Works Performance Front Shock Issue

[GeekTB]

Hello all,

 

I'm having a horrible time getting any information out of the support engineers at Works Performance so I'm hoping someone here has experienced this. I got a Non-ESA lowered front shock from Works about 3 months ago and it now has aprox. 3k miles on it. When I go over a sharp bump taller then about 2" (driveway curb, pot hole, etc…) I get a serious jolt from the front end. It only happens at around 15-20mph, anything slower or faster is hardly noticeable. It doesn't happen very often but when it does it's very unpleasant and I worry about causing damage to the wheel and forks.

 

I tried adjusting the preload ring, but if I tighten the shock too much, my front end starts to bounce around. I never had this happen on any other bike so I don't think it's normal, but I figured I would ask. The bike is a 2005 R1200RT.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ady Oren

Silverton, OR

[Bob Bernstein]

I have a Works front shock on my 07 RT and it works great-no harshness at all. I bought their front and rear but I never could adjust the rear Works properly. Finally replaced the Works rear with the original stock shock and I am very please. In the back of my mind I think a lot has to do with finding the proper ride height, which would account for the stocker working so well. I really feel the Works front shock is superior. Shame about the lack of cooperation from Works.

[CoarsegoldKid]

Not normal. I'd start with reducing the preload, a lot.

[duckboy]

the harshness you're feeling is a damping issue and not preload related. the highspeed compression valving is not set properly in conjunction w/ the rebound valving (hence you're having a specific problem at a specific speed). but overall primarily a highspeed compression problem. i had a similar problem w/ another brand of shocks. send them back to Works and they'll be glad to adjust the valving. describe to them your problem and how you'd like the bike to ride and they should be able to get the problem resolved. good bunch of guys and i'd opt to buy shocks from them again. i have a non-ESA set from my old '05 gs that i'm going to sell soon.

 

duckboy

[Hall Vince]

Isn't a 2" high obsticle in the road going to transfer a shock through the bike regardless of what suspension you run? (motocross type bikes excepted)

 

I try to avoid anything over 1" on my RT, thos it does run standard ESA.

If I'm wrong, maybe I should really get those Ohlins!

\v/

[Rotor]

After I bought my front and rear shocks from Works they went back to them twice for valving and springs in order to get the ride correct. No problems and no charge.

 

 

[GeekTB]

The engineer I've been e-mailing with suggested I adjust the rebound. Problem is, I don't have a rebound adjuster on my front shock. He wouldn't believe me and kept sending me PDFs saying "These are available on our website" but the PDFs were for rear shocks, which I have no problem with. When I pointed this out to him, he told me that all shocks are the same. Since he is the expert I spent 4 hours removing the front shock thinking I must be missing the adjuster hole only to find out that there are no rebound adjuster. Do you guys have a rebound adjuster on your front Works shock?

 

Last e-mail I got from them suggested I send the shock in but because both front and back are 1.5" short so would I need to put to have a stock rear as well?, and find a normal height side stand? will the bike handle badly if ride with a lowered rear shock?

 

I took them almost 10 weeks to get my rear shock ready and they were not up front about that, even tho I told them I'm going on a trip. They just kept saying "it should be ready next week". Who knows how long it will take them to adjust the shock. I heard nothing but good things about Works but my experience is just going from bad to worse.

[Rotor]

GeekTB,

You're probably speaking with one of three people: Tom Edison (who usually takes the orders), Pierre (senior engineer), or Ned (builder / rebuilder).

Pierre is the one that should be able to help you. If not, try Ned. Email addresses listed below.

It sounds like one of you is confusing terms (rebound vs preload), just guessing here because I figure they've rebuilt enough front BMW shocks to know what they're made like. Many times its just a communication problem. Again, just guessing based totally on my experience with them and the number of times they corrected mine to get what I wanted. It was all about getting the ride you want out of your suspension. Keep trying, I believe you'll be happy in the end.

tom@worksperformance.com

ned@worksperformance.com.

pierre@worksperformance.com

 

[GeekTB]

Thanks for the info Rotor. I've been dealing with Tom and Pierre on this (mostly Pierre) and I was happy to give him the benefit of the doubt that this is just a miss-communication but at this point I'm getting the feeling that no one over there cares much. I also work in customer service and try very hard to not be a jerk to other folks in my field, but I'm hitting my limit on this one. I guess I expect significantly better customer service for a thousand bucks.

 

I'm not usually this whiny and uptight but I use the bike for commuting 70 miles to work each day. Taking the front shock means I'll need to find a different way to get there for an indefinite amount of time.

 

I included my e-mails with Works below. Am I'm missing something?

 

--------------------------------------------------------

To: Pierre Vaillancourt ; Tom Edison

Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 11:05 AM

Subject: Re: R1200RT shocks

 

Hi Pierre,

 

I took off the front shock this weekend, which requires taking apart most of the front end on the bike, and checked the shock very carefully. THERE IS NO 1/4" SOCKET ALLEN SCREW. There is no screw at the bottom of the shock at all. The only screw I could find was at the top of the shock, and it was much smaller then 1/4". It also didn't turn at all (I included a picture of the TOP of the shock).

 

I also reviewed the original specs Tom sent me and the rear doesn't have a rebound adjuster, so thanks for sending me on that wild goose chase...

Also, from reading the document you sent me, the rebound adjuster controls how fast the shock recovers, so I'm not sure what it has to do with the "thud" I feel when going over sharp bumps.

 

So back to my original question, when I go over a bump that is about 1-1.5 inch deep, going maybe 10-15mph, it felt like I have no shock at all or that it is bottoming out completely. My bike has fairly soft rims and I'm concerned this is causing damage.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

AO

 

 

On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Pierre Vaillancourt wrote:

 

The PDF applies the the lower eye on the front shock as well as the rear.

 

Thank You,

Pierre Vaillancourt

Senior Engineer

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Ady Oren

To: Pierre Vaillancourt

Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 5:42 PM

Subject: Re: R1200RT shocks

 

Hi Pierre,

I looked for instructions on the website but all I could find was the PDF you sent me that references the rear shock. My problem is with the front shock. Got any documentation for the front?

 

Thanks,

AO

 

 

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 12:53 PM, Pierre Vaillancourt wrote:

 

It's not a through hole. You are looking for a 1/4" socket allen screw. See attached. More info on our website under doccuments, instructions.

 

Thank You,

Pierre Vaillancourt

Senior Engineer

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Ady Oren

To: Pierre Vaillancourt

Cc: Tom Edison

Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 12:38 PM

Subject: Re: R1200RT shocks

 

Hi Pierre,

 

Still no word from you. Do you have any suggestions? maybe a picture of what I'm looking for? I looked all the way around the bottom eye and couldn't find a thru hole.

 

Thanks,

AO

 

 

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 4:38 PM, Ady Oren wrote:

 

Hi Pierre,

Haven't heard back from you. Do you have any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

AO

 

 

On Sun, May 30, 2010 at 1:52 PM, Ady Oren wrote:

 

Hi Pierre, I can't find any thru hole or adjustment screw on or around the lower eye mount. I don't have a mounting eye on the top part of the shock, just a threaded rod. Any suggestions?

-Ady

 

 

On May 21, 2010, at 10:05, "Pierre Vaillancourt" wrote:

 

Ady,

The front shock has an adjustable thru hole on the lower eye. If mounted correctly, the adjuster screw should face towards the rear. Each 1/6 of a rev = 1 click. Clockwise is stiffer. And, there is a break in period where the piston ring and seals loosen up a bit. If you adjust the screw in a bit, you should be in good shape.

 

Thank You,

Pierre Vaillancourt

Senior Engineer

[NewBlue]

I don't have these shocks but I looked at their site. If you go to the RT shock section it shows a pictute of the front shock, enlarge it and you will see a hole on the lower mount section. It's 90 degrees to the mounting bolt between the preload adjuster and the mounting bolt. In the post it notes a 1/4" allen bolt, the 1/4" might be the adjuster screw diameter not the allen socket size, if this is the case you will need a smaller allen wrench, much less then 1/4" The site also notes "some shocks are equipped with rebound adjustment" so I don't know if you have it.

 

http://www.worksperformance.com/html/bmw.html click front tracker and enlarge the pic

[motoguy128]

I'm also failing to see how rebound adjustment is the culprit here.. unles the sock is rebounding too slow and therefore bottoming out on a series of bumps. Which is possible.

 

The one thing I remember about suspension tuning, is that you want as little dampening as possible to provide good wheel control. You want the wheel to track the road surface as precisely as possible. Too little rebound and the spring will become like a pogo stick.

[duckboy]

i have a set of works perf shocks off of my '05 gs. they do have rebound adjusters at the bottom of the shock. they're located on the lower mounting clevis body and it's an internal hex wrenching feature. fairly large too. about 4-6mm in size. can't remember it's been a while since i looked at them. be careful, it turns very easy but at least it has a indexing detent feature so you can keep track of how many turns/clicks you are from the stop.

[duckboy]

GeekTB, can you post some pics of the bottom of your shocks near the lower mount bodies? this might help.

 

duckboy

[GeekTB]

Here's a pic of the bottom part of the shock. I took it apart and confirmed that there is no rebound adjuster (I have one on my rear shock so I know what to look for). I also had someone here confirm that their front shock from Works also didn't have a rebound adjuster. They initially sent me a quote for the GS shocks and those did have a rebound adjuster so it must be model specific.

 

I got a response back from Works asking me to ship the front shock to them. I asked about the height difference issue and the response I got was:

"You can run the stock front with the shorter rear during the service period. It will slow the steering a bit but, several of our customers only lower the rear. This slows the steering by 1.5 deg approximately."

 

Does that sound reasonable? I'd like to avoid crashing.

[duckboy]

works is correct on the handling change. it'll make parking-lot speed riding a bit more tricky since the front will want flop to either left or right side. only at slower than walking speeds.

 

interesting how your pic shows a chrome sleeve under the spring's lower perch. my gs works shock doesn't have that. i'm interested in hearing what they say when they get the shock.

 

keep us posted.

[Rotor]

GeekTB,

Your profile indicates we're talking about an 05 R1200RT which is exactly what I ride. If I'm seeing the photo correctly, your preload adjustment is at the bottom of the shock? My Works front shock has the preload adjustment at the top. Doesn't even look like the same shock to me. Maybe a re-design by Works? Hard to tell from the photo.

Any chance there's someone close to you that can help you veryify the adjuster is/isn't there before you send it back?

Wish I could offer more...

[GeekTB]

Hey Rotor, my pre-load adjuster is at the bottom on both my front and rear shocks and I can't put them in upside down because the mounting is different. I checked What Works was referring to is the 16 position rebound adjuster that apparently doesn't come on the front shock of RTs (the front shock the make for the GS seems to have them and they are about $100 more expensive).

Here's a pic of the entire front shock.

[duckboy]

that's a very different looking shock than my gs shock. i'll try and take a pic of it soon. i don't recall my gs shock having that chrome looking sleeve under the lower spring perch.