xCountry shock problem (anyone got an xChallenge air shock for sale)

mikedefieslife

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A while ago I about my xCountry shock, and it was recommend that I give Firefox racing a try. I had previously contacted Bas but for one reason or another he never replied to my email.

Anyway the shock I got back from Firefox Racing is woefully undersprung. And two weeks into a South American trip I'm find myself having have work done to it.

All they can do here add a spacer to give me more preload.

I'm in Salta at the moment, but heading to Bolivia and Peru later. I'm in contact with a someone in Peru that can work with customs to clear a shock.

I'm wondering if anyone fancies selling an xChallenge shock to me and shipping it to Peru (at my cost of course).

Just waiting for the go ahead from my fixer.
 
Would getting a stronger spring not be a better option?

I have a couple of wilbers shocks for my x challenge, both supposedly correct for my weight, but as soon as I go off road and hit anything decent I bottom out. I have just ordered and fitted a stronger spring and its much better. I can only guess the tables they use are for road going use (and they were both fine on the road).

You may need to exercise caution with a 2nd hand airshock. They will be getting on a bit by now, and both of mine started squeaking (they still worked fine but I don't know 're their service life). They are also v tall shocks, maybe too tall for a country?
 
Is it worth getting Firefox racing to send you a heavier spring? I've also got a spare air shock and you're welcome to it, but knowing the inconvenience and cost involved, I think I would be on the phone to bas, a new shock might be pricey, but worth ever penny knowing that you should get something thats close to being right. It's not like it's an easy job changing the shock on the X bikes either....
 
Ok so I owe Firefox an apology in terms of the spring.

I've managed to get a KTM dealer mechanic and take a look and the spring is ok. Slightly heavier would be better but it's not far off. The problem was that the hydraulic preload unit/collar, although working fine, was much higher up the shaft of the shock than it should have been.

This has been fixed now, and the rear of the bike is now much higher. Tiptoe level. The masses of static sag is gone now too. Unless is was damaged when being shipped to me (and it did go missing for a day), I can't see how they didn't spot it. It's definitely been like that since I got the shock back as the lower ride height and massive static sag were some of the first things I noticed.

I'll see how it holds up over the next two days riding and figure out my next move from there.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Well, the fix the KTM mechanic did worked like a treat.

Now there is a new problem.

After 133 miles of off road (100 of it horrible washboard) to Uyuni the preload has given up (it was working earlier in the trip).

The mechanism that comes down and puts force on the spring seems to have retreated, and turning the knob towards 'hard' doesn't do anything.

Is there a way to manually force the preload on these shocks?

Fortunately I'll be on the Salar tomorrow. At least that should be smooth.
 
Well the knob wasn't doing anything anyway, but then this happened.

Perhaps they are related.

20151010_133851.jpg


It seems to have fallen off on the Salar, then got burned by the exhaust before getting itself jammed between the engine and the swing arm.
 
Looks like the main issue you've got there is that distorted threaded plug that the rod goes though. Could make things a lot worse if you try and thread that one back in.

whilst not having a pic of the shock itself, your fallback may be to treat it as not having a preload adjuster, and treat the remaining part on the shock as the adjusting collar. You should be able to compress the spring further by repositioning it, thus achieving the same effect?
 
Will see about getting that part machined when I'm in La Paz tomorrow.

If I still can't get it to work then an xChallenge shock is in order.

There's no duty on EU products shipped to Peru provided they are under a certain value. So if a used air bag is declared at £50. It should all be good.
 
Ah can't access done deal here.

I got a new part machined but that didn't fix it. So as GFJ says I need to treat it as having no preload and get a 20-25mm (or more) spacer made. If I can't find an xChallenge air bag.

I did see an xChallenge in traffic today. Perhaps I should have offered to buy his shock.
 
I took the shock out to have a good look at it.

Nothing I could do would make a difference, so found a friendly Tornaria to create a 1" spacer to act as my preload.

Part of the reason I didn't go with a Wilbers or a Hyperpro shock was that I thought I needed to be able to change the preload on a regular basis. You can't access it with a spanner, and with their hydraulic add-ons you need to lose the pillion pegs.

Strange then how I've now ended up with a hybrid Sachs-YS shock with a fixed preload.

Anyway it seemed to work ok on my little off road trip today along the Yungas Road (aka Death Road). :)
 
I took the shock out to have a good look at it.

Nothing I could do would make a difference, so found a friendly Tornaria to create a 1" spacer to act as my preload.

Part of the reason I didn't go with a Wilbers or a Hyperpro shock was that I thought I needed to be able to change the preload on a regular basis. You can't access it with a spanner, and with their hydraulic add-ons you need to lose the pillion pegs.

Strange then how I've now ended up with a hybrid Sachs-YS shock with a fixed preload.

Anyway it seemed to work ok on my little off road trip today along the Yungas Road (aka Death Road). :)
 
Glad to hear you've found a workaround solution.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.
 
To complete the thread, here's a picture of the fix.

shock-spacer.jpg


For anyone that's interested I do have a ride report in my blog, link in my profile, and on advrider.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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