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Rear shock length


bikemad's picture

By bikemad - Posted on 28 April 2014

Hi folks,just wandering if ypu can put a slightly longer shock onto the back end of a giant cypher.The shock length (eye to eye)appears to be about 185mm,would a slightly longer shock be ok?Im guessing that it would be slightly more compressed than normal, but should work allright. Im Mr Magoo when it comes to bike tech sadly....

MrMez's picture

Define 'slightly longer'.

I've heard different things. It will raise the rear/bb height. This by itself is not such an issue, but it will change (steepen) your head angle. This will give you sharper steering. People report that this has made their bike too twitchy, and ended up selling the longer shock. Others who have height adjustable forks have had to use them on their tallest setting the whole time.

Running more sag helps this, but also creates problems of its own. More sag is achieved by lower pressure, so the rear may be too soft and will bob when pedalling, and bottom out too easily, especially with a larger volume can.

You can get eccentric shock fitting hardware which has a 1.5mm offset. Im not sure if you can use them on both ends which would effectively allow you to run a 3mm longer shock with no geometry change.

bikemad's picture

being a 7.5 shock instead of the 7.25 it currently has

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