Viva swing arm

[msRandi]

Up again down again, Rach tor the link mount off the botom of the swing arm today. Hear's the thing this bike has never sean air. no jumps. Anyway it gives me somthing do in my old age.

[red2003]

I'm surprised it has taken this long to see a failure like this. I am sure it happened because the linkage has been tearing itself apart ever since new. Like I have stated and shown in earlier posts, after just a few inches of suspension travel, the linkage is bound solid and ripping itself apart with every bump in the road. I noticed the flaw soon after I bought my Roketa and I am VERY glad I modded the rear suspension. It's a ticking time bomb, and I can't believe more haven't failed, especially if the bike was jumped much.

[ob1]

I'm tellin' ya Red, if you made a linkage kit using the stock shock and stock mounting points that eliminated the binding situation...

[frostbite]

I'm tellin' ya Red, if you made a linkage kit using the stock shock and stock mounting points that eliminated the binding situation...

I'd buy it.

[msRandi]

Red if you made it so the bike sat lower for old fat people I would buy it too.

[red2003]

Yeah, I probably should do just that. I thought some about fabbing up a few kits for the members here, but besides the fact that I don't know WHEN I would do it, it would be quite expensive to do. The bushings in the linkage are all metric (18 mm ID), which don't exist in this state, so a great deal of the work would need to be done by a machine shop to make a bolt on kit. I was originally going to make a completely new linkage and have my local machine shop make bronze inserts for the bushings until I got a quote :o . So when I did the mod, I just chopped apart my stock linkage and fabbed all the new stuff around the stock bushing assemblies. Realistically a bolt on kit would cost $250.00 which kinda defeats the low budget idea these bikes are based on. Also, it is appearing the Viva, Roketa, Tank, etc bikes all have different length shocks from the factory, so there would be fitment issues anyway :( . Anyone with moderate to advanced metal fabbing skills can do what I did, and if you could ride my Roketa, you'd do it in a heart beat. Those nice soft inverted front forks POUND over bumps compared to the rear suspension now. And VT roads absolutely SUCK so it's a good testing ground. Got 500 miles on the mod and all good so far! BTW, adding grease zerks to the linkage was also a good idea!

[fatboy250]

Hey Red,
I added about 4oz of Type F Trans fluid to each fork leg this past weekend. This can be done without removing the forks from the bike. This may help improve your ride quality in the front. Just a thought.

Jason

[shammash55]

hey fb how do you put oil in the forks without taking them off?

[fatboy250]

Use a 22mm socket and loosen the top slowly since there is spring pressure. Once you have the top loose pull it out just enough to pour past the internals that will still be together sticking out the top of your fork tube. Dad's came out further than mine. We surmized that it was because his springs had more tension and had not had quite the workout as mine as mine are probably really worn in. :lol: We had to use a funnel, but I guess you could pour it with a steady hand. When you look into the fork tube you'll see about 6 in. of empty space, then just under that more internals. I just filled it up to the bottom of that empty space which ended up being about 4 oz. I didn't want to overfill them and blow the seals. Then push the top back down and screw it back in.

Jason

[red2003]

I wouldn't want the forks any stiffer. They are fine actually, just not as plush as the rear now. I will probably pull them and change out the oil this Summer though. No idea what came in there stock, and it's cheap insurance against seal leaks, bushing wear, etc.

[fatboy250]

The way it appears not much of any came in ours. I guess just enough to keep the seals from drying out. Ours were actually starting to drag and hold in places because they were getting dry for lubrication. Much better now.

Jason

[ob1]

Link to metric bronze bushings

http://www.lm-tarbell.com/new_page_2.htm

[msRandi]

two things one why not build the swing arm in sae sizes and just drill out fram to the new bolt size?
the other, is it's up and going again. good thing I can do my own welding. and I'm not to good at welding, so it's a good thing it's Rach's bike not mine. :?

[shammash55]

thanks fb, if yall make kits that would work on a jialing i would buy it.

[red2003]

Link to metric bronze bushings

http://www.lm-tarbell.com/new_page_2.htm

Nice! Now your gonna go and make me a Millionaire selling suspension kits :D .

[ob1]

A buddy of mine made set of drive pulleys that allowed old big block Mopars to run modern accessory drives. Then, he started getting requests.
Then, he got a Mexican factory to start stamping them. Now he sells them by larger numbers than you might think. One of his big customers is Mopar.

You should be able to sell a mess of them to all the bikes here now, and all the ones coming, until the chinese copy your linkage to make new production bikes that dont shock bind.

For what it's worth, better make a patent application.

[red2003]

I think Sam and I should quit our jobs and make after market China bike suspensions full time. What ya say Sam???

[SamM]

I'm in!

[msRandi]

you build them and I will powder coat them.

[TheOtherRide]

Sales rep?

[red2003]

Sales rep?

Nah, Public Relations Specialist for sure!!