My buddy has this RP3 …

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HELP!!!

A friend has a RP3 with an eye to eye of 7.875″ and a stroke of 2.25″. Will this work on a 2003 Specialized Enduro Expert?????

Thanks!

Brian

Hey Brian,

Yes, that shock will fit on your Mighty Enduro. Consider:

The eye-to-eye is a bit longer than stock, which will raise the bottom bracket and steepen your geometry. You can mitigate this effect by putting the link in the slack position.

The shock will not be valved for that bike. It might work great, or it might be way off. Unless you’re a suspension tai chi master, you won’t be able to pinpoint the problem; the bike might feel a bit weird — or you might not notice the difference. There’s always custom tuning: PUSH | Dirt Labs

What’s up with your stock shock? If it’s not working right, or you want higher performance, get it serviced and tuned. I’ve had some shocks PUSHed, and the improvement was dramatic. Another option: A new, tuned shock in the stock dimensions. Call PUSH.

The people at Specialized and FOX are pretty smart, and I prefer not to mess with their kung fu. That said, my 2003 S-Works Enduro had a shorter-than-stock RP3 — but I got it directly from FOX, specifically for that bike.



Rocking the mightily awesome 2003 S-Works Enduro. It had a shorter shock to slacken the geometry. Current bikes are this slack (or slacker) out of the box.

Technique note: See how the rear tire is drifting, but the fork is compressed and the front tire is planted? That was a good moment!

Keep us updated in the comments below. Have fun!

— Lee

Read this: Coil shock on 2003 Enduro

1 reply
  1. o says:

    I had Vanilla 7.875/2.25 shock on Enduro 2003 as a replacement shock.

    The good: with almost 6 inches of travel Enduro rocked. Because the same sag (30%) equalled longer stroke, the bike was following the terrain with ease. Great confidence builder (althogh, supple body always beats a supple shock).

    The bad 1: because of the way the bike is designed, the longer e2e pushed the bike out of the sweet balance spot. Hence the bike wallowed (“bobbed”) quite a bit while riding. Especially while riding uphill.

    The bad 2: because the Vanilla is a coil shock, and not an air shock, it is “linear”, rather then “progressive”. This means that, unlike air shocks, Vanilla does not get stiffer when contracted. Turns out that because of the way the bike is designed, it really requires “progressive” shock. Otherwise, as I have learned, the shock can travel WAY too fast through its middle stroke, and bottom out frequently.

    The bad 3: longer shock == higher bottom bracket == less “braap” in corners. But this is only a slight change.

    Using a platform (RP23 has platform) can definitely help the bob.

    To get away from point 2, make sure you get “normal” or “small” air sleeve. The HV or XV (“high volume” and “extra volume”) air sleeves on some RP23s are built to simulate the “linear” behaviour of coil shocks – something the Mighty Enduro ((c) Lee) will not like.

    To get away from point 3 – well, there’s no escape. Learn to live with a new, different bike.

    After using Vanilla, I sent the original (broken) shock to PUSH for rebuid and tune. The tuned shock was absolutely great – very stable riding, good small stuff sensitivity (but less so than with Vanilla), and very nice uphills.
    So I second Lee – tuned shock is way better than a stock shock. The truth is, you can tune it yourself, but it is really advanced procedure.

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