ok a crazy (perhaps impossible) idea

[Ta2Mike]

Ive been working on sketches trying to get in mind an approach to my 79 850g. and i came up with something that appeals to me as far as aesthetics but I have no clue as to if it is even possible.

I love my shaftie in part due to how clean a look it gives the rear and ive seen the monoshocked rears on chain drives and i like how it cleans up the back half (and improves handling) so my question.....Is it possible to mono shock a shaftie? will the structure hold up to the load? with necessary reinforcement of course?

[Nessism]

If you reinforce the structure of course it will hold up. Not sure how you would fit the bellcrank and such in there though. You may have to come up with some type of monoshock that doesn't use one.

[49er]

If you reinforce the structure of course it will hold up. Not sure how you would fit the bellcrank and such in there though. You may have to come up with some type of monoshock that doesn't use one.

The shaftie swing arm is more rigid in design than most chain drive setups anyway. You could modify it to a mono shock, but it would need to be a pretty beefy unit to handle the extra inertia.

[Hammered]

The main issue youre going to run into is the amount of swingarm cantilevered. Its the same issue I had in designing the airbag suspension for my 750 chain drive. Now if the swinger ion a shaftie is indeed "beefier" that those of chain drive, most of the effort is done. Now youll need to figure out how and where to mount the mono. If the 850 is anything like my 650 shafty, you dont have a lot of room as things sit now. You may want to run over bracing if for no other reason, have a place to mount the shock mount which in turn makes need for a shorter mono shock. The main short coming of this redesign of a shafty is that you cant stretch the swinger without a whole lot of work to the final drive as well. Depending on how you plan to ride this bike, cruiser, sport, touring, adventure, You may want to consider an airbag as well. Theyre smaller than most monos and can be adjusted to fit any ride style or weight needs. Plenty of sizes and styles to work with.

[tone]

Gsx1100g complete rear end & a fabricated to shock mount is the easy way to to do it

[doctorgonzo]

I know it can be done because I've seen pics of one on the OSS board.

[salty_monk]

The GSX1100g is a pretty rare beast here unfortunately... If you found one you'd be better off keeping it stock & selling the 850!

[Ta2Mike]

I figured itd be a big PITA. Thanks for all the answers. Definitely not a lot of room for mounting but a little bribing to the friendly neighborhood fabricator...lol. I think the look would be unique (around these parts anyway) Nothing but new sportbikes and harleys around here. I just gotta decide which bike to work on first..the 1100 or the 850

[sschering]

Only thing that pops into my mind is the 85-86 GV1200 Madura swingarm..
Shaft drive mono shock.
(edit use the GV1200 swinger.. GV700 bearings are smaller)
The Madura GV1200 swingarm bearings are the same as the the GS850 40 od x 17 id..

No idea on the swinger width..

[sschering]

Or better

GSX1100G swinger on Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SUZUKI-GSX1100G-GSX1100-G-SWING-ARM_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem3eedd340f8QQitemZ270278017272QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Buy it now $70

Never mind.. the GSX1100 pivot bolt design is not going to work..