Can I fit a longer air shock to my Marin shoreline trail?

[bony999]

Hello All

I am re building a Marin shoreline trail circa 1997 that came with a coil over Shock works shock. 165 mm eye to eye and 40 ish mm stroke. I was thinking of getting a 200 mm air shock to replace it and wondered if anyone else had done similar? I think it will fit but I will treble check first obviously.

I am assuming that provided it does not foul on any of the framework and that it does not extend as far out as it would normally then all I will loose is some of the compression stroke. I realise it may mean the frame and rear triangle are at the closest they can be with the weight off the bike but I could fit a bump stop against the frame where they would meet if the bike was lifted. I would also need to have the shock pressure adjusted for sag with me on it but I assume this would not effect the setup too adversely only possibly reducing the shock pressure required to account for the piston position needing to be a bit more compressed with me on the bike.

I realise that fitting to longer coil over is more of an issue due to the extended length of the shock with the spring extending it anyway but wondered if an air shock was less of an issue. If anyone has done similar could you please let me know if it caused any major problems please

regards

Bony

 

[mattr]

It'll almost certainly be a disaster.
Try and find a shock of broadly similar dimensions
165x38 is probably what you have today, and still widely available at many price points
205x60 (i think) is what you want to fit.
Its completely the wrong stroke and length, worst case you'll break the frame, best case it'll be a nasty, unrideable pogostick. which will bottom out half way through the suspensions travel.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

As has already been said, don't do it.
Why would you want to fit a longer airshock that in order to fit it you need to restrict it to the i2i and travel dimensions of the 165x38mm original shock? 200mm minus 165mm will probably leave you with 20 to 30mm stroke as it will be compressed about half it's travel to fit in. Why?
What would you gain? As it is originally, there is approx 5 to 6mm between end of shock and seat-tube, putting a bump stop in there will do nothing to mitigate the impact of shock hitting seat-tube as it would have to be hard enough not to be compressed to nothing when you only have such a small thickness to work with. Just get the correct shock instead.

 

[bony999]

Hello
thanks for the responses. I made a mistake on the size of the shock on my frame. It came with a shock works 185 mm eye to eye shock that currently works fine. The though was to get something similar or a bit longer with a view to getting a slightly longer stroke. I realise a 200 as a replacement for a 165 was a bit big and can see how it may do some damage etc. I did read an article about someone who changed the shock length and it made the bike suspension much smoother but I can't for the life of me find it again. I was just fishing to see if anyone had altered their shocks and if they had made the bike suspension work better?

 

[hahncycles]

Hello
thanks for the responses. I made a mistake on the size of the shock on my frame. It came with a shock works 185 mm eye to eye shock that currently works fine. The though was to get something similar or a bit longer with a view to getting a slightly longer stroke. I realise a 200 as a replacement for a 165 was a bit big and can see how it may do some damage etc. I did read an article about someone who changed the shock length and it made the bike suspension much smoother but I can't for the life of me find it again. I was just fishing to see if anyone had altered their shocks and if they had made the bike suspension work better?

Hi, I just picked up a Shoreline trail similar to yours. What rear shock did you end up replacing the stock one with? Thanks