I'm building a bike, but what suspension??

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Fiddy@norway

Fiddy@norway

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Sep 10, 2007
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Up in the snow-blown scandinavia.
Hi, I am in the process of selecting parts for a bike I'm buliding, there are no decent complete bikes to buy in this country, so I'll be shopping everything from ebay, I've decided on getting the Lifan 150cc and a Chromoly cradle frame, the rest will get pieced together eventually.
but the one thing I'm not sure of is what suspension to get, I'm looking at different types of fastace, but I got no knowledge of what will suit me, I am not interrested in the top-of-the-line suspension, but I want decent suspension to a decent price.

I am about 85kg and will ride the bike offroad\MX.
anyone care to help me along? give me a few links maybe?
 
how much you wanna spend mate.....if you got a bit of cash get some marzoochi shiver forks and an elka rear shock i have them on my vert and they are bloody awesome....if you dont wanna spend to much go a dnm shock like pitbikekid suggested and some as-02s or something
 
You don´t have to ship hings from Australia ....plenty of shops in sweden, finland, denmark, germany , england, etc...for what kind of swingarm you looking for mx or A style ??
don´t spare on the suspension, boy, its the most importend part besides the wheels!!
 
There's also ykjohnson and TDR in china for Fast Ace and DNM suspension parts ...
 
Fast ace As-01's if your lucky you could get some cheaper then as-02's for $350ish and they would be perfect for you (85kg) , but i don't have much experience in rear shocks.
 
I use my MSO SR on shitty MX tracks so your goals caught my attention. I agree with roost666's advice below.

Keep in mind a few things:
1) Don't neglect the basics like spring weights, and fork clamp height and rear spring preload (sag). IE. make your machine stable on rough straights, and corner nicely on flat or smooth bermed turns.
2) Don't even consider dampers without adjustable compression and rebound clickers. The chances of fixed valving being right is near zero.
3) No Chinese, Taiwanese, or Marzocchi dampers come close to the performance possible from well setup Showa, KYB or Ohilins. This is due to both design and quality. So you have to be realistic in your expectations.
4) The Taiwanese (eg. Fastace, DNM) and Chinese stuff (eg. zocch copies) have quality control limitations (machining etc), so the performance can vary a lot in the same part model.
5) The Taiwan and China products work heaps better with quality suspension fluid in them.

My suspension:
* MSO forks (zocch copies) with orig fluid and metal swarf *fully* flushed out, and 280ml of motorex 7.5wt fluid in each leg. Stock fork springs with minimal preload, and clickers adjusted as required. These forks are *great* for the price!
* Rear 800lb/in softer spring (I am 74kg and get *much* better traction with the softer spring). DNM shock with a real heavy/thick shock fluid and re-gas. The shock still fades (gets erratic) when heated and is hyper sensitive to rebound click adj, but with new thick fluid it is 50 times better than stock.

btw: The stock Lifan 150 is great value for the $. Just change the oil often early on, set the valves at 003 and 004, and take it easy on the gears for the first 5 or so hrs. Use 98 fuel, and be sure to properly ground both the coil green wire and the coil mount.


roost666 said:
how much you wanna spend mate.....if you got a bit of cash get some marzoochi shiver forks and an elka rear shock i have them on my vert and they are bloody awesome....if you dont wanna spend to much go a dnm shock like pitbikekid suggested and some as-02s or something
Click to expand...
 
numroe, handy hints mate, will be putting them into action on my stuff...
Fiddy@norway, if you dont wanna spend too much go with the AS-02 forks, and DNM rear shock, if you cant stretch to that, i have bought Fastace rear BS-66-RC from TDKJohnson on ebay, and found them great to deal with, good communication, rapid international postage and well priced, but as mentioned in other replies, Fastace quality control varies from part to part, even in identical shocks or forks....
 
oh also try DHZ mini moto on ebay. Ken is great to deal with, and has been very helpful in building my three minis...!!
 
thanx for all the replies guys, I don't know what type of swingarm I should go with either, suggestions? as I said, I am not going for the top of the line suspension as the price would burn holes in my pockets, don't want to sell my xr650 just so I can afford to build a minibike, but I want a setup that handles my weight when riding offroad and light mx.
I'll check out the leads you've given me, anyone got links to the ones mentioned?
 
cheapest way for me was ....had a cradleframe for aStyle...got a +4swinger from ebay , a used Fox float from AHP and some cheap Zoke copies from france...all in all was about 400 euros...get a good pair of Wheels (190euros)and you are set;)
 
alright, I've just purchased the engine, 400$ of ebay, thats what an 110cc no-name semi-automatic engine would cost in a bikeshop here in norway!!
next item I'm ordering is a Carb-kit, I'm going for a genuine Mikuni VM 26 kit as I've heard nothing but good things about it, after that the frame and swingarm will be next, then suspension and triple trees and the rest will follow:) man I can't wait to get the 150...
 
wooow..hold the phone ...you got the engine first??
Before ordering all kinds of gimmicks for that thing GET SOMETHING DECEND TO PUT IT IN!....mmm I thought you had already a frame??
here is link to a good shop in UK and France
UK :Fiddyparts - Home
FR : X-RIDE
;) ;)
 
relax, I'm piecing it together as I go, I'm not going to put it in my current bikes frame, the frame is one of the next items on the list, I am building this bike centered around the engine.

just to explain why I am building my own bike, in norway, a pitpro with the new lifan 150 engine, cradleframe and pretty standard fast-aces front and back sell for about 3500 aussi dollars. top-of-the-range pitpro goes for about 6000$, crazy or what??
 
Last edited:
Fiddy@norway said:
relax, I'm piecing it together as I go, I'm not going to put it in my current bikes frame, the frame is one of the next items on the list, I am building this bike centered around the engine.

just to explain why I am building my own bike, in norway, a pitpro with the new lifan 150 engine, cradleframe and pretty standard fast-aces front and back sell for about 3500 aussi dollars. top-of-the-range pitpro goes for about 6000$, crazy or what??
Click to expand...

yahhh! thats crazy...... i thought we had a few ripoffs here in a AUS...
 
TDR sells solid swingarms but they're not cheap .......

Zhejiang Jinyun Diwey Vehicle Co.,Ltd.

Let yur' hair down .... buy a Vinco frame with a custom built Elka shock and make us all jealous ......

Jap bike shocks don't work on pitbike type swingarms ..... they are designed and valved for linkage type set ups .....KTM shocks would be the closest ....

Lifan 150 = wise choice from what I've read ......
 
Cactus Jack said:
TDR sells solid swingarms but they're not cheap .......

Zhejiang Jinyun Diwey Vehicle Co.,Ltd.

Let yur' hair down .... buy a Vinco frame with a custom built Elka shock and make us all jealous ......

Jap bike shocks don't work on pitbike type swingarms ..... they are designed and valved for linkage type set ups .....KTM shocks would be the closest ....

Lifan 150 = wise choice from what I've read ......
Click to expand...


yeah:) I'm tempted to go nuts and blow all my savings on this bike, but I'm gonna try and keep my head, I am basicly building a mini MX\Offroad bike, so the end result is gonna be a work horse, that means no fancy graphics, no dress-up bling or stuff that'll end up looking like shit after a few hours of riding.
I am looking at getting a set of DNM forks and a DNM shock, a solid straight-style alloy swingarm (never been a fan of the triangle ones) and a 12\12 wheel combo, pro-tapers, handguards, maybe a full FMF system (don't know if they are worth the coin though) no inner-rotor as I like the feel of a flywheel, the engine will be kept stock as I don't want to compromise reliabilety, I need a broad spread of power, don't need massive peak-performance when going through tight trails and doing wheelies:D

anyone got any thoughts on my planned setup? don't have everything worked out yet so feel free to drop in you 2 cents and aid me on the way:)
 
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