Rear shocks hitting frame Tao Tao EVO  By  toddscoot71 (Read 3,722 times)

Your eyes do deceive you.  The photo does kind of look like that but the shocks are straight with no damage.

I've never felt any issues with this bike either and the rear suspension still seems to work fine.  The rattle is slight and might not even be coming from the shocks.

I don't think rider weight would be the issue here either.  You can just barely bounce the back up and down and the top of the shock bumps that tab.

I noticed this while looking around for the rattle.  If you have a moment perhaps you can take a look at your upper shock mount.

I'm wondering if they welded the tabs on the frame at the wrong angle on mine.   It's the only thing that makes sense.

Actually, I just thought of something.  Could it maybe be the upper bushing on the shock?  I suppose if the rubber was bad this could happen.  I'll have to pull them off to take a look.

I'm trying to figure out some way to fix this...

I know this is a long shot but does anyone make offset upper bushings for these shocks?  I suppose it might be possible to make polyurethane bushings with an offset hole for the metal sleeve.

Is there any other adjustment that would pivot the shock away from that mount?  Moving the entire motor/swingarm forward a little would probably do it too but I assume there's no adjustment for that.

My shocks on the rear have a chrome top and I see yours do not. Will have to wait for daylight and a chance to take a decent picture to share.

Mine are chrome on the top too.  That picture was taken when it was dark with a crappy cell phone so it's kind of hard to see.  When the shocks are still on the bike you can't really see the grooves in the tops of them either but if you have very little clearance like my picture or the other one I posted: www.myedocs.com/onlinefiles/Scooters/photos/pump.JPG they might be doing it too.

craisin: As for the seat breaking, that's not the problem.  It's the top of the shock bumping the frame shock mounts.  Weight doesn't seem to be the issue either.  My wife only weights 125 lbs or so and it does it with just her sitting on the scooter.

I also considered grinding the tab a bit and still might but I hate to alter the frame in any way.  I would almost rather find some aftermarket shocks that have more clearance but I really don't feel like throwing more money at this thing right now.

Thanks for the info on the aftermarket shocks.  That does help and I may go that route.  Were they a direct bolt on?  Actually, I just looked on ebay.  They appear to be $89-$100 EACH.  Ouch.

Keep in mind that me posting this wasn't a shot at you personally just because you own a TaoTao Evo.  I went into this whole Chinese scooter thing with my eyes wide open.  I knew there would be a lot of stupid things to fix.  But...  I think having the shock mounts at the wrong angle, so much so that the stock shocks hit them is just plain crap quality.

Obviously I have the option of getting rid of it and buying a more expensive scooter but that's not really the point.  I've already spent a ton of money on the bike and spending money on it isn't the issue.  I personally think I shouldn't have to modify a frame though. 

Again, thanks for the info on the shocks.  It's good to know those have enough clearance since I'm pretty much guessing with the aftermarket ones without seeing someone that's already using them.

I suppose the point of my posting this here is to see if there might be something else wrong with my scooter causing it.  Maybe I'm the only one with the problem.

If the spring cap isn't welded to the rod end, and I would think it isn't, couldn't you take the shock apart and put a spacer of some sort between the cap and the rod end? That would lower the cap preventing it from hitting the shock mount.