| Should the dogbones articulate on the swingarm?
If the bolt is removed from the suspension arm (unitrak on a kawi, the piece that the lower arm of the shock bolts to), should the dogbones be able to rotate freely on the swingarm?
My impression, based on how the swingarm rotates, is that they would need to. I just checked ronayers and it looks like there are needle bearings in the swingarm where the dogbones bolt up, which seems to back my assumption up.
The reason I ask is, mine don't rotate freely, I can just barely move them with my hand if I really lever on them hard. I discovered this today when I swapped on my new shock, and didn't really think much of it. Then, when I went to adjust the preload, I found that at the softest setting I could only get about 5mm of static loaded sag (this is with a 525lb spring and me, 175lb rider). Thought perhaps the shock just needed to "break in" a bit but it's now occuring to me that possibly the lack of rotation in the dogbones is keeping my swingarm from pivoting properly, and this won't allow my shock to compress.
Opinions?  |