New Suspension Required

[mulletd]

My 1100 is coming upto its 36,000 mile service and it's stil running the original shocks front and rear.

The handling doesn't feel too bad, though I have nothing to compare it to. At this mileage, would I benefit from new aftermarket shocks, should I have them professionally rebuilt or should I leave them alone?

If the answer is new shocks, can anybody recommend a brand and give me an honest appraisal of their performance.

If the answer is a rebuild, can anyone recommend a reputable artisan to do this work.

Either way, all comments would be appreciated.

 

[sparkplug]

I'm not sure on the 1100, but as I understand it the BMW shocks cannot be rebuilt. I am not 100% on this but I'm sure someone will come along and correct me...

As far as I know the best aftermarket shocks are the Ohlins ones and I do know that these can be overhauled once they start to sag.

I've only ever ridden someone else's GS with these for about an hour but it handled much better than mine with the standard shocks. Mind you it had also run in nicely (60,000ish) whereas mine was still around 6,000 at the time.

I don't know if that's of any help at all.

 

[cookie]

ohlins. expensive, but worth it IMO.

some cheapskates are bound to be along in a minute blathering about how they have to be rebuilt every year and how expensive it is.

personally, i couldn't suffer the stock originals at all & mine were low mileage. not fit for a pogo stick.

i was considering selling the bike before i changed.

 

[Kropotkin]

I'm not sure on the 1100, but as I understand it the BMW shocks cannot be rebuilt. I am not 100% on this but I'm sure someone will come along and correct me...

The BMW shocks are not supposed to be rebuildable, but there are people who do it (there's a bloke who does it here in Holland). A popular (well, a couple of people have done it) mod over here in Holland is to have this chap rebuild your shock, and then fit Hyperpro springs. Big improvement all round, and for only 400 Euros all round. Which is about half of one Ohlins.

 

[Paul Young]

I've never had any issues with the original shocks on my 1150 & was still on them when I did the TT video, so they certainly seemed well up to the task.

However, I decided that they were probably ready for an overhaul at 25k miles & looked around for a s/h pair to fit so that I could send mine to Caledonian Engineering in Glasgow. The guy there is called Hans Kruger & he will rebuild any shock to your specifications for around £100 each last time I checked. The trouble was though, that I saw a set of Hyperpro's on eBay & managed to get both f&r shocks delivered from Germany for £160. Now, I don't care how good Ohlins are, they are not going to be any better value than that.......... I honestly don't think that I'm a good enough rider to exploit any slight improvement in comparison to the shocks I had, but the new ones are definitely better. I wouldn't consider paying full price for them though....... I'd get the originals sorted unless there's a bargain to be had.

Slightly off tangent....... I was riding with James Bryan a couple of years back & foundit really difficult to keep up with him as the ride was incredibly choppy & the rear shock was causing some real problems holding lines around the Yorks Dales roads we were on (very bumpy, tight, twisty, etc.....) While we were pressing on, I wound the preload off as it felt way too harsh & yet, I'd always preferred the firm settings I had it set to. Doing this, I suddenly found that the rear flowed over undulations & bumps instead of jarring & pattering. I settled on a particular level of preload & checked it when we stopped. It was almost completely unwound - around 10/11 clicks from fully unwound. I tried increasing the damping settings slightly & found that the damping was by far the most important factor in the handling. I'm 12st & would suggest to anyone who's not happy with the standard suspension to try the same method to get a setting which works. Start soft & alter the damping to get the right "flow" to the suspension movement on the roads you use.