Front AND rear shock

[Ken M1]

I'm a feather weight. I'm 5'10", 145 lbs. The Streety is a good size for me (I can easily flat-foot at stops). My problem is the shocks are horrible for my weight. They (both front and rear) are not progressive AT ALL. I have easily bottomed out the front end over train tracks (lack of progression) yet have also nearly been thrown off my bike at a simple expansion joint (at speed). For my weight they seem to be too stiff yet do NOT progress as travel happens. Both front and rear seem to be set up backwards...as in they are initially over stiff yet do NOT get progressively stiffer as more travel happens. Any other "light weight" riders out there feel the same as I do?

[ezride]

At 145 lb, you bottomed the front over train tracks? Must have been one heeeel of a track, or else you were hard on the brakes at the time.

[Ken M1]

It was going up a steep hill, slowed down to 2nd gear, and WHAM!...bottomed out with a jolt! Shocks (for my weight) are WAY too stiff at first...and not progressively stiff enough as travel happens. Makes for a nice handling ride on the smooth...but hit some bumps and that's where the backwards progression of the shocks show their true colors (again....for someone MY weight).

[Diego]

I've got to agree with what ez seems to be saying...this is not something that should afflict light people more than others. Being jolted by an expansion joint, maybe. But if you managed to bottom out going up a hill, it would have happened to a heavier person faster under the same circumstance.

You don't have a lot of fork travel on this bike. It's clearly not intended for all roads--which makes me wonder what sort of suspension they'd have to fit in order to make it a Tiger Cub, a bike that a lot of folks have been waiting for and a few have convinced themselves is coming.

[Old Scratcher]

I'll be upgrading both ends eventually, as I think the bike will be better for it, & my arthiritis won't give me too much grief.
I'm a little confused about what's the right way to go with the front.
I'd like to know why some specialists say that a revalve kit will work well enough, & why others say that the forks are too badly made to benefit from a revalve, & need gas cartridge inserts.
So I'll probably wait for that argument to get resolved, before deciding which is best for me.
The rear I'll be upgrading asap.

[Old Scratcher]

I've just had an email from Maxton. They tell me that their fork kit comes as a cartridge insert too, so it looks like they've come to the same conclusion as Reactive about the quality of the forks.
They said that the lower bolt on the forks needs to be modified, to accept the cartridge. I'm going to contact Reactive to see if the Traxion cartridges require the same mod.
I'd love to see a performance comparison between the two cartridge systems, if any tech-head out there could put it into laymans terms for us.

[Ken M1]

Diego has a good point that I have to remember that bike is NOT meant for some of the punishment I put it through! The shocks are probably fine (even for a feather weight like me). I just have to stop trying to jump things and such. Hey...12 years of MX...what more can I say? Sometimes I can't help myself!

[Thirdway]

OC, I have ordered up the Maxton shock (which I will fit instead of the recalled item) and the Maxton fork conversion.

I had the same answer from Reactive and Maxton and decided that ( and because I have already had work done by Maxton) the cost of the Maxton conversion was less than 2/3rds of the reactive setup. My guess is that I would not find the difference between the two units because I am just an average rider.

Maxton also told me that if they had two STs to do at the same time they would get things done faster !!! Hint, hint

[Thirdway]

Originally Posted by Ken M1

It was going up a steep hill, slowed down to 2nd gear, and WHAM!...bottomed out with a jolt! Shocks (for my weight) are WAY too stiff at first...and not progressively stiff enough as travel happens. Makes for a nice handling ride on the smooth...but hit some bumps and that's where the backwards progression of the shocks show their true colors (again....for someone MY weight).

I had the same experience, but its not bottoming out unless you were braking at the same time. Its the high speed compression damping, when you hit something like a bump, then the valve controlling the damping should react and let the suspension compress, but the STs forks dont do this properly, so you get the full impact directly through your wrists and arms. On slow speed compressions, such as braking, the springs are too soft and the forks just collapse. If you are braking and hitting bumps then the bike is in trouble.

The rear shock is sprrung about right, maybe a tad soft for the average rider, but the damping is awful and I suspect that the recalled units have actually been hitting the bump stops on big impacts. The rebound damping is OK when the bike is static, so maybe as the shock warms up it goes out of wack because the rear just wont setttle down after hitting a bump.