Hi peeps,
I'm toying with the idea of fitting solid struts and a sprung seat instead of the original shocks, it'll lower the bike and look a lal bit cooler, and since the original shocks are crap anyway a sprung seat should have the same amount of give??

I'm a tad nervous to do this though because of things ive read over the web, such as possible broken frames, bad handling, broken spines etc

i can understand the rear wheel skipping round a bend, but since i don't ride it like i stole it that may not be too much of an issue, any thoughts about the stresses involved? what about the swingarm? since its designed to erm swing if it was locked in a certain position and the inevitable happened (bad potholes) could it send a serious amount of shock through the swing arm bearings???

id like to hear any thoughts and experiences....

cheers
mike

You seem to have a good grasp of the negatives...
The only positive is liking the look...

Women don't wear stiletto heels for their health either...

You like the look, go for it... you won't be winning any races...

Since I'm THE rigid frame fanatic on the board... 25 psi in the rear tire. 5 inch barrel style springs, the clothespin type are garbage unless/until supplemented with a small barrel spring. As much pressure as the front tire can take if sticking with a hydraulic front end. If switching to a springer front end, 30-35 psi tops in the front.

I HATE hydraulic forks and swingarm frames. They look like crap, they handle like crap, and they ride like crap. A rigid frame looks clean, has zero inherent wobble, and if you can figure out your rear tire pressure and seat spring combo, ride fine.

Try out a set of struts, and if you like the handling tightened up (and boy will it tighten up), buy a weld on rigid conversion kit and do it right. That's for the next year or so with mine. Plan to ride it as built for  awhile and then chop it up again and do it right.

I've had over 100 street motorcycles, mostly ancient rigids. I really, really, miss 6v kick only, points fired, mechanically actuated carburetor instead of that vacuum actuated want to be modern crap trying to pass itself off as a real carburetor, rigid framed springer equipped motorcycles.

And for the sake of your kidneys, DO NOT install a hard mounted seat... made that mistake a couple times.

cigarandcoffeeman, I agree the full on hardtail is the way to go, but sometimes you gotta do with what ya got. I just recently said bye to my shocks after much deliberation. I was so afraid from what everyone had said about the ride, that I thought it would be the worst ride ever. I finally just went for it. It is a temporary thing if you want it to be, just a quick lift and switch back, if you decide you'd rather have shocks.

I have noticed if I'm not expecting a sudden bump it is harder than with shocks, but over all it is not bad. I am young, but not that young... and I don't mind it. I haven't made any hour+ trips on it yet, so my attitude might change, but so far I love it. And the wife even road on it the other night and admitted it was nowhere near as bad as she thought it was going to be.

heres my job(still gotta take em back off and finish grinding and painting to look pretty, but who has time for that when you can be riding):


And here's a very nice strut job that flows super nice with the frame. I'm not sure whose bike this is but its very nicely done:




Just thought I'd share. Happy riding!

...a bike without shocks is like a day without sunshine... ...

...(I know WD likes 'em,.. but he likes drum brakes, contact points... and he'd be ridin' wood spokes and steel rims if he could find them)...

Suspension is like free HP.... you can't have enough... ...

I run all of my Savages with struts.I too am a rigid fan.I'm 270lbs and I never had a problem with parts bending,breaking,whatever.It's not that bad if you drop the tire pressure a little.I also run 150/90 rear tires.

That MIGHT work,if it was a box end on both sides.Put a rubber shock grommet in there and Viola.....Hmmmmm never thought of that,until now,lol.

I usually make mine out of 1" solid round bar(probably overkill).But I like to closely match the frame diameter.Set your ride heighth.(take shocks off,with bike on a jack)and measure where your shock bolts go and I usually make each end about a 1/2"longer.

Awesome thanks for the great reply's. 1 more question where do you get your 1" round bar I know its stupid but I have tried home depot and a couple of other places and cant find it to save my life.....

This is really cool and looks like a really easy way to make an almost perfect rigid back side without the welding I am seriously thinking about doing this. I swear it looks like they used a crow bar
To me this is genius and how they all should be made and how they all should have been made in the first place. It makes more sense.




and if you want to spend $1200 and you dont want to have to weld Ryca has a bolt on, but you have to convert to chain. http://shop.rycamotors.com/hardtail_frame.html


HMMM!!! a couple peices of aangled iron.... $1200 bolt on....
No brainer!!!