[50gary]

I wrote one of my long replies and accidentially deleted it so the short answer is "Yes" I think you could do a direct mount mono-shock i.e. no linkage. It would have to be a short shock to fit and mount on the cross brace of the CX500 swingarm and weld an upper mount in place. I measured my CX '78 and my Yamaha R1 shock (12" C/C with piggyback resevoir) It will fit but the spring rate would have to be high due to short leverage.

Cheers, 50gary

 

[50gary]

I would guess that the CX swingarm would be strong enough and you could always reinforce it from underneath. The spring rate would have to go way up because of the leverage change. The wheel rate is what's important, that's the spring rate at the rear axle. Mono-shock springs are easy to come by though.

Cheers, 50gary