Aluminum Swingarm Help

[Guest]

Hey all,

I am trying to determine if this will work or not. So let me explain the situation.

Frame, GS1100E
Swingarm, GS1100 Aluminum Box
Suspension, SW Street Strokers

Everything seems to line up ok, the right side of the swingarm is slightly lower than the left, I assume this will level out with more weight on the bike and proper motor mounts in. Share your though on that.

My question is: Can I use the "Nub to Nub" style mounts together with a dense steel bolt and washer securing the two together? Does it have to have a "Female" end on the shock, to operate properly?

See Photos below to help decode wtf I am talking about!

[Big T]

Not if you want the shock to actually work. They'll be totaly bound up like that

You need a shock with a clevis on the bottom

[seanspecht]

Clevis! I am learning. Well darn. Anyone want to trade for some street strokers haha.

[TheCafeKid]

Clevis! I am learning. Well darn. Anyone want to trade for some street strokers haha.

If you know a competent welder, he can convert either the swinger or the shock bottoms for you.
Mounting those like that will not only bind them, they'll likely shear the bolts in two. And that, as you can imagine, would be painful.

[seanspecht]

I did not think about that! STROKERS ARENT FOR TRADE FELLAS

You wanna see the profile of the bike with the tank on cafe kid?

[GateKeeper]

Hey guys, I sort of understand what your saying, but I don't fully get why it wouldn't work ?

Is the idea not similar to this, sort of ? kind of ?



Just wondering

Sorry to the OP for the hijack, but I am sort of asking the same question....

.

[seanspecht]

YA WTF. What if I flipped the shocks around, where the "ANTI-CLEVIS" is on the inside of the swingarm?

[TheCafeKid]

The shock piston needs to be in a straight line top to bottom as the force that's exerted on it. If its not, it will bind the shaft. Plus, clevis mounts are designed to spread the force on the bolt across multiple points of contact. If you do it the way you are thinking, you would basically create an uneven load point on two areas of the bolt. Even a grade 8 bolt will shear like butter like that. Believe me, ive witnessed idiots at the landscape company I used to work at go through a bag of grade 8 nuts trying to use them as the tie pin for a pto driven auger bit on a tractor.

Get the swinger converted to eye to eye mount (all that's needed really is the eyes on the swinger ground off and an adequate diameter stud welded in its place) or get the eyes cut off the shocks and forks (clevis) welded to them. Some brands of shocks (Ohlins, YSS, etc) can even do this for you...

[TheCafeKid]

Orrrr, you could have a converter machined up to boot through the eye of the shock and have a clevis at the bottom, this will lengthen the shocks a little, but a little added length in back on a GS1100 isnt a bad thing...will quicken the steering a bit.
I'd suggest having it milled out of steel or billet Alu and not trying to make some Jerry rigged plates or something. You are playin with your life here after all

[seanspecht]

Win for CafeKid! Thanks as usual man.

- Sean

[TheCafeKid]

Hey guys, I sort of understand what your saying, but I don't fully get why it wouldn't work ?

Is the idea not similar to this, sort of ? kind of ?



Just wondering

Sorry to the OP for the hijack, but I am sort of asking the same question....

.

This is designed for eye to eye, much like the GS shaft drive bikes.
That's a stud, not a bolt (at least it looks that way to me) with a nut on the end, or the swingarm mount is threaded. I'm on my phone so it's a little hard to see the little picture On a GS that stud would be found on the pumpkin side, on the other side the shock eye sits in a cradle (basically an upside down clevis) but they're set up so that they're in a straight line.
One thing occurs to me though, even if you were to have a stud welded to the swingarm, the upper mounts my not have enough length on them to not be cocked inward at the top. It would be better to remove the eyes from the arm, and have cradles welded in their place, and the back side tapped so that you need just a bolt and no nut on the backside to make it easier to remove.

[seanspecht]

Well,

No Welding will occur, Just trading for shocks or buying new ones. Im not screwing up the paint, just finished it saturday! BMW Alpine WHite. So ya, If you or anyone you know wants the strokers...

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=191688

Thanks again!

Sean

[GateKeeper]

And great answers......appreciate the informative explanation...


Sean,,,,that paint job looks really good, I have to go and look for more pictures of your build....