WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STANDARD TRAVEL AND LONG TRAVEL A ARMS.
Long travel a arms use a longer shock, this allows the shock tuner to have more flexibility and options for valving the shock for different areas of piston travel.
A standard travel set of a arms uses a stock length shock. Not as much tunability as a long travel.
A long travel a arm does NOT mean that you will necessarily get more wheel travel.
A standard travel shock might have around a 4 inch stroke, a lt shock might have a 5 1/2 inch stroke, for example. The geometry of the a arms, leverage ratio, and ball joints/ heim ends it what determines the wheel travel.
Can I use a long travel shock on a standard travel a arm
What you are asking about is using Metal Techs Long Travel A Arms, they are set up for the Honda 450R shocks they are 16.500" over the LT500 14.375" shocks. I guess if you do some upper shock frame mods you might be able to run longer shocks.
You have the option of ordering these a arms for stock LT500 spindles or using the Z400 spindles.
In reality these are not really long travel arms just set up for longer shocks and will have the benefits listed that MD2 wrote.
To use a longer shock with the OEM arms you would require to make new upper shock mounts and would have to figure out where to place them and the angle geometry to weld them onto the frame, Glamisrider had a heck of a time doing this with set of YZF450 shocks, maybe he can chime in with some photos.
Yes you could use a longer shock, but to keep the up travel limit similar to stock both upper and lower shock mounts need to be relocated. Frame dragging upon bottoming out is a possibility if only the upper mount is relocated. If only the lower mount is relocated a arm droop will increase possibly causing tie rod end /a arm ball joint bind.
So is this the same for honda trx250 A arms. thanks guys.
Its the same for any bike, get the arms then order the correct new shocks. Mount the arms up check for any binding and measure what the compressed and extended lengths the shock safely can be are.