MOPED ARMY

do you think no so agressive looks better.

the shock will not bend ,

the more extreme the angle the more leverage,hence more compression=more flex.

i like the flex i get from the lower angle but i will need to stiffen the adjustable shocks if i run that angle

i see what your saying " running them all the way at the far extent of their travel will have negative consequences." but am not at full extent whilst i am sitting on the ped,we can feel the springs works just from sitting on her,she is now insync with the front forks.when i bounce up and down on her she flexes nice!

i took her on a test ride and she handles great! the suspension is flexing with the terrain now.i can fly down the back alleys that are nothing but a series of patched potholes ,the difference is dramatic!

with the heavy duty rear shocks in the stock location i had no flex i could push down on the rear shocks as hard as i could and they would more maybe a 1/4 inch now when i just sit on the ped it compresses .

i still have the stock spring mount if i want to adjust my suspension to the terrain.

i like it. i think you wont be able to have children if u keep that seat though

harold who uses seats? when im flying down the back ally im standing on the peddles.lol.....actually the seat is fairly comfy,im going for the bmx mountain bike look and feel.

even off road, stiffer suspension is better, just not as comfortable.. too much bounce, and soft spring is bad

Hard suspension dose not a good setup make.

If this was true all race bikes would be rigid. If you watch a motorcycle race you will see the suspension has a lot of travel and is quite supple. The most important part is the actually body of the motorcycle stays as static to the bumps in the road as possible.

coco I like the second setup you had with the less aggressive angle. I have been working on the same thing with magnum forks on a maxi frame. From what I can tell the reason you are getting a better ride is... For the same movement of the swingarm your shock is compression more than if it was at 90 degrease to the force applied. This extra travel smooths out the ride better than with the stock mount location. Yet since the shock travels more distance it will take longer for the shock to fully rebound (since as far as I know you can;t change the rebound of those shocks). If the shock takes too long to fully rebound then you can load the shock to the point where it bottoms out. Lets say you hit a bump and that compresses the shock 25% by the time you hit the next identical bump your shock has only rebounded 15% so now that it has hit 2 of the same bumps it is now compressed 35%.

I'm not saying that it is an issue it all depends on how good of rebound your shock had to start with.

As for the stress, Since the shock is not being compressed in it's intended direction (vertical) there is load created on one wall of the shock. This will cause more wear than if the shock was loaded in the vertical direction. Since moped shocks rarely go bad I think you will be fine though. The only other place to worry about flexing is where the shock is attached to the frame. I would reinforce that area with a few pieces of plate steel welded on.

Go with what works for you.

This is the angle the shocks are made for

The frame normally bends because of the point where it takes the stress. That point is not meant for that kind of abuse, and thus not reinforced. Welding some extra sheetmetal or a support bar (From the shockmount to the front of the frame IE.) on it should fix the problem.

The stress increases because the shocks are set at a more direct angle, compress more and therefore push out harder. That's because shocks store energy that is released by going over the bump. The more compression, the more energy stored.

That energy goes both ways, it's all a matter of what gives first. Your frame bending, or your swingarm going back to the original position. So if you go over a couple of bumps hard, chances are that the frame will bend because the shocks can't release the energy to the swingarm.

For a small demonstration: Try compressing a little spring between your fingers, you'll notice that the pressure is equal at both sides.

I just saw you have a support bar. Try making the shockmounts exactly inline with the bar, and you should be fine.

Way cool set up.

I think you are better to have the shock mounted closer to original orientation which is 70 degree from the plane of shock mount through swing arm fulcrum. Looks like in the first picky you have 35degrees the second with 40 degrees.

To see the difference in the loading on the shock use this formula

a^2 = b^2 + c^2 - 2(bc(cos a))

a is the length of the shock

b is a line drawn from the lower shock mount to the fulcrum

c is a line from the top mount to the fulcrum

if you do the math you see the more you lay the shock down the less effective it is as a damper and spring.

I would suggest that if you want to lower the moped to remove one or two turns from the bottom of the spring.

The bottom have the softer bearing of the progressive loading and would help stop wheel hop.

Just a thought.

whatever you decide, clean up that wiring!

ooo just get some of that car harness cover with the split in it so you can still do developing and be able to hang the harness nice and clean out of the way.

sorry but dangly random wires is turning the project from HOT to NOT visually, just my humble unsolicited opinion.

physics and geometry of the original set up would surely snap in half ,i ride um hard.

as it is now the shocks absorb the terrain .it use to be the frame and my body took the brunt of it all.

i dont know a whole lot about physics but i do know this Pinto rides like a dream!

now i just need to clean up the wires,make frame fuel cell,add disc breaks...........etc.