[jsh191]

bottlerocket owners...

quick question/issue. recently removed the rear shock (marzocchi roco tst) to swap out the spring. mounted the shock back on the frame and now there is significant play at the rear bolt (shock moves front to back). turned the shock around (resevoir at rear) to see if it was the bushings, and there was still slop. replaced the bolt...still slop. i have no idea what the problem is. am i missing something?????

 

[TRANSITION-MJR]

you really have to crank down on the bolts to tighten up the rear end. since the linkage plates/rear end is so burly and stiff it takes more to tighten everything up, i myself and others had issues with this as well, and in talking with Cam at Transition bikes you just need as big of an allen key as you can get for leverage and give it a good tighten, it will take care of the play.

 

[jsh191]

thanks for the info... i was really hesitant to crank down hard on the bolt because it's threaded directly into the linkage. i'll give it a try tonight and see if i can tighten it up without stripping the thing...

 

[Lumagent Morple]

Same thing happened to me with a DHX on the bottlerocket. Even when I cranked it down, there was a little bit of play. I went ahead and got some Marzocchi reducers for it (8mm x 22.2mm). You might also want to check out this thread on mtbr for some info on the shock play. With the new reducers I have no play, and they only took a few minutes to install.

 

[spacemanspiff06]

transition has been sending bikes (more then just the BR) out with the wrong size shock mount bolt. that play was there before you just didn't notice it. take some calipers to the inside of the reducers and get to a fastener shop.

 

[jsh191]

Same thing happened to me with a DHX on the bottlerocket. Even when I cranked it down, there was a little bit of play. I went ahead and got some Marzocchi reducers for it (8mm x 22.2mm). You might also want to check out this thread on mtbr for some info on the shock play. With the new reducers I have no play, and they only took a few minutes to install.

thanks for the tip. i may need to check out those reducers.

as far as the play being there before... it definitely wasn't noticeable, and i definitely had to crank on the bolt to break it loose.

 

[mandown]

yeah, poor production on transition's part. mine keeps coming loose. i've got a dhx5 and the mouning bolts always have play, no matter how hard i crank on them. cam said the newer ones should be made to tighter tollerances.

 

[jsh191]

yeah, unfortunately that seems to be the situation. i have an early production 2008 baby blue model, so i'm surprised to hear of the problem(s). but, worse case scenario, i buy the $12 reducers and hopefully don't have to worry about it.

 

[bent^biker]

i've noticed that when i take my dhx air off too, but the elbow grease always takes care of the problem. It'd be nice if they would roll out some linkages with better tolerance for current owners

 

[zahgurim]

transition has been sending bikes (more then just the BR) out with the wrong size shock mount bolt. that play was there before you just didn't notice it. take some calipers to the inside of the reducers and get to a fastener shop.

The problem isn't a wrong size bolt from Tranny, it's that Fox shipped wrong sized bushings with their OEM DHXs.
It's an easy fix. Just replace the Fox alu bushings with Marz's steel bushings, and you won't have the problem again.

 

[DirtyMike]

Never was very fond of ALuminum bushings to begin with, good to see someone like Marzocchi has the better product out there. Got the Marz reducers on my Dirtbag.

 

[thruster]

the problem is the bolt. I changed mine out and have not had any play what so ever.

 

[banrider]

I have a baby blue frame too...I replaced the reducers and problem solved....

yeah, unfortunately that seems to be the situation. i have an early production 2008 baby blue model, so i'm surprised to hear of the problem(s). but, worse case scenario, i buy the $12 reducers and hopefully don't have to worry about it.

 

[banrider]

the problem are the reducers...as they are loose on the rocket, they are marked with the bolt as they move up/down, back/forth....maybe your thread bolt is bigger than the stock one and helps to avoid the reducers play but the problem is still there...

the problem is the bolt. I changed mine out and have not had any play what so ever.

 

[jsh191]

i received an email from transition last night, and was informed the bolt needs to be cranked down to 200 in/lbs, which is apparently how they are shipped. don't know about you guys, but that seems like a ridiculous amount of torque for that bolt. oh well...i'll give it a shot.

 

[ridefast]

there are various causes for this problem, as well as various fixes

the linkage design was changed at some point in the past year to one that has more internal clearance, which helps when tightening that bolt. older models were not clearanced the same and were actually more stiff from side to side which also affected how easily that bolt could be tightened.

ive had great success on mine (older linkage design) by putting a small amount of grease (i like the green phil's) on the end of the threads and then putting some pretty heavy torque on the bolt

ive never replaced the shock bolt bushings and the people i know that have replaced them never tried the greasing the threads method

 

[jsh191]

tried tightening the bolt last night to remove the small amount of play at the rear bolt... as suggested, i placed a minimal amount of grease on the bolt head to minimize friction, and it worked much better than just torquing on it regularly... no more movement. i may still buy the reducers...

 

[mandown]

i replaced the bushings and i still have play. the bushings fox sent were oddly spaced and one side is a slight bit longer than the other, so the shock isn't perfectly aligned, but i have yet to notice any problem related to this.

also, be sure to check the pivot point near the bottom bracket. that thing comes loose all the time. i have to take my crank arms off to get at it

 

[46chief]

200ft lbs would be ridiculous

 

[eball]

I had these issuses when i first bought my BR and its an 07 model, but I spoke with the good folks at Transition and they gave me the remedy..

Make sure you check all the Pivot Cap bolts as these sometimes come loose creating slop in the rear end. I would also add some blue thread lock to the shock bolt and pivot cap bolts and don't be afraid to crank down on them as they suggested.

Hope this Helps

 

[Mike.rider]

200ft lbs would be ridiculous

the torque spec is 200 inch pounds not foot pounds. the rock is CNC aluminium and is a very stiff peice. transition has never had an issue with those bolts stripping out. Mine and neils bottle rockets both have german torque on the shock bolt and have had no stripping issues or play in the rear end.

final word; Grease it and torgue it!