ok what exactly has to be done to convert the 4 to a six. anything other than a shock? also has anyone ventured in tring to update the rear shock say to a swinger or somthing. i am looking to convert my 4 banger to longer travel with a swinger, so any info on this let me know. also if anyone has a good line on how to get parts for this bike other than ebay let me know as well. thanks so much
schwinn 4 banger to straight six
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I have a 4-banger and have been thinking of upping the travel also. All that has to be done is changing the shock. Unfortunately shocks for these bikes are hard to come by. I've checked out Stratos and Reisse racing web pages for available shocks ($$$), and they do make them. If you're really lucky, you might find one on e-bay or these classified. There were SIDs and fox's made for the straight six as well as Rock-shox deluxe. The shocks for the straight six are slightly longer and have 2"of travel as opposed to 1.5" on the 4-banger. I've also been wondering if I could find a shock with the necessary dimensions eye to eye that the trunion would just screw onto the threads that the spring keeper threads to. As far as parts, there aren't really too many around. Derailleur hangers are available at www.derailleurhanger.com as well as Schwinn dealers (not Wal-Mart), check the web for a contact in the warranty department at Schwinn (I'm not sure who owns them now, used to be pacific cycle). The bearings on the swingarm are common bearings that can be found at hardware stores, or maybe skateboard shops, and deffinately at industrial supply co's like McMaster-Carr or Graingers (check these sites). Oh, if you break your frame you might as well start looking for a good TIG welder! I love my banger and want to keep it on the trail for a ling time.vanair said:
i actually live right down the street from manitou, and the local bike shop is in good with them, they looked at the bike and said that manitou could make somthing for my to get a swinger on the 4 banger. the only funny thing is that if you take your current shock off and try to pull the swing arm up to fit a longer shock in the rear tire hits the bottom swing arm. the current shock measures like 5.5 eye to trunion, and it could be wrong but stratos and fox both have the shock for the staight six to be 7.5 eye to eye. i don't know if they mean eye to trunion or what but either way 7.5 would never fit, maybe 6.5 but thats pushing it. please sombody post who has done this.
I have a custom Rock Shox Pro Deluxe piggy back 2" stroke coilover that was made for the Schwinn race team when they wanted to try adding travel to a 4 banger for DS use. This one was an in house test unit that has less than 200 miles on it and no racing or other hard use. It has adjustable compression and rebound and comes with a 650lb spring that worked well for my 170lb butt. Be aware that when I set the compression high enough so the bike doesn't bob at all the shock hisses slightly but works fine and it's heavy at 700+ grams. It is 5.9" eye to eye. If anyone is interested in it I'd take $125 plus a stock trunion Sid air shock in good shape. You'll get nearly 6" of rear suspension travel with my Pro Deluxe coilover, just like an 01 straight 6. The rest of the rear ends are the same. The only other difference to a straight 6 that I know of is the head tube angle and length were different to accommodate a 5" fork.
There were different length shocks for different year 4 Bangers. The first year frames maybe 98 that had the interrupted seat tube used really short Rock Shox coil overs, like 5" eye to eye. I have a spare if anyone needs it. In 99 the Taiwanese curve seattube frames switched to a longer shock spec. My 2000 service manual says 5.3" min and 5.7" max eye to eye. The two Sid trunion rear shocks that I have measured were 5.9" from a production 00 and 5.5" from a preproduction '99. 7.5" sounds long to me. I've never seen a Sid for the 01 Straight 6 but the Vanilla that came on them were decent.
There were different length shocks for different year 4 Bangers. The first year frames maybe 98 that had the interrupted seat tube used really short Rock Shox coil overs, like 5" eye to eye. I have a spare if anyone needs it. In 99 the Taiwanese curve seattube frames switched to a longer shock spec. My 2000 service manual says 5.3" min and 5.7" max eye to eye. The two Sid trunion rear shocks that I have measured were 5.9" from a production 00 and 5.5" from a preproduction '99. 7.5" sounds long to me. I've never seen a Sid for the 01 Straight 6 but the Vanilla that came on them were decent.
i understand that, the point is that any coilover will fit on the bike and acheive 6" of travel as long as it has a 2" stroke and you can thread the trunion mt. on to it. correct me if i am wrong. you see i want to put the manitou swinger 4 way coil on it so that i will have the SPV luxory of the newer bikes, i was just wanting to know the length from eye to eye of your shock to get an idea of what length i need, because you can only purchase shocks that measure eye to eye, almost nothing comes with trunion anymore. so if anyone sees anything wrong with this idea let me know.
I know we could be communicating better but how?vanair said:
Are you planning to use the shocks top eye to mount to the swing arm in place of the trunion? If so let me know what you have to fabricate.
I think you may be trying to figure out the eye to top of spring measurement if you want to thread a trunion on a Manitou coil. I'll get eye to eye and eye to top of spring measurements by Monday.
well it would be nice to elimanate the trunion, but i don't think you could gain any travel by doing that, in fact i think you may lose some. however i took my bike to the local shop and the are in good with manitou who is only 5 miles away and they said that they could get somthing made for it to fit eye to eye. my current thinking though is threading the trunion onto a manitou swinger. but if i order too shot of one then i will not achieve the 5.5 to 6inchs of travel i want. so that is why i was asking what the length of your shock was eye to eye, beacuase thats the only way they sell them these days, by length eye to eye. but i figure that any shock the produces atlease 2inchs of travel will work as long as it has room to thread the trunion onto it.
The stock Fox coilover has no upper eye. If you are using a different shock with a trunion I'd think you would have to be sure that it isn't too long from the lower eye to the top of the spring because that is were the trunion would go. I'd guess 5.5" max.
do you know if the threading on the coilover shocks is pretty standard? they all look close, the reason i am askin is the concern of the trunion no threading on. abou the length issue i was figuring that you could buy a 7.5 to 7.9 eye to eye coil over and thread the trunion onto it to about 5.5, 5.6 and it would work. if the pring is too long just order a shorter one. a little costly but i think the added quality of a good shock would be great.
I discovered that the threading is different from Fox to Rock Shox. Who knows what Stratus is.vanair said:
I may have a spare 2" travel Fox coilover with Trunion mount from a straight 6. I have one of these on my 4 Banger that has been modified to have platform damping just like all the current shock by Push Industries and I think the ride is as good or better than any thing you can buy today.
If you are interested in the shock let me know. If you aren't farmilar with Push, do a seach on the shock forum. They are highly regarded.
so the fox shock you would sell has the stable platform by push on it? if so i would be interested, what would your price be? only interested if it has the stable platform though and the 2inch stroke, oh and if you could load a picture that would be cool too. thanks!
The one I may sell hasn't had the stable platform work done yet you would have to send it out yourself.. I'd probably want $150 for the shock and the platform work is another $150.
The problem I'm running into is that if I sell the shock separately I'm stuck with a 16" straight 6 frame without it's shock. I'm selling a 14" Straight 6 on ebay right now and will see what kind of money it brings so I can decide what to do. I know the price is high but I like my Pushed Vanilla set up so much that I know it's worth it.
The problem I'm running into is that if I sell the shock separately I'm stuck with a 16" straight 6 frame without it's shock. I'm selling a 14" Straight 6 on ebay right now and will see what kind of money it brings so I can decide what to do. I know the price is high but I like my Pushed Vanilla set up so much that I know it's worth it.
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transferred 4-Banger into Straight 6
i changed the damper and transferred my 4-banger into a straight 6! it now has 140mm (or almost 6") of travel! i just took a longer rockshox-damper and it works fine. see the pictures below:
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if you want to user dampers with piggy-backs, then you guys need to build your own adapter. I have one at home for this cases, unfortunately it is made of steel and thus very heavy. see the picture:
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you can open the adapter and wrap it around the dampfer. see this picture:
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@ artnshel:
do you still have your manual of the 4-banger at home? can you maybe please scan that for me? i am looking for the torque-specifications of all the bolts on the 4-banger!
many thanks!
regards from germany
gerhard
i changed the damper and transferred my 4-banger into a straight 6! it now has 140mm (or almost 6") of travel! i just took a longer rockshox-damper and it works fine. see the pictures below:
if you want to user dampers with piggy-backs, then you guys need to build your own adapter. I have one at home for this cases, unfortunately it is made of steel and thus very heavy. see the picture:
you can open the adapter and wrap it around the dampfer. see this picture:
@ artnshel:
do you still have your manual of the 4-banger at home? can you maybe please scan that for me? i am looking for the torque-specifications of all the bolts on the 4-banger!
many thanks!
regards from germany
gerhard
I just got a fox vanilla R propedal for my 4 banger and found out that the thread did not fit. So i had to tweak it a bit to get the trunion to fit the fox. Basically what i did was sand the trunion down a bit, pretty much sanded down all the thread inside the trunion and got a tight fit on the shock body. Then i ordered a extra preload ring to hold the trunion in place. I know some people may say it is not strong enough to hold the pressure, i thought about it too but i had no choice. So in order to make it stronger, i used jbweld to weld the trunion between the two preload ring on the top and bottom. It looks pretty strong to me and i took a few hard ride with it with no problem. But i will keep an eye on it before every ride to make sure everything is fine. Not sure if any of you want to do that, it worked for me. Just be sure to have a tight fit for the trunion, a fit that you need to use a mallet to tap it in. I called fox and tried to order their trunion for their fox vanilla r, but they said they dont sell it seperatly, how stupid.
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you'll have no problem with that ring! the original preload-ring holds the full force of the spring, if the shock is fully compressed. so why shouldn't do the other ring the same?! so, don't worry!jyguy915 said:
I was actually thinking about an adapter like this! see the picture:
regards from munich
gerhard
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290 Posts
What is the size of the Vanilla R you bought? I see Icycles has one on sale and I've been wondering if it would work out. It measures 6.75"from eye to eye and I'm not sure if there's enough room between the top eye and the spring to fit a trunion... i was thinking of buying a fox then taking it to a machine shop and have them make me a trunion.
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