I was fooling around with the rear shock pre-load on my new (to me) 2009 Monster 696. The manual says very little about it. It gives a length of 150mm as the stock setting with the rear wheel off the ground. It also says "When adjusting the spring preload, do not exceed a spring length of 181 mm to avoid damaging the swing-arm."
That's the part I don't get. It looks to me that if you exceed a length of about 167 mm the adjuster lock nut will hit the swing arm casting. My spring is unmarked, but as far as I know the shock assembly is stock. I haven't removed the spring yet, but I did slack the adjusters off as far as I could and it looks to me as though the free length is under 181 mm. I was unable to fully unload the spring, but I would guess that the free length might be around 175mm or so.
Does anyone know the free length of the stock spring and/or can anyone shed light on that measurement of 181mm and why it's significant?