Re-valving shocks

[Nigel Lavers]

For those of you who are re-valving your shocks... please help me out cuz I have no idea where to start.

Can you purchase aftermarket shim stacks in order to achieve desired damping? Or are you having to manufacture your own?

Either way, how do you decide which sizes to use? And are you validating the modifications with a shock dyno to see if you've achieved what you wanted? If yes, then how consistent are the results between your four shocks?

Thanks,

Nigel Lavers
FSAE, U of Alberta

[Nigel Lavers]

For those of you who are re-valving your shocks... please help me out cuz I have no idea where to start.

Can you purchase aftermarket shim stacks in order to achieve desired damping? Or are you having to manufacture your own?

Either way, how do you decide which sizes to use? And are you validating the modifications with a shock dyno to see if you've achieved what you wanted? If yes, then how consistent are the results between your four shocks?

Thanks,

Nigel Lavers
FSAE, U of Alberta

[-Gabriel]

Hi Nigel,

I'm in the process of evaluating the re-valving our shocks and we have no experience in that. We measured our shocks properties on a shock dyno and I would certainly re-test them if I do any modifications. We got the help of a local shock builder, so I'll ask them some advices concerning the size of the new shims, with the desired damping coefficient in mind.

I asked them if there is after-market shims, and they said that it is pretty simple to manufacture them because mountain bike shocks are not really complex in their construction (you can translate that to "a little cheap http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif").

As for the consistency between shocks, I doubt you can do a lot worse than the stock ones, because after some testings the guy at the shocks company said that a good 20% of difference is common between the same model, even in the considered "good ones" like the Fox Vanilla RC in the mountain bike industry. Any infirmation/confirmation about that point?

Gabriel Denoury
Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal FSAE
www.fsae.polymtl.ca (http://www.fsae.polymtl.ca)