question about shocks

JPG1911 · 06-16-2014, 02:46 PM

After thoroughly reading Spud's excellent write up about rebuilding the shocks on his Zong, I have determined that this is not a job I am in a position to do right now. I am on the hunt for a house with a shop/garage so that may change soon, but for now, I feel I will be much better off just replacing them with new China parts. I have found a set that look identical to mine here for $50

I have two reasons for wanting to do this. 1) the right shock boot is badly torn, and once I begin riding the bike, I don't want debris to get into the shock and damage it. It looks like the only way to replace the boot is to remove the shock from the triple tree. I figure if I'm going to have to go to all that trouble anyway, I might as well put new parts on. 2) I'm a dense fellow at 5'10" and weighing in around 245, and when I sit on the bike and engage the brake, I can rock the bike front and back and observe the forks compress several(3-5) inches. If I am rolling the bike at a walking pace and engage the brake, the front will dive 2-3 inches. I assumed this was normal since this is a dual sport motorcycle, but my friend who is a backyard/shadetree motorcycle mechanic says that I should absolutely NOT be able to do that, and unless I'm landing from a jump, the suspension should only compress an inch or two, and that the shocks are blown. I don't necessarily believe him, but I figured it was worth checking with the expert shadetree mechanics on here

Going by the old car shock test method of jumping off the bumper and observing whether the car bounces once or several times, I believe the shocks are still relatively good. The suspension does have a lot of travel, but it does not bounce when it rebounds, it returns to normal ride height and stops. Thoughts? Opinions?

06-16-2014, 02:46 PM	#1
JPG1911 Join Date: May 2013 Location: Wilmington, NC Posts: 117	question about shocks After thoroughly reading Spud's excellent write up about rebuilding the shocks on his Zong, I have determined that this is not a job I am in a position to do right now. I am on the hunt for a house with a shop/garage so that may change soon, but for now, I feel I will be much better off just replacing them with new China parts. I have found a set that look identical to mine here for $50 I have two reasons for wanting to do this. 1) the right shock boot is badly torn, and once I begin riding the bike, I don't want debris to get into the shock and damage it. It looks like the only way to replace the boot is to remove the shock from the triple tree. I figure if I'm going to have to go to all that trouble anyway, I might as well put new parts on. 2) I'm a dense fellow at 5'10" and weighing in around 245, and when I sit on the bike and engage the brake, I can rock the bike front and back and observe the forks compress several(3-5) inches. If I am rolling the bike at a walking pace and engage the brake, the front will dive 2-3 inches. I assumed this was normal since this is a dual sport motorcycle, but my friend who is a backyard/shadetree motorcycle mechanic says that I should absolutely NOT be able to do that, and unless I'm landing from a jump, the suspension should only compress an inch or two, and that the shocks are blown. I don't necessarily believe him, but I figured it was worth checking with the expert shadetree mechanics on here Going by the old car shock test method of jumping off the bumper and observing whether the car bounces once or several times, I believe the shocks are still relatively good. The suspension does have a lot of travel, but it does not bounce when it rebounds, it returns to normal ride height and stops. Thoughts? Opinions? __________________ 2004 United Motors DS200 "Denise" Be Dragonized!
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