Jeremy or other more knowledgeable person than myself please feel free to correct any of my mis-thinking, it has been a long time since i have read up on suspension setup, although i did have a good discussion about subtanks a few months ago...
I have been thinking a lot lately about the effects of changing the legnth of the links will have on the handling, and more importantly any adverse effects that might have on making the rate either too progressive, or not progressive enough. The idea was to machine new dogbones that would raise the rear of the bike for better cornering, but what effect would this have on the progressivity (I think that's a new word) of the linkage. It seems like every "works" bike that a magazine tests has some custom shock linkage that makes the suspension have a more progressive rate. Is it possible to make a linkage that raises the overall height of the rear but keeps the rate the same? I remember a company that was recently selling dogbones that were intended to raise the rear on the (i think it was 2003) yzf and crf's too make them turn quicker. I have access to appropriate materieals and tools to make new links, so that is not a real concern of mine. It would be rather dangerous if a shock linkage broke on the landing of a big jump. Another question: since a linkage such as this would raise the rear of the bike when the suspention is in basically an unloaded state, the rear would also be that much higher when the suspension is bottoming too, right? I think that i now need to go out to the garage and rip that linkage apart to get a little bit better understanding of what exactally it is that i want to be changing to achieve my goal. So, supension guru's what changes should i make to the linkage if i want to do this? I have plenty of material, so i can do some testing on various dogbone legnths, unless it is already known what the effects will be.
BTW. The bike that is in question to be modified is a 2002 yz426.