Have You Ever Experienced Total Shock Failure?

I have...today, as a matter of fact.

I was riding over to Loveland, 15 miles west to meet a friend so we could ride together down to the Vehicle Vault in Parker on the south side of Denver. The street I get out of Greeley on is rough and has lots of broken pavement, but I didn't think much about the way the bike was riding. Once or twice on US-34, I thought the bike was handling a little differently, but my tire pressures looked good and I still didn't think about the bike's handling too much.

But when we pulled out onto I-25 and I accelerated, it felt decidedly different. It seemed to be bouncing more than usual (and that wouldn't take much, since I'd never experienced "bouncing" before, except on a badly frost-heaved section of the Alaskan Highway just before entering Alaska).

By the time we were on E-470, the toll road around Denver, I knew it wasn't normal, and felt the bike bottoming out a couple of times and once I was bounced off the seat. When we got to the Vehicle Vault, I bounced the bike while I was sitting on it and could feel it bottoming out again.

I was lucky in that a friend was on the ride who lived only a few miles from the Vehicle Vault. After we at lunch, Tim rode home and got his car and then followed me the 30 miles from Parker to Sun Honda in Thornton.

While Billy, the service manager was writing up the work order, he said, "Is that shock fluid under your bike?" We went out and looked, and, sure enough, it was. There was some on the rear tire, too. It made me glad that I had taken it easy on the ride to Sun!

This is working out fairly OK for me, because I'm flying to Billing, MT, on Monday and will be driving around Montana for a week. I'll get back on the 16th and if I'm lucky, the bike will have a new shock.

As I was riding to Sun, I got to thinking that it's been 50,000 miles since I changed fork oil, so I'm having them service the fork, too.

Billy said, "I'd rather spend Honda's money than yours, so I see if we can get warranty coverage for the shock. The fork's going to be yours."

Riding the bike without a working shock was a lot like riding a pogo stick. I don't recommend it!

I didn't have TOTAL shock failure, but seen a burst of oil on shock body, spring, swingarm, and rim. I thought shock was nitrogen?? but either shock or the adjuster leaked bad. I don't think I bottomed out. new shock from partzilla was $344. juts missed a forum for sale stock used shock for about $50, said then, "I'll never need a rear shock!!

Phil thanks for doing so many miles on your NT, it is helping the rest of us to "timetable" what needs to be replaced and when.

Alternately we may want to sell our NT700's around 90,000Miles as you seem to have had a few major problems since that mileage.

[...seen a burst of oil on shock body, spring, swingarm, and rim. I thought shock was nitrogen?...]

In modern "gas-charged" shocks, the nitrogen gas is separated from the shock fluid by a rubber bladder or a sealed piston.
The high pressure gas takes the place of air that would ordinarily be in the shock and could cause aeration. In the late-70s, some gas shocks were emulsion-type meaning the gas was mixed with the oil but eventually everyone went to the modern type with oil and gas separated.

I had the remote preload adjuster on my NT shock fail at around 30k miles. The oil in the preload adjuster is kept separate from the oil in the shock so the shock still worked but I was unable to adjust preload to my liking so had a new shock made to my specs by Works Performance.

Phil,
Total shock failure is when the shock shaft breaks in half. I have never had that happen to me but a long time ago (70's) a friend had a small dirt bike that a shock broke in half. Of course bikes had 2 shocks then and it was still somewhat rideable. While I'm reminiscing there was another bike that flew over a jump, landed, and broke off both front forks. Rough landing.
I think yours was a total damper failure, bad enough. Keep up the high milage testing so us low milers will know what to expect ahead.

Brad

Total damper failure -- that sounds better than what I would have had if the shock had broken off! Thanks for the correction.

I'd call it a shock failure too Shock absorber = damper so either is correct.

I had the forks collapse on the Goose. Went off a curb and there was a pothole. Forks stay completely compressed. Thought I'd broken something bad. Those are cartridge type design. When I disassembled the front end (in a KOA, nice folks ) found out that the spring bushing had jammed with the spring in full compression. Lucky for me all it took was a few smacks with a 2x4 and it let loose (I was not thrilled with the idea of disassembling a 'shock' with the spring in full compression ).

So, count yourself lucky again Phil.

I would have taken the opportunity to upgrade the unit, but, you've gotten a lot of good miles out of the stock one so....

charlie b said:

I would have taken the opportunity to upgrade the unit, but, you've gotten a lot of good miles out of the stock one so....

Click to expand...

I thought about upgrading, Charlie, but decided that I didn't really need any more performance out of my suspension than I got when the bike was new and had a shock that would do its required damping. And, if this thing starts falling apart more often than it does, I'd hate to have an expensive after-market shock go with it if I needed to replace the bike.

I seem to remember a guy I knew well, NOT ME that came flying off a MX jump in Chico in 1970, when he landed that poor little HD 125 Rapido came apart! front wheel , forks, handlebars and rider kept going and engine, frame etc became a plow!

Eldon

Wow! I'll bet that smarted!

The more common "shock failure" is when a worn or damaged seal allows all the shock fluid to leak out. The shock is still holding the spring securely but without oil, the back of the bike bounces up and down over every bump.

DirtFlier said:

The more common "shock failure" is when a worn or damaged seal allows all the shock fluid to leak out. The shock is still holding the spring securely but without oil, the back of the bike bounces up and down over every bump.

Click to expand...

That was what it did. Just like a softly-sprung pogo stick.

EX WINGER said:

when he landed that poor little HD 125 Rapido came apart

Click to expand...

I owned a Ripido back then. Probably not the strongest frame ever made. I managed to bend it a little and a small crack I welded with the farm stick welder.
Those jumps are rough on bikes and riders, esp when you don't quite do it right and land on the front wheel.
I was young then and didn't think much of it. I have a slightly different attitude about pain and suffering now.

Brad

I also had one , I did some very mild trail riding and it was fine, I was working at the HD shop in Yuba City Ca and we had a customer who used one to run around all over town washing windows , He had way over 50K on it when he finely parked it and bought a new one.

I had a BAHA that was really a great 100 cc, used it for MX Scrambles and some pretty serious trail riding, a great bike but the negative was it was a little tall for me. I sold it when I got orders for Germany.in hindsight I wish I had kept it!

eldon

I talked to Sun Honda this morning. They've ordered the shock and don't have a delivery date for it yet. It should be in next week. They'll get the fork maintenance done for me tomorrow or Monday.

When I talked to them they still didn't know if Honda was going to replace the shock under warranty or not, but said someone from Honda was going to inspect the shock this afternoon and make a decision. I got a call at about 6PM from Sun with the semi-bad news. Honda had decided that 97K was a pretty good life for a shock and that they would not pay for it. But, they are going to sell it to me at cost. I think the List Price for the shock is about $580, and they're going to let me have it for $300.

I'm OK with that. We'll see how it all works out.

Phil Tarman said:

Honda had decided that 97K was a pretty good life for a shock and that they would not pay for it. But, they are going to sell it to me at cost. I think the List Price for the shock is about $580, and they're going to let me have it for $300.

Click to expand...

A shock is a normal wear item so that is a pretty good deal...

Heck, that's a GREAT deal. At the mileage yours has I would not expect Honda to pony up for anything at this point.

I wonder what MG would say if I rolled up on my bike, that only has 80,000miles on it, and told them the shocks had gone bad. They would probably tell me I was lucky they lasted that long.

I see Honda giving you a break on the price as standing behind there product. A real good thing. Wasn't that long ago most vehicles where considered scrap at that mileage. On a car you would call what we have on our bikes a coilover. Like the new active suspension BMW's we all read about they suffered suspension failure when the shock rod failed. Having the shock absorber function fail aka damper is exciting enough for me.

Good to see you are getting it fixed and moving forward with the bike.

I feel good about Honda's response. I think the bike is ready for many more miles now. I've learned to stay with a good dealer for the stuff I'm not willing to tackle with Chuck Henderson's assistance.

I look forward to reading about the adventure. Keep riding Phil.