Someone please help. Recently bought a new rear shock for my quad, dual rate spring, comp and rebound adjustments. The fronts are tremendous (12 inches of travel) but the real still kicks. I have broken them in and been adjusting the settings, but cannot seem to get the rear to work properly. I was told that this is a problem with the geometry of the linkage, and that most of the racers actually invert the linkage to solve the problem. Does anyone know how to do this??

 

You said the "rear still kicks", can you be more specific? when does it kick, is it setup for your weight, riding ability, intended use? need more info.
That said, if it kicks over braking bumps or acceleration bumps, have someone watch as you go over them, and see if it's "packing up", where it's compressing, and not extending back all the way. If it "packs", your rebound is usually set too slow, adjust it a little at a time until you can see results.
If it's not packing, but it's just harsh, it may be your compression damping is too stiff, make it softer, and try again (with someone watching).
If it's kicking going over a jump, the rebound is too fast, too soft. This is dangerous, because it can send you over the bars on landings, and occassionally in the air it'll endo.
The reason it's important that it be setup for YOU, it's because if it isn't, no amount of adjustment will make it right, after all that money was spent TO MAKE IT right. Too heavy or light a spring will never allow for the compression and rebound to be adjusted properly for YOU, and the incorrect internal valving, due to wrong intended use or level of skill, will also make it almost impossible to dial in right.
I don't know if this helps, but if you can be more specific, I'll try to answer you.

 

Thanks for the info. When I ordered the shocks, I gave a the manufacturer the specs regarding my height, weight, riding ability, type of riding, etc., and I bought the front and rear shocks at the same time. The fronts are working to a tee and make a world of difference so I assume that since they were set up properly (i.e. valving, spring), the rear would have been as well. Without having anyone watch, I can tell you that it will kick up on a set of whoops on the first bump and continue all the way through the series to the point where by the end of a set of 5 or 6, the rear end almost wants to endo. I know this may be confusing as it would probably my compression that is adjusted wrong on the first one and my rebound on the remainder of the whoops that would cause this. I have tried going all the way soft, mid point, and hard on the rebound, and done the same with the compression. I should be working on getting the rebound setup first, shouldn't I? The linkage would apparently make a big difference and I have a friend who races motocross that when I told him about inverting it, said it would probably make a difference.

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]I'm sorry, but inverting the linkage isn't something I'm familiar with. If you know you're having trouble controlling the rear over whoops, then that's an excellent place to have someone watch what it's doing while you ride over them. It's been my experience, that when in doubt as to what's going on, the watcher is the way to go: he can see what's happening, while the rider is busy controlling the bike. Also, is the back end trying to come around on you? that's usually too stiff a rebound damping adjustment. Go back to the settings it came with and ride the whoops then with a watcher. The tech is suppossed to set it to a "happy medium" before they ship it, and it's usually pretty close to optimum for the intended rider. Then there's always the chance that they messed up: it happens, and it could be dialed all wrong.
People do make mistakes, nothing to get upset about if they're willing to correct it, but I'd still try the above before you decide it's not working right.
I'm curious, let me know how it turns out. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]