GT LTS shock options...

[Ren Rawbor]

OK, so. For his birthday today our lad has picked up his own LTS (pics hopefully to follow in possibly build/repair thread) and it came with a spare Super Deluxe amongst other bits. The damping is completely non-existent on that & the Coupe Deluxe on my own LTS2000 DS is also slowly puking it's lifeblood over the bump stop which has got me thinking/wondering & searching.

Ideally I'll strip the Super & see about finding/replacing seals etc, get that working and then have at my Coupe, but these are notoriously crappy unreliable shocks in the first place so here's what I'm wondering. Given that we tend to ride our bikes (shock horror!) and originality isn't as much an issue as reliability/performance, are there any other shocks out there that would/could be made to fit and maybe offer a little more than the 25+ year old originals?

We do love our bikes & not really looking to modify the linkages in a way that can't be reverted but if there's anything out there with similar/slightly longer stroke and that'll thread into the trunnions would love to hear it. (I have been eyeing up the Vanilla RC on the missus' bike but looks like the reservoir would interfere with the trunnion &/or force a sky-high BB height, not to mention it's a bit on the strokey side)

On the off chance, hope to hear any suggestions. Either way I'll be making a decent effort to sort the old units out

 

[ishaw]

I've had a couple of sts builds and like you, wanted to improve the rear shock.

Options are limited, here's what I found.

Risse. They do options that will fit. They are expensive and you'll likely be stung for import duty from the USA unless you can find someone more local with one to sell.

Fox. I had a trunnion fox rl iirc they was designed to fit the lts/sts with a trunnion specific to the shock, not the standard one which is too narrow, and not enough meat to bore out and tap a new thread to fit.

Cannondale Jekyl fox shock and trunnion. This won't fit directly, but I had someone modify it for me to fit. In theory it's something you could do yourself. The Jekyl trunnion is very marginally wider than the rear linkage, so requires a little bit of shaving. Then there the bolts that fit in the travel chips. On the Jekyl trunnion, they unscrew and are too wide to fit in the travel chip holes. The solution for me was custom bolts, but I reckon you could turn down a brake boss (M10 I think), creating the nub that fits in the travel chip, and the thread for a brake bolt to screw it all together. I wish I had pics of it but sadly I don't.

The air shock really improved the ride, as did a complete bearing replacement instead of the bushings, which while they did a good job, did creak a bit, the bearings were so smooth and creak free. You can get kits from betd.

 

[Ren Rawbor]

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated. I was wondering about making some custom-bastardisation of the flip chips to further increase travel potentially too, ever heard of that being done? (seems the frame/linkage has scope for it & the fork on the lad's new one is something silly like 180mm so maybe something to try)

We managed to snag a NOS genuine rebuild kit, some possibly good used bits & a partial bearing conversion kit (looks like top & bottom mains and part of the linkage kit) from ebay last night for £30 as the new bike has rear-steer ability currently, so hopefully there'll be enough parts there to make his work properly & maybe strip/pick n mix parts to make mine a bit less stiction-y while we're about it. Will definitely be looking to go to bearings eventually though, but I think we should be able to make this supply of bushing parts work for a couple of years at least so plenty of time to save up for the parts

Appreciate the pointers, so pretty much we're into custom work, that suits my reddest of necks perfectly Will be experimenting and trial/error-ing just like BITD

I take it nobody really bothers attempting home rebuilds of the Coupe/super Deluxe units? Not that there's likely to be any parts available but the glide rings seem fine in the (devoid of any oil save for a drip) Super when I opened that up so maybe I'll be able to find something to cobble the seal head up & should certainly be capable of putting a couple of hundred PSI in it through a needle, so still going to give it a good ol' college try

 

[Ren Rawbor]

Well initial signs are promising for the Super Deluxe. Just completed a quick n dirty rebuild of the shock, didn't mess with the gas side but gave it an otherwise full strip and clean, seal head was actually pretty reasonable shape and seal felt a decent fit on the shaft so I threw it back together with some fresh 7.5W oil (only thing to hand, and roughly in between the 5W and 15W weights I've read for these shocks) and so far it seems to be holding reasonably, no huge pee stains yet & damping/adjustment is well and truly back in the house.

Will swap this into my bike and see if the Coupe is a serviceable one as I've read some of them have the seal head one-time pressed into the body, and if Mr Super holds oil I'll grab some better oil, couple of hypodermics and bastardise an old tyre valve onto them and give it a second do-over. Honestly never been into a rear shock before but it's pretty darn simple & even if it needs a top-up every couple of months it beats pogo-mode