A couple of butchered frame parts by a previous owner, meant that the drive side rear shock mounts were "of concern". The top mount had clearly suffered a crossed thread at some point, and the "fix" had been to screw on a nut 1mm smaller - nice, and it had not even been done very well, and was also cross threaded. Relying on a damaged thread to keep the rear end upright, bouncing and damping as it should was not an option I intended to leave in place. Just to compound the butchering, the lower mount, while still at least of a size the factory intended, had more thread damage, and it's doubtful it would have held any pressure applied by my trusty Britool Torque wrench. Neither of these mounts were designed to be replaced, so whatever I did would mean some more cutting and welding.
A chance spot on Ebay of a pair of good condition, nearly new Hagon shocks, albiet 10mm shorter than the stock shocks, at less than half the cost new gave me an idea! The bike appears to sit a bit low at the rear, compounded by chopping more than 60% of the seat height down, so the opportunity to jack it up a bit was there to be taken.
OK, the welding looks messy, but there has been good heat transfer and it's solid.
8mm x 30mm bar used to fab the mounts. Measuring the two sides when
finished, I'm only 0.4mm out - still annoying - from each side which I doubt will make any difference to the handling, at least none I'll be able to detect.
Now I can deal with the shorter shock, and play with rear ride height.
Factory option? The wheel is just in there to set the required height for now. Think it will go forward one more. While on the wheel,
I'm still not completely happy with the RM wheel, as I may now get it
rebuilt, I think I'll lace the rim on the old TS hub, it will save me
getting spacers made, and still give me (make use) of the alloy rim.
The upper mount has been simply cut off, and a 10mm hole drilled, through which is a 10mm shoulder bolt for the shock to sit on - no photo yet.
