On return from the mini KFest here in the UK, I thought that the oil spots on my rear wheel were a sign that one of the rear brake hoses giving out. I was wrong - but changed the hoses to new Goodrich stainless steel braided ones anyway. The oil, it turned out, had come from my Realm Engineering RAM shock. Bit miffed about that as it is less that 4 years old - I expected it to last a lot longer than that.

Tried finding Realm Engineering on line, with a view to sending it back for a refurb...but failed. Are they still in business? My search suggested that BSK Speedworks now market them. Anyway, having had two RAM shocks fail (Gretel had one fitted when I got her from Sgmayhew - but the spring was very rusty and the oil seal went due to corrosion on the piston - Realm refurbed that one for me), I decided to try a different make and, this morning, the delivery woman  brought a shiny new Hagon shock from Motorworks.

It occurred to me that the cause of the failure is an accumulation of road grit and grime that gets on the piston, especially during the winter months, and causes premature failure of the oil seal. Tucked away behind the right pannier, the shock is mostly ignored by me...to my cost!

Anyway, this time I also bought a pair of the front fork gaiters and have fitted one of these over the Hagon shock spring - I needed to grease up the spring with a little vaseline to get it to slide/screw on, but it is pretty much a perfect fit and hopefully will keep all the road dirt away from the piston and oil seals - time will tell! The gaiter covers the shock load adjustment mechanism, which isn't great, but then I very rarely (never) adjust the shock pre-load and the gaiter will move down enough to get the C-spanner in, if required.



Now to go and fit it...

Will this link work for you?
http://www.ramshox.com/

Thanks Laitch - that was the one I was looking for. Obviously using the wrong search words - doh!
I'll send my leaky one back for a refurb - always good to have a hot spare in reserve. I'll send it back in the Hagon shock box - just to make a point too!

Born Again Eccentric wrote:I'll send my leaky one back for a refurb - always good to have a hot spare in reserve. I'll send it back in the Hagon shock box - just to make a point too!

OUCH!  Lol!!!

Love it - the Hagon box thing! A friendly nudge in the ribs where it's appropriate.

So is this kind of seal failure common to rear shocks or just common to the Ram shock?  Is any kind of preventative maintenance possible?  I'm now fearing for the delicate constitution of the spring thing on the ass end of my bike

IMHO, the worst thing you can do to a bike is not ride it. The rear Ohlins on my 1100s is 13 years old and has survived 40,000 miles including 8 years of winter commutes. It only developed a leak and needed a rebuild after the bike was stood unused for nearly a year.

Woodie wrote:So is this kind of seal failure common to rear shocks or just common to the Ram shock?  Is any kind of preventative maintenance possible?  I'm now fearing for the delicate constitution of the spring thing on the ass end of my bike

YSS shock on my K1100LT did same thing and it did over 30k miles. May well be the same cause as we do get lot sof road grit grime etc etc

The rear shocker failed on mine too from firm ride to pogostick in an instant. .
30 Odd years old so no complaints,Motorworks recommended and supplied,a very nice HAGON
Remember to fit it upside/down  .some things just sound daft,thanks for the gatter tip another job for THE list (why o why didn't i think of it) Here in the UK grit/dust are called  MUD

My nice 'new' K100RS has the original shock on it.........its now got nice BT45 shoes so I suppose some new shock should be added as the original won't last long......

chris846 wrote:IMHO, the worst thing you can do to a bike is not ride it. The rear Ohlins on my 1100s is 13 years old and has survived 40,000 miles including 8 years of winter commutes. It only developed a leak and needed a rebuild after the bike was stood unused for nearly a year.

Chris - that is one of my theories too. When I was doing 70 miles a day commuting (alternating between Heidi and Gretel weekly) they ran just fine, but if I left one to idle for a few weeks I found she would sulk and throw up all sorts of issues.

Now I'm not commuting on the bikes, it is possible that any road dirt etc. from the last ride would have hardened on the piston and/or (I need to inspect closely) the piston could have started to corrode and pit. Then the jaunt out to mini KFest would have been all it takes to tear the oil seal.

Heidi was definitely sulking: replaced fork seals immediately before KFest (leaking), replaced rear shock (leaking), replaced rear brake hoses (changed to stainless as I thought the originals were suspect) and then as I test rode down the street - the clutch cable broke, so had the pleasure of replacing that too! Still far better that she gets it out the system now and not when we are in the wilds in a few weeks.

Lesson (re)learnt - get out and ride more or be like a HD rider and clean and polish after every ride, no matter how short (or only go out in the sunshine and dry roads - aggghh!!!).

The weekend weather forecast wasn't great (storm Hanna coming in off the Atlantic) and it had been a rainy, blustery night and there was a lot of fresh, spring green leaf debris covering the ground . Checked the accuweather forecast on the tablet "Rain starting in 8 minutes" - seriously accurate!! I'd planned to take Heidi for a test ride and try out my new Hagon shock, so this wasn't great news. However, I also needed to go to the shops (always a treat on a Saturday) so no more excuses, on with the gear and out with the bike. Actually, the road was mostly dry and, despite the ominous black clouds, the sun was shining and only a few spits and spots of rain were evident on my visor. Besides, the shop was only about 3 miles away - a quick sprint down the M32.

Just down the road, blossom, stripped from the cherry trees by the strong wind, lay on the road looking like a fresh dusting of snow.

Well, it is true that is was only about 3 miles to the shops, but it was about 80 miles back! Heidi was running well, the rain was staying off so I took the long way home via Cheddar Gorge. A very slow driver spoiled the run down the gorge (for me and a crocodile of about 5 cars in front of me), but I had a good run back up - all in the name of science, using the twisties to put the Hagon shock through a more challenging test. What a great ride - lets hope it lasts longer than the last one!!


Goes to prove, K bikes just aren't built for taking the shortest route!

Nice video BAE. It certainly looks like a lot more fun going up the gorge your way than that of those cyclists you were whipping past.

Cheers

i contacted RAM about a shock and asked a few questions about warranty work if needed. whoever at RAM was talking to me via email said they've had 5 total failures on shocks out of hundreds after i mentioned my google results showed a few failures within 5 yrs. 

this post being the 4th or 5th ive seen posted in the last 5 years. the fact that im buying a new shock but have to pay shipping to send it overseas and wait for it to be rebuilt seems like a good way to lose a customer. they also mentioned i could have a rebuild kit sent out but then i have to pay someone to service it. 

i also bought a hagon shock from motorworks for my r100gspd and the first one they sent ended up being a new version that was setup wrong. the preload adjuster was literally RIGHT behind the subframe. making me remove my seat and battery to adjust it. they sent me a new one right away and didnt even want the old one back. my first experience with hagon was with my FXD harley while they still had a shop in california. i went with them because they offered tons of different spring rates for the weight i needed. sure theyre not the most high performance shock but im very happy with their customer service. 

i want to try RAM but i feel with my bad luck with buying parts ill end up with a blown unit fast and ill be on the hook for the costs. 

sad because i was interested in those, front springs and the wires they make. also i like how the ram has an actual dial for rebound adjustment vs the hagon that requires an allen wrench. 

im not too proud to admit this but ive set the hand throttle lock on long highways and used the allen to adjust the rebound on my hagon. also i asked them to send my new shock with 2 adjuster nuts on the spring so i wont have to use another allen key to lock it. 
its also a pain when your desired preload setting puts the locking allen screw in a unreachable spot.

moriarti wrote:The rear shocker failed on mine too from firm ride to pogostick in an instant. .
30 Odd years old so no complaints,Motorworks recommended and supplied,a very nice HAGON
Remember to fit it upside/down  .some things just sound daft,thanks for the gatter tip another job for THE list (why o why didn't i think of it) Here in the UK grit/dust are called  MUD

WARNING
Dont fit a RAM shock upside down. They definately don't work!!
Cheers
Steve

My rear dampers are always fitted with BSA Bantam gaiters inside the spring.

SteveWilson wrote:WARNING
Dont fit a RAM shock upside down. They definately don't work!!

It looks like Ram Shox is setting themselves up for failure by publishing this note on their fitment page; it's just taking them a while to get there.

Well - all I can say is - I Naively fitted a new one upside down (Unsprung weight blah blah blah) just before the mot. And my helpfull old school MOT tested said - The rear shocks not working - and we bounced it and it wasn't. I went home with a new MOT and an advisory - turned it the right way up and its worked fine from that moment onwards.
Cheers
Steve

Update. I checked with someone who should know and apparently FROM 2017 all RAM shocks will work upside down
I think I bought mine a little before that - So I'm wrong - unless you buy and old secondhand unit
Cheers
Steve

sidecar paul wrote:My rear dampers are always fitted with BSA Bantam gaiters inside the spring.

Brilliant!! I'm off to Stafford autojumble in a couple of weeks - will pick up a couple for future fitment
Cheers
Steve