1983 RM250 and when I took the side plastic off I noticed that the airbox cover had part of it cut off. I realized that this was so the shock resevour would fit. I figured that that meant that someone had put a different year shock on the bike. So I looked at the schematic on bikebandit.com, and realized that they showed the adjuster nuts as being on the bottom instead of the top. So I went out and looked at the bike, and sure enough, the shock is mounted upside down. (Shows how observant I am...)

Anyways, why would anyone mount the shock upside down? What benefits/problems may result from this?

 

[NO HAND]

From a performance point of view, I don't see it could make any difference. I see a few snowmobile companies switching every year; chrome side up one year, chrome side down next year etc. The only concern I would see in changing the shock position is perhaps to reduce some movement to the flex hose that links the reservoir to the shock body. The reservoir is mounted on the frame while the other end of the hose is constantly moving. I believe on this bike model you have a lever that pushes on top of the shock. So, the shock is pushed at both ends. Perhaps the end that sees the less movement might be the swingarm and it is the reason Suzuki choose the attache the shock body to the swingarm.

 

[j_freak]

Ok, pulled the seat/fender off to get a real good look, and turns out that this is not the stock shock. The stock shock had a hose that goes to a resivour mounted on the frame. The shock that is on the bike has the resivour as part of the shock body (ie it is one piece) The shock is upside down because it would not have fit the other way. Now the question is, what shock is this? The only markings on it are to show which way to turn one of the adjusters for harder or softer settings. I'll see if I can take a picture of it tomorrow.

 

[j_freak]

I believe I have solved the mystery. The shock is either an 88 or 89 rm250 shock (or maybe a few years newer than that, I had to stop looking at the microfiche on bikebandit because I'm supposed to be writing an english essay)

You can see a rather poor scan of it at http://houseofmotorcycles.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/assets/schematics/Suzuki/s5_0082K06.gif