[Guest]

hi all, mark in mesa here. the rear shock on my '05 (15,000 miles)exhibits the symptom i read about on this list a while back that leads me to believe that there is air in the shock assembly. the shock motor only starts to "load up" when the display reads 5 and above, not at 1 like it should. my local dealer tells me that he's familiar with the problem and that, in fact, honda knows all about the problem but will not do anything about it unless the shock is actually leaking fluid onto the ground. according to him this issue is only a problem for heavy riders and passengers and since my wife and i together only weight 320 lbs. we shouldn't worry about it unless the shock starts to leak. kinda makes sense to me since i run the shock at 10 when solo and at 15-20 when 2-up and loaded and the bike seems to ride and handle just fine. anyone have similar experience with their bike, and is it just a matter of time before the rear shock fails completely? thanks for any input

 

[Pap]

My 02 abs wing does the same thing. My shock sound doesn't change till #7 or 8.

Pap

 

[papa benny]

My 02 doesn't load the spring until #12. My stealer tells me "well thats about right!" Planning on the Traxxion set up.

 

[blento]

The shock is not "defective" they just do not know how to bleed properly at the plant.
There is a post someplace here on how to bleed it. I am just going to live with mine
until a few more miles, it still rides great with 2 up, and have a Traxion upgrade done later.
I went thru the same thing with my dealer, Honda will only pay dealer for defective part and labor to install.

 

[E8SGW]

Mark05,

The problem is that the preload unit (which is a small hydralic pump) does not have enough fluid in it, which leaves an air pocket in the unit. The shock is not defective and will not fail. Over time as the spring gets weaker you will need to run the preload adjustment higher to achieve the same ride height/stiffness, and you may not have that much preload available to you. Honda does not acknowledge the problem and they tell the dealers that the preload unit is sealed and they are not to attempt to correct the problem or modify the unit. If you have Fred's DVD's he demonstrates an easy fix for the problem by slightly overfilling the preload unit.

If you are interested, PM me and I will give you the instructions on how to fix it yourself, if you are so inclined.

I recently installed a Traxxion modified shock which was a new shock/preload unit I had purchased from a trike conversion and sent to them for modification and I still had to fill the preload unit before I installed it.

Randy

 

[laen]

I wouldnt worry. I thought the rear shock was supposed to make an audible sound at 3-4 on the display????