Shock Dynos in Adelaide

[Lachie]

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any shock dynos in Adelaide?

Mods: please move if you feel this is the wrong section for this question

[IN 05 NT]

PEDDERS suspension...i would assume there would be one in adelaide

[RObErT_RaTh]

I went to pedders at morphett vale for a suspension and safety check and they have one of the shock tester machines I believe. I'm sure there is another pedders around somewhere that might be closer to you.

[rms]

Penske Racing Shocks Australia
55 North Terrace Hackney SA 5069
Ph: +61 8 8362 4417 Fax: +61 8 8362 8811

[NuGeN]

Out of curiousity,

What are you tuning/testing ?

[Lachie]

Pedders have drive on shock testers, but that not really a shock dyno. I'll post up a shock dyno graph tomorrow sometime

I need to test and tune some shocks

Penske Racing Shocks Australia
55 North Terrace Hackney SA 5069
Ph: +61 8 8362 4417 Fax: +61 8 8362 8811

Thanks mate, exactly what I was after!

Out of curiousity,

What are you tuning/testing ?

I'm tunning a set of mountain bike shocks for a small formula car. Since the car weighs in at about 225kg's (~300 with the heaviest driver), 4 are pretty much perfect for the corner weights and suspension frequencies.

Only problem is the rebound damping, its really hard (i.e. slow) to stop riders getting thrown off, plus we run much lower spring rates making the problem worse. Although they have slow and fast compression, and rebound adjustment, I think they will still need some more tinkering to stop the car 'packing' into the ground on a bumpy corner.

We would like to have a look at the effects of different fluid and see how soft we can get them, and maybe some other internal adjustments

And since you'll probably ask, yes it's a Formula SAE car

[2jzhilux]

If you just speed up the rebound (make it faster) wouldnt that stop the packing in the bumpy corners
Or try increasing the spring rate
Or increase the high speed compression

If you run out of adjustment just change the valving

Best way is to take it to a corner that your having trouble and videotape the car/wheels and then play it back in slow motion it makes it easier to diagnose the problem

Or just take it to penske they will know what they are doing

[NuGeN]

Oh that's rather interesting.
Is this for the 07 car? or are you developing for the 08 car?

Reason I am asking is I will be undertaking the Formula SAE project next year.

Are you from UniSA? or Adelaide Uni?

[RobertoX]

Hi Lachie, Give Bill at Penske a call (same business as North Terrace Tyres). He is awesome and has done our shocks for the past few years (though we do buy penskes off him )

How's the car going?

[Hiro]

We've used Penskes the last few years for the Newcastle car, before that we had Fox Vanilla mtb shocks, no idea which Penskes we used though or what they were designed for (model number/name might ring a bell though). Got them through North Terrace too, seems like thats where everyone goes (well he is the Penske distributor in Australia, but we get tyres there too)

[RobertoX]

Yep, he is also a (the?) goodyear race tyre importer for aus....

From what I remember Newcastle used 7500 series shocks
http://www.penskeshocks.co.uk/downlo...TechManual.pdf

This is a good read btw

[YLD-16L]

Only problem is the rebound damping, its really hard (i.e. slow) to stop riders getting thrown off, plus we run much lower spring rates making the problem worse.

Which particular brand/model shock are you using? None should have rebound as slow as you describe as it would be no good to be that slow on a bike either. Pending your answer to brand most are easily rebuilt (i.e. plenty of parts available) and revalved/shimmed to suit any use you want.

The only reason that any bike industry shock would be incredibly slow on the rebound is if oil is to heavy in weight, undersprung, no charge on the floating piston etc which would be odd to have happen on a new shock (or 4 as you are using).

I assume what ever you are using is adjustable in compression and rebound? Perhaps in bump threshold too?

[Hiro]

Yep, he is also a (the?) goodyear race tyre importer for aus....

From what I remember Newcastle used 7500 series shocks
http://www.penskeshocks.co.uk/downlo...TechManual.pdf

This is a good read btw

Yeah, the 7500 series looks about right, I was involved in suspension design in 2005 but didn't have anything to do with the shocks

[takai]

Which particular brand/model shock are you using? None should have rebound as slow as you describe as it would be no good to be that slow on a bike either. Pending your answer to brand most are easily rebuilt (i.e. plenty of parts available) and revalved/shimmed to suit any use you want.

The only reason that any bike industry shock would be incredibly slow on the rebound is if oil is to heavy in weight, undersprung, no charge on the floating piston etc which would be odd to have happen on a new shock (or 4 as you are using).

I assume what ever you are using is adjustable in compression and rebound? Perhaps in bump threshold too?

Quoth for truth. In your case i would be looking at either a combo coil/air or a plain coil shock. Something like the Fox DHX5 would do you fine, the air assist will allow you to change the setup on the shock quickly and easily.

[Lachie]

Thanks for all the replys guys - my apologies now if I forget to address anyones

These are going on the 2007 car. The cars going well, although we are a little behind schedule.

I have adjusted the compression softer. Their three way adjustable shocks as said in a previous post, with air pressure adjusment as well.

ecotechilux - they are set as fast as possible. Going to a harder spring is not an option as this would increase the wheel rate too much. Changing the motion ratio may be an option to allow a softer spring on the shock.

Were sending them back to the manufacturer for a rebuild and getting them to make us softer for them (softer oil and revalving) The oil in them is pretty disgusting

Buying a new set of Penske may be an option (if the rebuild is no good) as we just secured another sponsor for quite a considerable amount

The shocks we are using the Progressive Suspenion 5th element coil shocks

+ rep for all