Many thanks for the warm and professional welcome.  My name is Graham and I live in a green, hilly, rural area of Victoria Australia called Gippsland (great motorcycle country!).  I have had a G650GS for a few years and done some longish trips into dryish desert areas, and have just got a K100LT in Sydney and ridden it home 'on spec', a bit of a leap of faith given its a 900k trip but it went well.  Before that I has an 80's R650 which was a great touring machine.  The K100 has (I think) a tired rear monoshock so I think the first job will be a new one.  It also came without any manuals so am looking for basic information on dash lights, controls etc.

Welcome to the forum from a little north of you. Fire away with questions and you willget answers. These bikes are fairly reliable and people on the forum are all Knuts who are very willing to share expertise.

Greetings Graham good to have you along.

Plenty of useful info around here and good people to share it.

Hi and thanks.
The first issue I would like to get some feedback on is the rear suspension.  At speed it seems to be bottoming, or at least very hard bumps on quite minor highway type imperfections.  I have tried all 3 settings on the mono shock.  Is there a 'test' to see if the monoshock is working correctly, or should it just be replaced?

Graham

One easy check: assuming an OEM shock, is the adjusting collar at the top or at the bottom? If it's at the bottom then the shock is the wrong way up and will not be damping at all.

The adjustment is at the top

Welcome to the forum, Most would be tired by now mate, you can ask at any BMW service centre if they stock oem rebuilt ones and just do an exchange, or if you search through our posts you will find many have bought replacements from the various suppliers about the planet. Each capital city has a rebuilder in them, Sydney and Brisbane do and some in here have used the RAD shockie mob in Brisvagas but that may mean having the bike sit still for a time whilst they rebuild it for you. I'm pretty sure they would just seel you one ready to go and you can send your old one up once you are happy with the replacement.

gnd47 wrote:Hi and thanks.
The first issue I would like to get some feedback on is the rear suspension.  At speed it seems to be bottoming, or at least very hard bumps on quite minor highway type imperfections.  I have tried all 3 settings on the mono shock.  Is there a 'test' to see if the monoshock is working correctly, or should it just be replaced?

Graham

Hi Graham,

It sounds like your shock does need replacing. I had an original nivomat mono shock on my LT (lasted 25 years), but the ride was getting increasingly harsh - similar to your symptoms with every minor road imperfection making the suspension feel like it was bottoming out. Made for a very hard ride, even when the bike was lightly loaded. The other clue how bad it had become was evident with the bike on its side stand - the bike sat very upright and look in danger of toppling over. Initially I noticed this when the bike was fully loaded with camping gear (Ireland trip back at start of August), but it was obvious that the bike was sitting very low.

I didn't really appreciate how bad the shock had become until I bit the bullet and forked out a large wad for a new shock and fitted it (bought a RAM shock from Realm engineering - several forum members had given them good reviews) . Wow - what a difference, the bike sits and rides higher; on the side stand - it leans over at a more comfortable angle and as for ride comfort - double wow, suddenly the road feels smooth again and I'm not jarring my back every time I hit a pothole or depressed drain cover. 

As Rick mentioned in a recent post about tyres, with progressive wear, you don't realise just how poor the ride is becoming until you fix it and then it's like a new bike again.

As for RAM shocks - very impressed and cracking good service from the guys at Realm Engineering too. Easy to fit and set up the pre-load and then tweak the knob to set the level of damping (13 settings - mine is currently set to 4). Not cheap, but comparable with other top quality mono shocks. 

I put off replacing my shock for far too long - even though I suspected it was at the end of its life and the ride was becoming unpleasant...the cost was the main reason. The bike passed its annual inspection (MoT in the UK) - there was sufficient bounce/damping left in the shock for it to satisfy the tester that all was well (it is a pretty rudimentary test) - and that just convinced me to put off replacing it even longer. 

Good luck

Thanks for the multiple responses...I'll check out all suggestions.

Regards

Graham