Saga 250 rear shock swap

flyfishinwoman · 05-25-2014, 08:04 PM

I worked on my bike this weekend, replacing the tube and putting in a new 40 tooth sprocket to get highway speed. After purchasing some tire irons to help with the tube replacement, the job wasn't too bad. I had to cut 10 links out of the chain to adjust for the new smaller sprocket. When it was all together, I went for a spin on the highway to check what gain in speed the change resulted in. With the stock sprocket, 70-75 km/hr was about top speed, but with the 40 tooth, I got up to 95 km and perhaps could have got a little more out of it but I felt a little wander starting to develop so backed off to about 90 km. That's all that I wanted - to get up to highway speeds for this area, which is 90. Now I can ride to the local trails, yay!

While I had the rear wheel off, I measured the shock and it appeared to be about 15.5" eye-eye, but that measurement was less once the wheel was on and the shock was loaded. The bottom mounting was measured about 30 mm but I couldn't get to the top to measure. I want to get a shorter shock to lower the rear seat height (and I will lower the front as well to maintain the steering geometry). I cannot get a longer dog bone in there, as the rear linkage is almost up against the swingarm as it is.

So, does anyone know of a shorter shock that can just bolt in, or am I going to have to modify with some bushings, etc.? Thanks in advance.

05-25-2014, 08:04 PM	#1
flyfishinwoman Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Koots, BC Posts: 21	Saga 250 rear sprocket and shock swap I worked on my bike this weekend, replacing the tube and putting in a new 40 tooth sprocket to get highway speed. After purchasing some tire irons to help with the tube replacement, the job wasn't too bad. I had to cut 10 links out of the chain to adjust for the new smaller sprocket. When it was all together, I went for a spin on the highway to check what gain in speed the change resulted in. With the stock sprocket, 70-75 km/hr was about top speed, but with the 40 tooth, I got up to 95 km and perhaps could have got a little more out of it but I felt a little wander starting to develop so backed off to about 90 km. That's all that I wanted - to get up to highway speeds for this area, which is 90. Now I can ride to the local trails, yay! While I had the rear wheel off, I measured the shock and it appeared to be about 15.5" eye-eye, but that measurement was less once the wheel was on and the shock was loaded. The bottom mounting was measured about 30 mm but I couldn't get to the top to measure. I want to get a shorter shock to lower the rear seat height (and I will lower the front as well to maintain the steering geometry). I cannot get a longer dog bone in there, as the rear linkage is almost up against the swingarm as it is. So, does anyone know of a shorter shock that can just bolt in, or am I going to have to modify with some bushings, etc.? Thanks in advance. Last edited by flyfishinwoman; 05-25-2014 at 09:59 PM.
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