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Twins vs. Mono

  • Thread starter Thread starter LilTinc
  • Start date Start date
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LilTinc

Guest
OK,

I havent even gotten into the real meat of the upgrade of my '82 1100E and I'm collecting parts for a 7/11 project. I'll never finish anything :p

Anyway, sort of a new-be question here. I used the search function but my search-fu seems to be weak.
Is there or what is the advantage of a mono-shock set up vs. a twin shock?

I'm getting a battle plan together. Bike will be a "mountail runner". Design concept is sort of a 1980 superbike with a Wes Cooley faring, USD forks and big (190 or maybe 200 width) rubber.

Thanks for the input.
 
LilTinc said:
OK,

I havent even gotten into the real meat of the upgrade of my '82 1100E and I'm collecting parts for a 7/11 project. I'll never finish anything :p

Anyway, sort of a new-be question here. I used the search function but my search-fu seems to be weak.
Is there or what is the advantage of a mono-shock set up vs. a twin shock?

I'm getting a battle plan together. Bike will be a "mountail runner". Design concept is sort of a 1980 superbike with a Wes Cooley faring, USD forks and big (190 or maybe 200 width) rubber.

Thanks for the input.
Click to expand...
Advantage? If you consider more work to be an advantage - then yes.

I've done one, and so have more than a few in here. I'm actually considring going back to dual shocks now and using the ones from my ZRX1200 after replacing them with Ohlins.

It all depends how you envision the bike to look like. I doubt there's any performance advange either way.
 
A mono weighs less, looks trick, and a single shock compresses and decompresses more evenly than two shocks IMO especially when cornering.

Due to frame and chain clearance considerations, you'll probably want to stick with a 5.5x17" max rear rim with a 180 radial.
 
The real difference is style. A real good quality twin shock setup works fine. Yes there are functional differences with a single shock such as ability to set up different rising rate geometries. But the real difference is in the look.
 
80GS1000 said:
A mono weighs less, looks trick, and a single shock compresses and decompresses more evenly than two shocks IMO especially when cornering.

Due to frame and chain clearance considerations, you'll probably want to stick with a 5.5x17" max rear rim with a 180 radial.
Click to expand...
I agree it looks trick, but then again, so do a couple of ohlins.

Lighter? Not sure about that. I think once you add in the linkage and bracing the weights will be very similar.

On the ride, while a mono does feel good, so does a twin shocker with GOOD shocks. You can't really compare the stock, almost 30 year old shocks to any mono unit you're salvaging.

I agree with the tire size you suggested. Even with the 180 on back I've had frame clearance issues. I notched it a bit and went with a 520 non o-ring and there's plenty of room now.

It all boils down to what you envision the bike to look like.
 
Another item to consider is cost. A late model GSXR swingarm and shock can be had off eBay for around $100 and are high quality with a lot of adjustment possible. A set of ZRX shocks will be around $200-300 and a set of Ohlins is close to $800. :eek:

All modern sportbikes and roadracing bikes come with monoshocks, if there were an advantage to twinshocks then they would be so equipped. But the latest GSXR and MotoGP bikes all are monoshocked.

The late model monoshock style swingarms are also much stiffer due to their bracing.

Have to disagree with you on the weight matter reddirtrider, the last time I weighed it my bike is 450 pounds with a full tank of gas and the oil filled up (536 pounds is the listed stock wet weight) and a significant chunk of that weight savings came from the rear rim/tire/swingarm/rear brake/shock assembly.
 
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80GS1000 said:
Another item to consider is cost. A late model GSXR swingarm and shock can be had off eBay for around $100 and are high quality with a lot of adjustment possible. A set of ZRX shocks will be around $200-300 and a set of Ohlins is close to $800. :eek:

All modern sportbikes and roadracing bikes come with monoshocks, if there were an advantage to twinshocks then they would be so equipped. But the latest GSXR and MotoGP bikes all are monoshocked.

The late model monoshock style swingarms are also much stiffer due to their bracing.

Have to disagree with you on the weight matter reddirtrider, the last time I weighed it my bike is 450 pounds with a full tank of gas and the oil filled up (536 pounds is the listed stock wet weight) and a significant chunk of that weight savings came from the rear rim/tire/swingarm/rear brake/shock assembly.
Click to expand...
If you count rims, yes. But you can use a late model swingarm witn dual shocks to fit the newer rims and tires. If you just look at the swingarm, linkagage, and frame bracing vs. a late model swingarm with dual shocks, then I think you'll find the weight very close.

Let's not get into roadracing bikes since the frames of these GSer's are so flexible I seriously doubt a mono will give a performace boost over a good set of dual shocks. Come to think of it, I doubt if anyone short of a professional rider can take full advange of a modern sportbike either. So, IMHO, it comes down to looks.

You're right about the cost of qualify dual shocks.
 
The most significant weight reduction on my sons bike came from the rims and tires. They also gave me the biggest performance increase, let alone the tire selection with radials.

Next was probably converting from a 630 to a 520. That shaved a lot of weight off.

Converting the foot pegs, both passenger and rider to modern units helped. I built plates for GSXR rearsets, which are very light compared to the originals.

Of course, the standard replacement items such as pods and header killed a bunch of stock weight.

I also put on a Hyabusa filler for the tank. No weight savings, just looks cool.
 
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I'm gonna go with PJ on this one - the monoshock if done properly will save weight. The single shock weighs a very small amount, if any, more than 1 of the dual shocks. And the linkages for the monoshock are, I believe, aluminum so they also weigh next to nothing. And the bracing will not add significant weight - it's not like you need to chunk on 20 pounds of steel.
 
The weight change from the swap has many factors, part of it is quite a variation in the weight of swingarms. The newest ones from The GSXRs are quite heavy, I would say heavier than the original steel arms on many bikes. Now the late 80s and early 90s alloy arms are rather light though.
 
Monoshocks are to vintage sportbikes as professional wrestling is to sports.
 
What I'm thinking

What I'm thinking

Here's sort of what I want to do. I will not be using this paint job (think stars and stripes)

BadARaceGS.jpg
 
Has anyone weighed out 2 shocks vs. a mono shock plus linkage plus frame bracing?
 
Old Colt said:
The weight change from the swap has many factors, part of it is quite a variation in the weight of swingarms. The newest ones from The GSXRs are quite heavy, I would say heavier than the original steel arms on many bikes. Now the late 80s and early 90s alloy arms are rather light though.
Click to expand...

Your are correct that the GSXR swingarms are much heavier than their aluminum GS brothers.
 
LilTinc said:
Has anyone weighed out 2 shocks vs. a mono shock plus linkage plus frame bracing?
Click to expand...
Sadly no. My past experience tells me they are too close to call. If anyone wants to disassemble their bikes ....
 
80GS1000 said:
All modern sportbikes and roadracing bikes come with monoshocks, if there were an advantage to twinshocks then they would be so equipped.
Click to expand...

I'm not disagreeing with you entirely. But also consider that many decisions about vehicles are made from a cost saving or efficiency in manufacturing standpoint. Decisions are also made based on the "gee whiz" factor. Somebody puts out a monoshock bike first. Maybe they did it so that they would have to store half as many shocks at the plant, or they got a deal from the OEM. The marketers however say " look at us, first to market with a monoshock. It's new, it must be better". The rest of the lemmings follow suit. They don't necessarily have a product that is better, but they have to play along because their competitors introduced something new and they have to appear to be keeping up with the times. In turn, the aftermarket supports it, because that is what everybody now has, so you see greater R&D on that front and the innovations that applied to the old product are no longer pursued.

I think it is fair to say that most people buying a monshocked bike couldn't ride to the capacity of a well done bike that had dual shocks.
 
Can anyone possitively say wich one works better? Mono or twin shocks?

I understand that Mono shock set ups can have a rising rate engineered into them through their linkage geometry but a similar effect can be accomplished with varriable rate coils on Twin shock set up. I'm coming at this from a high performance car suspension back ground so I'm just trying to understand.

The question I should have phrased sould have been wich one works better?
 
LilTinc said:
Can anyone possitively say wich one works better? Mono or twin shocks?

I understand that Mono shock set ups can have a rising rate engineered into them through their linkage geometry but a similar effect can be accomplished with varriable rate coils on Twin shock set up. I'm coming at this from a high performance car suspension back ground so I'm just trying to understand.

The question I should have phrased sould have been wich one works better?
Click to expand...
Inless you're a professional rider, I doubt you can tell the difference between a well set up mono or dual unit - all else being equal (tires, etc).
 
The only thing I'll say here is that if you want to go with top notch components you can probably do either for about the same money. If you're going to really push to find its limits you'll find them a few times. Hopefully it happens where you have room for error. If you're just going for general street riding with some spirited backroad riding then dual shocks with good dampers will be more than you'll ever need. If you're going to push your limits and the bikes you're going to need to brace the frame and get the geometry right for the mounting points on the frame for the shock and it's linkage to go mono.

redirtrider is speaking from experience. He did one of the nicest builds you'll ever see.

80GS1000 is the kind of rider that can justify going mono.
 
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