I chose to go with the Heim joints after alot of thought and debate just like you are having. When I rolled off Delbarton it broke or bent all the ball joints, tie rods, a-arms ETC.... I replaced it with the ASR +3 a-arms with heim joints and heim joint tie rods. I have been VERY pleased with my their performance since then. I ride in all conditions, and some may say that the ball joint may have been a better choice for me (due to the dirt / mud), but the Heims are cheap to replace if they do wear and you have to consider that most of the off road Jeep guys change their ball joints over to Heim joints they are supposed to be stronger. I called and talked to people until I got sick of hearing about them and finally came to the decision to use the Heims. There were alot of different opinions on what to use and the plus and minus of each. I finally made my decision by calling a local shop that deals with alot of race car parts and they can get me any size heim join for well under half the cost of a ball joint.

Thats my .2cents if it helps at all.
Good luck on your choice!

Ow yea and I would just like to say one thing to jaycekarl10..... Bouncie, Bouncie, Bounce! NICE [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I think these replies are helping. Or they are making it more difficult because it sounds like something is good and then someone tells you something else. I guess the more information the better. What's a good a-arm to buy? Can you change the ball joints to heim/heim to ball joints after you buy the a-arms? I was thinking about getting +2 ricky stator or armadillo a-arms. Thanks again for the replies. Maybe by the time I have the money to buy my a-arms and shocks, I will know which ones to get[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img].

 

Jay,

Are you wanting to go long travel or standard travel? I would recommend long, that's where I'm headed with the C'dale. Then you need some 19" shocks. If you stick with standard travel you end up needing to have shocks revalved for the +2's and the additional forces applied. They make arms in LT +1, +2, and +3 so you should be able to find them. Then you can have about 12" of suspenion travel. If you are interested I can come up with some 19" piggyback Ohlins for you for a good price, probably $400 or so off sticker. - Zack

 

thomez, so the only difference between long travel and regular is the suspension travel? would the long travel a-arms be closer to the ground, giving me less ground clearence? they sound interesting and i haven't really done that much research on them. how much more expensive are they than regular +2? i am definitely going with +2. and i don't think i would be able to pass up a deal like that on ohlins!

 

The way they build various arms to accomplish long travel is to place the mounting point for the shock lower on the arm itself, ie. Gullwing style like Roll and TBR, s-bend like Gibson or under the arm like Lone Star I believe. This allows the use of 19" shocks which give you the ability to get the added travel. Ground clearance should not be a problem with any style. The key is the shocks, most of the "LT" 19" shocks use preload, rebound and compression adjusters, which is all good but there aren't many of us out there who fully know how they all work together, so I sould either go with the TCS 17 inchers and get the 12" of travel or go to 19" TCS and get almost 14". They set the rebound when they build them and eliminate the adjuster that uses up travel in the shock body. Just my opnion, there are a lot of great set ups out there, I just was able to get mine all together in 2 weeks with no hassles.

 

I'm sure you can find +2 long travel arms - +3s would be easier though. They will probably be about an extra 100 bucks over standard travel +2's but from everything I've heard/read it is well worth it. The LTs also don't have much effect on ground clearance. What I could get you would be a brand new set of the Ohlins w/piggybacks that came on the Cdale Moto - then the best thing to do is to get them setup for your weight and riding style and have them converted to have zero preload. Then what you have is simply a ride height adjustment. You can raise or lower you quads center of gravity that way. Lower = better turning ability (aka MX riding) while higher is better for the trails. This is the setup I'm going with. Well.. one of them. The other is the stock setup on the Blaze that I will use for trail riding. Nice and narrow with the standard travel Ohlins. In the rear I'll be swapping axles from the stock Blaze unit to a Durablue Eliminator 2+2 when I want to widen up to 50" for MX.

Like jayce said you could go with the TCS - they are nice shocks indeed - but they will cost you quite a bit more than I can get you the Ohlins for. Your decision [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I've got Houser LT +3/+1 on my Raptor with 19" Elka quad-rate pigybacks and absolutely love the way it handles. $800 for the A-arms, $1200 for the shocks. One benefit of a long travel front end is the ability to still steer the front tires even though the front bumper is two foot off the ground. Instead of a wheelie, the front end just keeps extending as you roll on the throttle:-) If I had to list a complaint, you will need to hit jumps faster to get the same lift/distance. The better the front end, the more it absorbs the jump.

 

From what I've read, that is true, you might have to hit jumps a little harder, especially those that have steep faces and short takeoffs cause you will be using a lot of shock then. On something like a tabletop though I don't envision a problem. It's all about what ya want I guess, but it must be ok for hitting jumps cause so many of the MX guys run long travel fronts. JMO [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

PS: I can get the Ohlins quite a bit cheaper than $1200 [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

The long travel shocks and a-arms sound like the ones I would want. But that completely changes the products I was going to get. Since ricky stator don't have the +2 long travel a-arms, which ones should I look for? I don't think I want +3, because +2 seems kind of wide in the trails, and that is mostly what I ride. +2 is overall, right? As for the shocks, where do you get your ohlins from and these are long travel? I was going to try to get everything in a package setup, but maybe I should buy everything seperate. How much does it cost to get the ohlins setup?

 

I can get my long travel Ohlins from a secret Cannondale paradise - no in all seriousness I just have seen a lot of good deals on them and could find you some if I started looking - and they would be new or very very close to. It is costing me about $200 to get the Ohlins setup for my weight (revalved) and to get them converted to ZPS (zero preload). I'm not an expert on the Raptor arms so these guys can probably send you the right direction for that. I think on the Rappy +2 would be good for the trails but you may only find long travel arms in +3. In that case just use some 4/1 offset fronts and it will narrow you back up that inch. At least that is how we do it on the 'Dales.

Thomez