R1/R6 shocks

[Syconate]

Hi.

 

Racing on a budget and wanting to lower and stiffen the front of the shee. I've read about guys using R6 shocks on the front. The shock eye to eye are approx 11.8 inches so it should be almost 3 inches lower.

 

I've acquired 2 R1 shocks and will be fitting them up tomorrow. Any suggestions or feedback on how this may work?

[shawnsadler]

They won't clear the headlight brackets so u have to modify the mount a lil. I used my dremel on the first banshee. This second banshee i bought a kit on eBay for shock widening/conversion brackets. I haven't got to ride with it yet but initial setup seems like I may hit the resi on the upper arm under full compression. Long story short they work well without the headlight brackets and a lil trim on the upper shock mount.

[Syconate]

Installed today and I achieved my objective of lowering the front but due to the stiffness it has become very flighty and I spun it a few times. I was only in a paddock so I'm hoping to give it a proper test at our next practice day.

[Syconate]

Quick update...

 

First race meet with the new shocks and the quad performed fantastic. Really stiff and stable.

 

Two firsts and two seconds in the heats but after running second in the final I ran wide and finished 4th.

[Glenyboy]

I bolted my r6sl fronts on the other day, just getting the bushes sorted out for the rear.

 

 

How did you find the stiffness of them?

[Syconate]

Really stiff. I can stand on a arms and compress them only an inch or so.

 

I was really concerned they would be really harsh but they stiffened the chassis roll without making it too rough.

[Deadbeat]

Quick update...

 

First race meet with the new shocks and the quad performed fantastic. Really stiff and stable.

 

Two firsts and two seconds in the heats but after running second in the final I ran wide and finished 4th.

cool shit

[Glenyboy]

Really stiff. I can stand on a arms and compress them only an inch or so.

 

I was really concerned they would be really harsh but they stiffened the chassis roll without making it too rough.

Yeah that's the first thing I noticed once I fitted them, the rear one moves but the front are nearly solid.

[trickedcarbine]

There is a major problem with those shocks once you have a little motor work done though. They don't allow the bike to transfer the weight to the rear tires, so coming out of the turn the bike will tend to just blow the tires off under throttle. I found a way to use some works triple weights or 450 shocks to get a lower height and still have travel pretty well on my +2 front end and it just grips really good for a budget set up.

[Coupelx]

A guy could cruise the eibach catalog for a suitable spring

[Glenyboy]

They sell different springs on ebay, they're sold to the lambretta guys that run them on their scooters and have to use a different spring

[shawnsadler]

Basically seems to be r1/r6 is a good budget setup to TRY flat track without buying a swaybar. After you wanna get serious into racing for a while u wanna go soft setup with a swaybar. That's what I'm pretty much picking up from the general answers on this forum. Anybody got anything else to add?

[trickedcarbine]

Yeah Shawn, the banshee frame tends to really work nice when you get the bottom frame rails level with the ground and have the swinger between 11-15 degrees. Also banshees have tons of flex and twist on the swinger. So eliminating that with one of the beefier swingers and a pivot bolt set up with twin bearings on each side makes a world of difference.

[Coupelx]

Interesting thought on the pivot bearings. When i built my arched arm last winter i considered doing that when i was boring the tube. May still if i dont stop hating this +4 and build a shorter one.

 

I have however pretty much eliminated tearing up the bearings by putting in a grease zerk and filling the bitch with grease.