Rear Damper Has Died

[We Make Life A Ride]

Hey all,

I believe my rear damper died recently when I was around 4000kms into a Scandinavia trip. I then rode bike all way back to UK, a further 1500kms. It's bouncy on the back end to say the least and runs out a bit on the bends so have to take it easy. Otherwise, it's not really been too much of a bother really.

Unfortunately Cotswold Motorrad can't fit it in for replacement until mid-July but as it is both my daily and I'm going to ABR end June I wonder if anyone had any advice on a temporary fix to get me through the next few weeks or do I just roll with it and ride it on the spring like I have had had to for the last couple weeks.

It's a 2021 GSA with ESA of that makes a difference. It is covered under warranty too so any solution that might void that is no good. Finally, ref ABR no I am not booked onto the trail! It just has to get me there and back. And Cotswold Motorrad won't give me a loaner as they don't currently have capacity to do so which is fair enough.

Any constructive thoughts welcome. But please don't be a harbinger of doom. We all take risks!

 

[russ996duke]

Hey all,

I believe my rear damper died recently when I was around 4000kms into a Scandinavia trip. I then rode bike all way back to UK, a further 1500kms. It's bouncy on the back end to say the least and runs out a bit on the bends so have to take it easy. Otherwise, it's not really been too much of a bother really.

Unfortunately Cotswold Motorrad can't fit it in for replacement until mid-July but as it is both my daily and I'm going to ABR end June I wonder if anyone had any advice on a temporary fix to get me through the next few weeks or do I just roll with it and ride it on the spring like I have had had to for the last couple weeks.

It's a 2021 GSA with ESA of that makes a difference. It is covered under warranty too so any solution that might void that is no good. Finally, ref ABR no I am not booked onto the trail! It just has to get me there and back. And Cotswold Motorrad won't give me a loaner as they don't currently have capacity to do so which is fair enough.

Any constructive thoughts welcome. But please don't be a harbinger of doom. We all take risks!

did the tft give you any warning messages?

 

[We Make Life A Ride]

No warning on the tft. But I didn't have any for the front damper either. And that fails just before I left for Scandinavia. Luckily I was able to get that one booked in and changed before I left. So not sure a failed damper registers as an error. But happy to be proved wrong if it could be something else.

 

[russ996duke]

I just wondered as I had a warning message re suspension failure, which turned out to be spurious, probably caused by weather being exceedingly hot that day, next morning no sign of message and the suspension behaved normally at the time and afterwards.
Its a bit strange isnt it that it failed on such a newish bike??

 

[We Make Life A Ride]

I just wondered as I had a warning message re suspension failure, which turned out to be spurious, probably caused by weather being exceedingly hot that day, next morning no sign of message and the suspension behaved normally at the time and afterwards.
Its a bit strange isnt it that it failed on such a newish bike??

Ah yeah I have also had that same message. I know exactly the one, that's an ESA error. For me it happened when I went from Auto to Max and then back to Auto. But that was once maybe a year ago. Pretty sure not the same thing and/or connected. But thanks for thinking about it.

 

[wessie]

Is it the BMW warranty? If so, presumably you have tried the Bristol dealer?

 

[We Make Life A Ride]

Is it the BMW warranty? If so, presumably you have tried the Bristol dealer?

It is and no I haven't. Cotswold are my go to. I never look elsewhere but in the interest of time maybe I should on this occasion. Thanks.

 

[Santa-2512]

Shocks are covered to 30k on the std warranty over that they are not

They are covered under the extended warranty , but again ony to 30k

if you go modding to tide you over - they can refuse to honor the warranty - each shock is about £1500

When mine failed at 36k it cold me £1100 and that was with 20% goodwill

If you want to risk it - you could contact Denzo, and see if he could do it but you have to get the shock off and get it to him, and refit

 

[We Make Life A Ride]

Nah. It's covered under warranty. The manufacturer warranty or whatever it's called has no limit on distance. And mine expires on 4 July so am in luck. After that I'll be on the named warranty which does have the 30k limit on it.

The front was done (under warranty ) at 31k just before I left for Scandinavia in May.

 

[richardbd]

Any idea what’s actually failed? Is it the shock itself or the ESA?

 

[Pukmeister]

If all else fails with support under warranty, for the love of God don’t go rushing off to buy another unit from BMW for big money when guys like Denz0 can rebuild it to better than standard for a few hundred quid.

 

[We Make Life A Ride]

Any idea what’s actually failed? Is it the shock itself or the ESA?

Defo the shock. ESA is working.

If all else fails with support under warranty, for the love of God don’t go rushing off to buy another unit from BMW for big money when guys like Denz0 can rebuild it to better than standard for a few hundred quid.

Yeah all over that idea don't worry. But as I say I've been lucky. Both shocks have given up before the manufacturer warranty expires in a month's time.

 

[Urban Rider]

Just a consideration if you're going to ride ot to ABR, I'm assuming you'll be camping so with all the additional weight of your kit your rear spring is gonna compress quite a bit. Is it worth seeing if you can get the rear shock changed at another dealership under warranty? Bahnstormer in Maidenhead are a good bunch or you have Vines in Guildford?

 

[MrC99]

Defo the shock. ESA is working.

Is it compression or rebound damping that's failed? I had the latter go on my bike and after a couple of longish rides the shock kept topping out with a loud thud and the handling was atrocious. If it's the compression damping that's gone then it might be OK to ride to a dealer further away and get them to change it over under warranty.

 

[We Make Life A Ride]

Is it compression or rebound damping that's failed? I had the latter go on my bike and after a couple of longish rides the shock kept topping out with a loud thud and the handling was atrocious. If it's the compression damping that's gone then it might be OK to ride to a dealer further away and get them to change it over under warranty.

No idea actually. I think probably the latter but I've ridden it for approx 1500 miles since it started happening. I was in middle of Sweden on the TET at the time though. I'm not finding the handling too bad. As I say in the original post it's bouncy and runs wide on bends but otherwise bearable.

 

[We Make Life A Ride]

Just a consideration if you're going to ride ot to ABR, I'm assuming you'll be camping so with all the additional weight of your kit your rear spring is gonna compress quite a bit. Is it worth seeing if you can get the rear shock changed at another dealership under warranty? Bahnstormer in Maidenhead are a good bunch or you have Vines in Guildford?

Absolutely worth considering and will look into that this week. Thanks. Though it did finish the tet and ride all way back to UK fully loaded with camping gear on the spring alone. Imagine I'm putting quite a bit of additional stress on the spring tho so yeah absolutely keen to get it fixed before I load it up again.

 

[wessie]

Get on the phone tomorrow and try to book somewhere. It will likely get worse during any trip. After Bristol, the Rybrook (now Sytner) branches in Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton are probably next nearest. I lived in Cheltenham and I am a big Cotswold fan but for the shaft "recall that is not a recall" I used the Sytner Shrewsbury branch as I have moved. They were fine and gave me a R1300GS for 2 days.

 

[MrC99]

No idea actually. I think probably the latter but I've ridden it for approx 1500 miles since it started happening. I was in middle of Sweden on the TET at the time though. I'm not finding the handling too bad. As I say in the original post it's bouncy and runs wide on bends but otherwise bearable.

So as you say it sounds like compression damping has failed which is kind of fortunate! Hopefully you can get it changed before the rebound damping goes as the bike will be pretty unrideable then.

 

[Bigcats]

Well nearly 11k miles in and nearly 5 years old (7500 miles and 2 years by me) and it looks like my rear damper has given up as well.

Thankfully still under warranty!!

So in 2 years of ownership (well nearly 2 years) thats -

New Throttle
New Exhaust (headers)
Potentially a new rear Damper

I never had this many things go wrong on all my previous bikes combined

 

[Santa-2512]

Well nearly 11k miles in and nearly 5 years old (7500 miles and 2 years by me) and it looks like my rear damper has given up as well.

Thankfully still under warranty!!

So in 2 years of ownership (well nearly 2 years) thats -

New Throttle
New Exhaust (headers)
Potentially a new rear Damper

I never had this many things go wrong on all my previous bikes combined

my list was long and distinguished