Long Way Down - Rear Shocks Failure

[Nobbyk]

Having owned quite a few different bikes and having decided to 'upgrade' the suspenders on some, I would like to make the following points.

If you decide that you wish to upgrade to aftermarket shocks, it's essential that you have the bike 'set up' properly by an expert in the field. So many people do not do this and wonder where the difference is! One major advantage of fully adjustable is that you can fine tune the supension for exactly the conditions you ride in. Also, the quality is much better on the upgrade, fact.

My 04 1200 has WP shocks as oem items, but do not confuse these shocks with the aftermarket shocks, they are built to a price and therefore not as good as the upgrade. I believe later models use Showa. I recently had a front shock replacement, WP fully adjustable, the difference with the OEM is quite frankly chalk and cheese! Albeit, at a price! £645 Well worth it if you like to push on a bit though

My bikes have always been set up by MC Technics in Stowmarket, Darren, the owner and Keith, his assistant are brilliant. Darren is an ex racer who fully understands what's required and can advise accordingly, Keith takes the money, lol. Quite often Darren will do the work and set up, for the price of the shocks so you have nowt to lose! He is an agent for Ohlins and WP so the choice is yours. i hope this helps

Nobbs

Always, always take advice from professionals and get the shocks set up, it makes a world of difference. Otherwise, you're wasting your money

 

[AndyW]

Ohlins shock failures on LWD......

Having bought a pair of Ohlins shocks a short while back (great deal via fleabay, used for 1000 miles only saved me £250 on new price I thought I'd try and find out what the real deal was with the shock failures on LWD.
Not concerned really, Ohlins have always had a good reputation but it seemed odd for their shocks to fail........

Browsed the net and various forums but no definitive answers, just lots of speculation!

I thought what the hell and emailed Ohlins HQ in Sweden and asked the question direct, along the lines of 'what's up with your shocks then?'

Had a phone call a couple of days back from Richard Brendish of Harris performance (the UK distributor for Ohlins) and I'm led to beleive that:

# the two Ohlins shocks that failed were taken along as spares and did both subsequently fail

# these two shocks were ordered by the LWD team from Touratech Germany, without any advice from/contact with Ohlins and were standard units (the same as would be recommended for road use!;-)

# these 'standard' shocks were fitted with standard rated springs......most likely not suitable for the weightload/terrain

# on failure of the shocks the LWD team contacted someone who contacted Ohlins - shocks designed for the job were sent out.

 

[Kong]

To Andy W

Guys - I realise this is not related. Just couldn't work out a way to attach an image to a PM, so just landing it here. Apologies in advance. If it is any consolation - the bike has Ohlins as well.

Andy here is the image as per your PM.

Regards Ben.

 

[Beeming]

Its possible the boys forgot to wind down the compression damping on the shocks a bit while riding the rough roads.
The way the bikes were bouncing over the corrogations proves either the compression/rebound damping was set too stiff or the shock springs were way too stiff for off road use.

I did 12,000 klm's of some of the worst roads in Australia recently and my stock shocks were perfect for most of it and trust me they got a pounding!
Here's a pick of the rear Tourance after 6000 klm's of 90% dirt.

 

[luckylucian]

Ewan and Charley are not the tallest of chaps, could it be the pre-load was set for flat foot comfort rather than correct ride height, so the shocks didnt really have a chance with half the travel gone before they hit a dip!

this is conjecture and so may be complete bollox

 

[Andy B]

A comment from my dealer would seem to corroborate davegs's experience.

They have to be stored vertically because of the gas/oil setup. (someone more technical than I - please explain!). They couldn't speak for how they were stored prior to the OE ones being changed, but certainly the spares (Ohlins and OE's) were stored horizontally in the service vehicles and that is why the replacements failed.

 

[Deleted Member I]

A comment from my dealer would seem to corroborate davegs's experience.

They have to be stored vertically because of the gas/oil setup. (someone more technical than I - please explain!). They couldn't speak for how they were stored prior to the OE ones being changed, but certainly the spares (Ohlins and OE's) were stored horizontally in the service vehicles and that is why the replacements failed.

AND you believed your local BMW dealer

Not that the product is shite but they stored it incorrectly.... and in every BMW shop around the country they are stored vertically and handled with kids gloves

 

[ianboydsnr]

A comment from my dealer would seem to corroborate davegs's experience.

They have to be stored vertically because of the gas/oil setup. (someone more technical than I - please explain!). They couldn't speak for how they were stored prior to the OE ones being changed, but certainly the spares (Ohlins and OE's) were stored horizontally in the service vehicles and that is why the replacements failed.

Sorry, but that sounds bull to me, if you buy an Ohlins shock, it comes in a box, which by its design would mean that the shock would be transported horizontally, and stored horizontally, and in the instructions, there is no information to support that they need to be stored vertically.

 

[AndyW]

....as confirmed by Richard at Harris Performance (Uk Ohlins distributor):

BM436, rear shock is of DRS type. This shock has a dividing piston that seperates gas/oil.
BM437, front shock is of ER type, this is an emulsion shock where gas and oil are mixed. It is irrelevant which way shocks are stored.

Refering to the standard Ohlins replacements for the GS (but same construction as the GSA equivalents)

 

[WindyChuffer]

Having bought a pair of Ohlins shocks a short while back (great deal via fleabay, used for 1000 miles only saved me £250 on new price I thought I'd try and find out what the real deal was with the shock failures on LWD.
Not concerned really, Ohlins have always had a good reputation but it seemed odd for their shocks to fail........

Browsed the net and various forums but no definitive answers, just lots of speculation!

I thought what the hell and emailed Ohlins HQ in Sweden and asked the question direct, along the lines of 'what's up with your shocks then?'

Had a phone call a couple of days back from Richard Brendish of Harris performance (the UK distributor for Ohlins) and I'm led to beleive that:

# the two Ohlins shocks that failed were taken along as spares and did both subsequently fail

# these two shocks were ordered by the LWD team from Touratech Germany, without any advice from/contact with Ohlins and were standard units (the same as would be recommended for road use!;-)

# these 'standard' shocks were fitted with standard rated springs......most likely not suitable for the weightload/terrain

# on failure of the shocks the LWD team contacted someone who contacted Ohlins - shocks designed for the job were sent out.

At last; an objective and useful post on the matter. I just hope its all true (not that I'm doubting AndyW). All this tosh on rough roads will destroy anything - which is only true if it what you use isn't designed for the job - and that certainly does appear to be the case here. It would certainly do the Ohlins brand a lot of good if they came forth somehow with an official statement / press release on this...

 

[cas]

Well a lot of debate has taken place on this issue....

Just for the record Nina Plumbe and I rode almost the same route from London to Cape Town a year ago ( 16th Oct 05 to Feb 10 06 ) me on a 1150 GSA and she on a standard 1200GS and neither of us had any problem with the standard issue shocks.

Infact we didn't even have a puncture. Only problem my rear bearing went in Tanzania and her engine sensor plyaed up in South Africa so engine kept cutting out.
Seems to be a question of luck....!!

 

[LiquidLAN]

just finished reading the book, and they have 5 fail by the end of the trip. thats 2 ohlins and 3 original BMW ones that go, comment made by Boredman is that the last bikes on LWR had no shock absorber failures, just rumour has it 2 new engines replaced in Anchorage after all that water ingress on the road of bones...

no on the LWR it was just the subframes failing - and they carried (or seemd to) a hell of a lot more weight on that trip

mind you I think out of the two I'd rather have the shock fail than find I'm parting company witht he rest of the bike

All that said, I seem to remember that the guys who did the same trip years ago on 350's had similar problems and ended up looking to local welders to help them out.

 

[Loz]

hi,just because you buy an ohlins/WP/willbers it still has to be built for the load and road conditions you'r going to encounter
both my ohlins were serviced before i went to senagal last year by PDQ
the rear had to have a new body ect
total bill was £300
it was a great trip,i very much enjoyed the 5 days at the zebrabar waiting for customs to release the standard one that was DHL'ed to me(cheers possu)

the rear had been UNDER damped,(i had a heaver spring fitted about a year before but Pretty Dam Qshite never took this into account even tho i told them where i was going and the spring had the size on it and had to wait 6 weeks)the spring had forced the shock apart on rebound as you can see from the picture how far the drive is being forced down when the bolts were removed it fell to bits


get your shock built for the load it's carrying
if you have ohlins look at the end of the body where the damper rod comes out,if it has any marks on the end of the body tube get it checked


got home,PDshite don't want to know,went to harris who rebuilt the shock came back as new with another new body,re-valve ect ect and a warranty


as for PDQ first time i've used them and the last,larry(good old boy everybodys best mate till it goes wrong) is a f****** w*****,if there's a problem it's obviously your fault

loz

 

[silverc]

Same trip as LWD- similar result

Me and 3 mates recently completed the same trip as on the LWD. We started with standard BMW shocks, although these didn't hold up on the horrendously corrugated roads in Kenya and Tanzania. The problem was the same every time.... Shock gets too hot and the seal blows. Once this is gone, the shock becomes very spongy and loose - this means you loose almost all traction on the back wheel as the bike bounces along. We were on new/ish 1200 GSA's, and had a reasonable amount of luggage. We changed to the Ohlins shocks in Ethiopia. Our opinion is that they are stronger shocks, although neither the BMW or the Ohlins are able to withstand those roads. We also met up with a group travelling on 6 650GS's, and they too had blown 4 rear shocks... These roads are REALLY bad - 11 hours to travel 150 km on some days.
Moral of the story - Africa WILL destroy a shock absorber, although I'm sure the BMW shocks will last in most other places.

 

[WindyChuffer]

...Africa WILL destroy a shock absorber, although I'm sure the BMW shocks will last in most other places.

Only if the shock isn't designed for the job...

Sure, tough conditions but of course its possible to design something for the job !

 

[Phil Clarke]

The stuff about gas shocks having to be stored upright is tosh. The whole point of gas shocks is that the oil is pressurised by the gas so the shock can be used in any direction - upright, flat, upsidedown etc. Old shocks which only had an air gap (this is to accomodate the space the damper rod takes up as the shock compresses) would loose all damping if they were turned upside down.

 

[STB]

Having owned quite a few different bikes and having decided to 'upgrade' the suspenders on some, I would like to make the following points.

If you decide that you wish to upgrade to aftermarket shocks, it's essential that you have the bike 'set up' properly by an expert in the field. So many people do not do this and wonder where the difference is! One major advantage of fully adjustable is that you can fine tune the supension for exactly the conditions you ride in. Also, the quality is much better on the upgrade, fact.

My 04 1200 has WP shocks as oem items, but do not confuse these shocks with the aftermarket shocks, they are built to a price and therefore not as good as the upgrade. I believe later models use Showa. I recently had a front shock replacement, WP fully adjustable, the difference with the OEM is quite frankly chalk and cheese! Albeit, at a price! £645 Well worth it if you like to push on a bit though

My bikes have always been set up by MC Technics in Stowmarket, Darren, the owner and Keith, his assistant are brilliant. Darren is an ex racer who fully understands what's required and can advise accordingly, Keith takes the money, lol. Quite often Darren will do the work and set up, for the price of the shocks so you have nowt to lose! He is an agent for Ohlins and WP so the choice is yours. i hope this helps

Nobbs

Always, always take advice from professionals and get the shocks set up, it makes a world of difference. Otherwise, you're wasting your money

You mention in this thread that you have WP shocks on your 04 1200, is that definitely front and rear. Why I ask is that my rear shock has just started to fail after 31000, (21000 in last year). My local ohlins dealer is able to reapair/rebuild WP shocks, but it is only the front shock that is clearly marked with a WP label. I don't want to waste my time droppimg the rear shock, if there is any doubt over it being a BMW as opposed to Wp. Can you help?

 

[AndyW]

You probably just can't see the labelling on the rear shock whilst it's mounted? My 2005 GS shocks were both WP......photo here:
http://andyw-inuk.smugmug.com/gallery/5022580_pvhbW#301524382_n6U8T-O-LB

I doubt that the OE WP shocks fitted by BMW are rebuildable as NobbyK said do not confuse these shocks with the aftermarket shocks, they are built to a price and therefore not as good as the upgrade.....take the bike round to the Ohlins dealer you mention and ask/have him take a look ;-)

 

[Big Lee]

You mention in this thread that you have WP shocks on your 04 1200, is that definitely front and rear. Why I ask is that my rear shock has just started to fail after 31000, (21000 in last year). My local ohlins dealer is able to reapair/rebuild WP shocks, but it is only the front shock that is clearly marked with a WP label. I don't want to waste my time droppimg the rear shock, if there is any doubt over it being a BMW as opposed to Wp. Can you help?

Both of mine on my 54 12 are WP. Have you asked your dealer if he can rebuild them and how much?

 

[luckylucian]

'04 1200 here again with WP shocks so +1 for the rebuild query for std WP BMW shock