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Assumption is the mother of all f ups.
You can't just add or remove spacers on the shaft, you need to change the HBO assembly as well.
Should eventually be able to order the travel-changing parts individually:
-HBO 'Posts'- there are 6 or 7 different ones and a 'decoder' that tells you which one goes on what stroke shock
-BLANK shafts with no sag graphics so you can stock less shafts
-Plastic travel reducer discs (2.5, 5, 7.5 thicknesses)
What else do you need?
The new RS shocks are something I think most places feel they can get behind.
Can you also do shock bodies for the air shocks with no sag markings?. That would improve things massively for both RockShox, distributors and all service centres. 8 shock bodies are needed just to cover the 57.5-65mm stroke shocks currently and most are never in stock at the distributor.
The HBO bodies are going to be tough- the HBO needle is pressed in and it's not easy (ie you couldn't do it with a vice and some janky socket setup).
Besides that your insight is pretty rad. Glad you chime in to contribute to us plebs spewing nonsense.
Threading it in place would probably make it the easiest, but then you have a jolly expensive damper body with some threads all the way down in the hole.
XC bike maybe?
Maybe there is a problem with how the routing works in such a high stress area, but I don't want my upper headset bearing being so exposed to the elements, and having the lower headset bearing (which I commonly replace annually) require a full brake line removal to deal with. I suppose if you had those fancy new solid polymer 'lifetime' bearings in your headset and/or you bleed your brakes once a year anyways it wouldn't be the biggest hassle.
Lets figure the needle is 25% of a 65mm stroke shock. That's 16.25mm long. With a 7.5mm stroke reduction, you're HBO needle will only make up 9mm or so.
I can't determine what would be any different from a hard bottom on a shock without HBO vs one with HBO, just less of it. You still need a bumper of sort, and the stroke reducer does just that. It's a bumper.