dimwit

hi, dimwit here. I'm trying to figure out what the "best bang for ya buck" shock would be for me. I only ride trails, alot of rutted out and rocky type of stuff, no real techy tight woods, more flat out ridge lines and fire breaks, i spend alot of my time in 4th-5th gear band hoping not to hit a rim buster. I'm not into jumping or mx. I'm too old for that shit (36) and the last 15 years on DH mountain bikes, mainly banshee's, have my ancles and wrists floppy as fuck, if I sneeze without bracing i fall flat on my arse . because of that reason (no jumpijng) i'm thinking I dont need a rezzy shocks, opinions?. even though my standard shocks atm fade with the riding I do, is that cause it's a shit shock in general, or because of heat build up, or emulsion(frothy oil), considering this would rezzies be worth the extra $$$?. I've been looking at banshee shocks for a while, and have found most of my info lurking here, but living in oz this stuff is EXPENSIVE, I will most likely order from the states so I need to get this right as it's roughly 150p+h, so sending them back to get revalved ect would be prohibative to say the least. alot of stuff I see have a pretty broad weight range ie. 110-160lb mx or 130- 200lb rec trails for the one pr shocks. It would seem to be a pretty broad range, is this range all covered with preload? cause the shocks I've been looking at aren't adj comp + rebound. Or is this just ebay marketing, tryin' to flog as many as possible, to people that can't be fucked asking someone that knows? everthing I've learnt about mtn bike shocks tells me that preload can't cover that much weight range. the reason i ask is cause i dont want to cough for adj comp and rebound shocks if I don't have to. I was hoping to get my shock valved for my weight exactly, not a weight range. I've been 190lb for the last 10 years and that aint changing, so why should i bother with adj comp and rebound, it would only be handy for intial setup wouldn't it? once I had my mtn bike shock dialed in i didn't touch it. Am I missing something? only looking at front shocks for now. But are the std rears any good? I see they have adj comp and rebound, what can you do? rebuild revalve ect? or not worth it. I have seen revalve kit's online so if it's a matter of revalving it to my preference, I can do, I think, I don't mind fiddling around. I've done bike ones, 5th element's anyway, no nitrogen in them though. nitrogen charge doable for backyarder? last thing I'm on a fairly strict budget mid 30's=mortgage, ect ,not alone there I know. Not long (2wks) after i bought my shee I barrel rolled it down a hill (steep learning curve + steep hill = carnage) so have been replacing everthing i bent, not planned for upgrade$. So it was stock standard, now has a +2 rear axle and +2 +1 fullflight A-arms (i like hiem joints), it kind of worked out allright cause now I have to get my handling sorted first, rather than just go for bulk power upgrades as per usual. if I could get something that suited me for around $800 that would be good, what should I be looking at? brands? models? sellers? I think for shocks I would like to stick to new or rebuilt to new specs by a repped builder. any feedback is great, steer me in the right direction.

why does it do double tags when I copy and paste from photobucket?

soz I will work out how to get my photos workin. bear with me, Dimwit.

Hi, Dimwit here. I recently bought a s/h 06 shee for $3800, and seem to have fucked it in record time (2 weeks), this is impressive even by my standards. I was going up a fire break in a local pine plantation, it was pretty rutted out, decent sized 8" rocks everywhere, grips, or bars and breaches or whatever you yanks call 'em (i'm an aussie btw). anyway, I've got it pinned and whacked a decent size rock, which flicked me sideways, just before a grip (bout a 2ft high jump), so when I kind of landed, sideways, the shee hooks up and flips me off backward, all this shit was partly due to the twist throttle i was testing out after installing it 10 mins beforehand. So, it does this peiroette type of deal on me, next thing i'm facing downhill riding sidesaddle thinking "fuck, this shit has gone bad". Unfortunately, both my legs were on the gear lever side, until I launched off a grip going downhill, then for a brief moment they were over the bars, then dragging along beside me as the shee was dragging me down the hill flapping in the wind like a ragdoll, only brake i could get to was the front which wasn't that productive as i was rolling the fuckin twist throttle on as i was going for it. I remember thinking " this fuckers in band now, i'm bailing". I got to my feet pretty quickly but there was fuck-all I could do but watch it leave the firebreak i was on and barrel roll off the side, down into a steep gully. probs hit the ground 5 times on way to the bottom,estimate 30 rolls, estimate 15ft high per bounce. I was expecting it to be totaled, I was expecting to see shit flying off it everywhere, but it came out surprisingly well. damage tally: bent upper A-arm bent front rims x 2 bent spindle bent rear axle twisted rear bearing carrier twisted ends on swingarm bent rear subframe bent silencers kind of fucked the rear plastics and both my headlights were hanging out like like eyeballs hanging from optic nerves. On the bright side I took some tools down with me and straightened a s much shit as possible (bars, ect), and shee started first kick, then rode it out on three wheels, one of tyres got tore off. heres some pics of the resting place.. heres some pics of the damage