Schumacher Big Bore Vented Shock Caps.

Ok, so in my ongoing, and thus far fruitless, quest to be a  little less rubbish I've thrown yet more money at my Cougar SV2.

This time my hard earned cash has been wasted invested in the latest hop up from the Northampton massive, a set of vented bleeder shock caps for my big bore shocks.

Here they are.
Nicely machined little beauties aren't they.

These shock caps come with a set of bladders and a set of o-rings, thus enabling the user to build the shocks bladder free.



The bladder free shock is often referred to, incorrectly, as an 'emulsion shock'. This is incorrect as an emulsion is a mixture of  two, usually, unblendable liquids.
A better term would be an 'aeration shock' as building the shocks without a bladder results in a small amount of air being diffused in the shock oil.

Anyway whatever you want to call them, it's what I'm going to do!

At the same time I decided to treat the shocks to a complete rebuild and some minor modifications.

First I stripped them down and gave them a clean. 

When it was time to reassemble I installed some nice new 'Whitey' o-rings liberally coated with some K12 red grease designed for hydraulic applications. 

I usually use AE Green Slime but this is significantly cheaper and if it works this pot will probably last longer than me. 

After studying various set-ups I noticed that the great and the good are all using more droop than standard. In order to achieve this on the front I unscrewed the shock ends by two full turns. On the rear rather than lowering the rear shock tower by 4mm, which seems a common mod, I used a longer ball grippa.

Regular readers will recognise my 'top of the range' shock stand which I have also modified to 'works' spec by writing F and R on it with a sharpie.

AE oil, 40wt front 30wt rear.

I built these with zero rebound. 

To do this:

1. Fill the shocks to the top.

2. Install the shock cap without the bleed screw, tighten fully.

3. Slowly compress the shock, you will eventually see oil bleed from the screw hole.

4. When the shock is fully compressed install and tighten the bleed screw.

5. Wipe away any excess oil.

Et voila!

You're good to go.

I think they look pretty good, but I guess it's more about how they perform.

So obviously you can expect to see me cruising to the front of the 'A' final at my next meeting .... probably.
Well I have to remain optimistic don't I, it's how I justify the daft amounts of money I spend on this hobby.
I'll settle for any improvement.

TORCH at the weekend to give them a go.
They have a new layout for the regional meeting so I will try and take a few pics.