k2krafty1

Hello, I picked up a 2002 FSR comp for a really good price. Too good to be true! I later found that the seat post had caused a major dent in the air sleeve of the fox Float RL rear shock. The model is 6" eye to eye with 1.25 travel. After some work I was able to get the sleeve off. I see two settings on the back of the linkage of my new bike. One has a setting for 75mm and the other for 90mm can someone who is familiar with specialized please fill me in on these two settings? I understand its for travel but if you have the same shock wouldn't all travel be the same? Which brings me to my next question- I am going to call Fox today to see if they still have replacement air sleeves for this older model. If they don't have any, can I upgrade to a 6.5 eye to eye with 1.5 travel and maybe use the linkage in the frame to adjust?

dminor 

The shock positions are on the swing- link that activates the shock; so changing the position of changes how much travel the outer end of the swing-link has, thus how much overall rear travel.

k2krafty1

Hey dminor thanks, I understand that it will give the rear swing more room but I'm still a little confused, wouldn't that be based on the amount of travel the shock has? If you put a 1.25 travel shock in the position at 75mm it will still have the same amount of rear travel when you put it on the 90mm setting - 1.25" Unless you swap a shock?

dminor 

Think of the swing-link as a lever and the closer the shock eyelet is moved forward toward the front pivot of the lever, the more the lever moves for a given amount of shock travel.

As far as your other question: I'm surprised it did NOT have a 1.5/6.5 shock stock - - that was the standard for many of the early-2000s FSRs; but probably because it was the shorter-travel Stumpjumper XC. You could put the longer shock on but it will alter your front-end geometry by steepening your head tube angle - - something you don't really want to do. If you run it on the lower-travel setting, it will help but then be aware that the extra stroke of the shock may allow the wheel to travel too much and contact the seat tube on full-bottoming. Note is said 'may'. . . not saying it will happen, I just know that sometimes tire-to-seat tube clearances were close on some of the older FSRs.

Found the Fox chart I was looking for: https://service.foxracingshox.com/con...educerSpec.xls . I better bookmark this. 6x1.25 is the stocker. I'll be.

k2krafty1

Thanks for clearing it up- makes more sense now. I called FOX and they don't have any air sleeves for the older models. Looks like I'm out of luck. I know this might be going in uncharted waters but if you did get the 6.5" shock couldn't you adjust the sag to sit like it was a 6" so you wouldn't be messing with the bike geometry? Or would that mess with the functionality of the shock? I was looking at the 6.5" because they are easily available on ebay. I also came across a 6" Float R for a good price. The only issue there is they are valved to bike specific low, medium or hard.