As above really. I’m looking to swap out the basic Ario from my Speccy Camber to something a little nicer and I’m finding the choice of 200X51 shocks a little limited.

I know that putting a shock with a lower stroke length will lessen the rear travel but in real terms, how much travel will 1mm realistically lose me, and will it drastically affect the feel of the ride?

you’ll lose approx 2% of available travel

I’m sure feel will depend on the nature of the damping rather than that 1mm

Don’t do it. That first sweet 2% of travel is much more important to the way the bike rides than the remaining 98%.

Both shocks same size because really the shock is 200×50.4 but for some weird reason specialised round it up.I had a Camber and fitted a fox rp23 kashima 200×50 shock and measured the travel and it was the same and the difference it made was amazing,it was like riding a new bike.

I do wonder whether the difference between a 50 and 51 shock is whether they bothered to include the 0.4 (1″ = 25mm or 1″ = 25.4mm). I dont think you will die in a horrific fireball as a result of the swap.

Cheers chaps.