These guys sure present Mike in a positive light ... Husky also ... Lots of details and pics here on what Husky did to piece together his bike .. http://motocrossactionmag.com/news/we-ride-mike-browns-endurocross-husqvarna-fe350 This article is stamped 31Dec014 so I'm hoping this is not a repeat posting.
This is from the article ...real stuff or colorful magazine rebound fluff? Brown’s FE350 is equipped with a WP Trax shock. The Drop Out system is beneficial in small bumps. As soon as the rear wheel leaves the ground, the system opens up and tries to push the rear wheel back to the ground as quickly as possible. The Trax system works best over rock beds, because the rear end is more inclined to stay in contact with the ground instead of hopping violently.
ray_ray, The WP 5018 Trax shock allows the shock to bypass the rebound settings to allow the shock to top out immediately off small bumps. It has a dual piston design with a stepped bore. It is a piece of art and is made from a solid billet block of Aluminum. No aluminum castings machined here. I am fortunate to run one of these myself on my BMW G450X. Not to many of them were made for my G450X, trust me. The Trax unit itself is located on the bottom of the shock near the rebound adjuster. That's it under the Rubber seal just adjacent to the adjuster. Changing out the stock Ohlins shock to this WP Trax unit has also allowed me to use a Slavens Racing progressive wound spring, which is unavailable for the Stock Ohlins shock and works much better on the PDS set up. Speaking from experience on my bike alone. This WP Trax shock is a game changer for sure.
The way you wrote that makes me want to put pds set up an the wp shock on my husky... Dam the green eyes of envy.
One of these shocks can bring a PDS system to a whole new level. So can the cost of one of these shocks to your bank account if not purchased very carefully. Mine had about 250 miles and was like new. I had to change the spring out but paid about $640.00 for the shock. New ones will set you back more than a few thousand bucks easily.
Had you thought I was kidding. Average price is about $2500.00 but can be up to $2800.00 and maybe as low as $1900.00. If you are lucky. The Trax unit itself on these shocks can require regular routine maintenance if not kept really clean. Especially if the bike and shock isn't washed properly. No pressure washers. If that area gets packed with mud and crap under the rubber bumper and isn't removed carefully it can work its way in and damage the end of the shock and the Trax unit itself. This Trax function only works when the weight is off that end of the bike. If you have someone push the bike forward and hold the front brake to push down on the forks, you can get down next to the bike and hear the Trax unit click, so you know its working. It's not easily tested when removed from the bike.
Certainly interesting reading so far on this ... I open and close my compression settings on both front and rear like I'm eating popcorn depending on track or trail conditions, but the rebound is something I never play with ... Both front and rear rebound settings are probably 2-3 clicks from default on my bikes ... Rebound, its just scary to me ... Visions of the rear-end of my bike bucking-up sky-high (rebounding) are in my head ... With that said, this device is helping ensure the rear wheel stays in contact with the ground? I've never given this much more than a single thought on any of my bikes but maybe its time I moved my rebound clickers ... BT, can you give any more details on what this device does to your bike out on the trails when riding at different speeds or terrian?
I know many people like the PDS.... personally I hated it.... even had pro circuit out in the desert in 2002 changing stuff for us... my buddy got his where he was ok with it but I personally like the progressive feel with linkage and the more progressive the better.... i use big springs and low amount of valving.... I want the rear as free as possible which is also why I want it progressive....
Can you explain this progressive feel vs a PDS system on just normal trail riding? I'm just clueless here on what your guys are talking about ... I like the idea of less bearings to replace ..
The WP Trax shock is no comparison to my 'Dicks racing suspension" revalved Ohlins unit. The Trax feature lets the wheel drop off small hits so it gains traction immediately when it's in the top of it's stroke. The G450X chassis being a PDS suspended set up and having a CTS on the rear, unlike the Husky 449s using a CTS system with a shock linkage. Is quite different to set up plus the shock is more of a laid down, cantilever position as well which itself sets the shock in a more progressive position with regard to distance travelled and valving. The Trax unit I have has 38 clickers on all three adjustments. High & low speed comp., and rebound. The CTS set up makes the rear of the bike lift and rise under power rather than squat like conventional systems. So its at this time that the Trax unit really works it's magic on the G450X. The wheel stays in contact and is gaining traction it seems at all times when under power in the top area of the shocks stroke. This is the same shock the Speedbrain- BMW factory teams used on all of their hard enduro and rallye bikes. Had this been the stock installed shock on the BMW it would have been a game changer. Cost was prohibitive though and still is on all production dirt bikes. These WP 5018 Trax shocks are made for just about every model dirt bike out there if you want to shell out the cash though. It does take some getting used to riding the CTS system, others who have ridden my bike whom ride KTMs with PDS have said the rear wheel feels like it wants to pass the front wheel but is always controllable as it has so much traction. I usually run a (Motoz Tractionator 140x80x18 rear). The front wheel under power stays planted when seated in a neutral position yet will steer easily. I run a set of KTM 20mm trees and open chamber WP 4860 Forks on my G450. The stock trees have a 27mm offset with the stock 45mm Zokes. This stock 27mm offset is further out than just about any other dirt bike out there, which can make the bike steer slowly to the touch and riders input at lower speeds..The WP 4860 front end I am now using was set up with Gold valves and re-valved for desert riding by Racetech also. It has a very light feel (with GPR Damper) but it sticks and steers on a dime with little rider input other than sliding forward a bit on the seat. I run a soft terrain tire on the front as I ride a lot of sand washes here. I'll try to explain what I notice differently from the stock set up now that I have ridden it with this shock on my bike. First of all in my case just having the ability to use a progressive wound spring is a great benefit as my spring rating starts at 6.6 and goes up to like 8.2 KG now. I previously ran a 6.8 straight wound spring as required for my weight all geared up according to the Racetech calculator. I would bottom out at high speeds. The bike now sits into the static sag height just right at about 40mm or 1.5 to 1.6 inch and with me on it and ready to go at 110mm or 4.25 to 4.30 inch. With out more than a few turns of preload. This shock has a very fine thread on it for the preload adjuster. Too much preload is not good on a progressive wound spring. Or any spring for that matter. It's very compliant at slower speeds and is much more controllable through ruts and rocky sections with no kick ups anymore as the speeds go up. No kicking side to side either at speed on the whoops. As the speeds go up so does the pressure it takes to compress it further into the stroke when using the bikes full amount of suspension travel. That's where the progressive wound spring helps out and is different than a straight wound spring. It never bottoms out now with the progressive spring either like the Ohlins shock did at times when going real fast. At slower speeds on single tracks the shock is always getting traction in the slow speed ruts even when jumping rock filled ditches and coming out the other side with the rear wheel in a diagonal facing, off camber rut or hole in the rocks. The shock allows the tire to stay on the ground when the wheel drops out into a hole or rut and allows it to pull up and out of the rut or hole its in and keeps you from losing the back end from coming around had it followed the rut itself. I never have to really adjust the low speed comp setting. I'm in at about 16 clicks. I do change the high speed comp. settings and rebound by 4 to 8 clicks here and there to make the front behave the way I want it to. As for the rear, adjustments aren't really needed to make a change at that end now that's it set up and it now does what it should have done all along. There you have it ray_ray, I'm certainly no expert but a few tweaks on your rebound settings can make a real difference from my experience and limited time riding on this shock set up. I was like you ray_ray with my Ohlins shock, even after having it re-valved which was a major improvement. I couldn't ride it without changing settings to get it right everywhere I went riding.
I never liked PDS much. Rode a few that were good, most of them I disliked. They don't seem very flexible to terrain changes, sit to high in the rear and kick at odd times and feel like they are always changing to me. To have to buy a $2500 high maintenance shock kinda does away with the simple PDS idea. KTM ate crow and is heading back to linkage for most everything.
Didn't pay $2500.00 to buy anything. The shock is only high maintenance if not looked after, just like every other shock out there if not looked after. No more so than others, just one thing maybe extra ($25.00 to 50.00 parts fee) to freshen when the shock is serviced. If one bothers to do such a thing. I'll let you know when that happens. So far so good. Doubt I'll ever have trouble where I am riding. The pro teams service there shocks constantly. I'm no pro but would know when it goes south.
I thought they did the linkage in the 2014 husabergs to call them new husqvarnas, 99% unchanged other than the badge no?
Was simply responding to the posted cost ($2500-$2800) and your posted comment, nothing more. "The Trax unit itself on these shocks can require regular routine maintenance if not kept really clean. Especially if the bike and shock isn't washed properly. No pressure washers. "
With linkage- the leverage on the shock thru the linkage makes it get progressive stiffer... thus ligther when ligther and stiffer when need stiffer.... With PDS- same leverage on the shock so you are trying to use the valving to maake it ligther when ligther and stiffer when need stiffer.... they used a dual rate spring but only so much you can do there.... So if you get a bike to handle good in one area it doesnt go great in another... so most set it in the middle and just hope for the best....
