1974 DT250

[Husk72]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/151149574857?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1426.l2649
Pretty cheap way to start into vmx.


                                                                             Cheers,Mark.

[OverTheHill]

why do people put those original shocks on back to front [reservoir]--ok, stop being a picky bugger. What i was 'going' to say was--those shocks wouldn't be too hard to put a bladder into [like xr hondas have i think] & pressurise them to improve the damping--change the oil etc. Be lucky to find a good set nowdays though.

[firko]

those shocks wouldn't be too hard to put a bladder into [like xr hondas have i think] & pressurise them to improve the damping--change the oil etc. Be lucky to find a good set nowdays though.

Morley, back in the day I modified a set of thermal flows to accept Koni internals. It's been nearly 40 years but from memory the main part of the job was to sleeve the top cap/seal area and cut a new koni style thread to accept the Koni shock end cap. My initial plan was to offer the conversion to racers on an exchange basis but the difficulty getting hold of Koni dampeners and the impending release of the monoshock made the conversion financially unviable. I fitted the shocks to my 74 440 Maico and they worked really well. I also made finned alloy bodies for Konis similar to Poppy shocks as well but they too weren't very cost and time effective, especially seeing that I was doing them as foreign orders at work .
One of the small American aftermarket parts companies made upgrade kits for Thermal Flows. It could have been Number One Poroducts or perhaps Skunkworks........maybe both. I remember someone telling me that Works Performance once offered a Thermal Flow kit but I've never seen any ads for them.

[Iain Cameron]

they where from number one products Mark . same as their fork kits .Iain

[OverTheHill]

Firko i remember hearing a story about changing jets in those shocks to alter the damping or was that just the works bike versions!!. By memory there was a couple of allen screws low down on the body that presumably covered access to said jets. On the other hand on the 'civilian' mx bikes were they just allen head dummies going no-where to just make em look bloody fast?. Fixed [jacked up] a farmer mates xt125 bouncy shock this week--thought it would be the cheaply made tin cup gas piston having picked up & scored the body inside letting gas past the fat o-ring into the oil & boing boing, but what had happened is the [homemade] flap he'd made 20 years ago to keep dirt away had chafed away at the welded end until an invisible crack on the weld let the gas out which then left a big void of no oil till shock was near end of it's allowed travel. Ended up just leaving gas piston out & filling up as full as could minus the rod displacement [no gas] & worked perfect for what it is--trouble was i then saw the minute leak [oil this time from invisible crack] so had drain then clean up & solder over [no gas welder] ok for another 20 years. Never seen that happen before & couldn't work out where the gas had gone. Always something new to test you eh.