rear suspension blown??? 971100gs in peru
 

hello all,

i slammed down into a pothole today and popped the front tire, dented the rim, and oil started spraying out of the rear suspension and now it rides like a cadillac.

what´s the diagnose?
how best to fix it?
is it safe to ride like this until lima, i´m about 500 miles away.

thank you for any generous help and advice.

Sure, you can ride the bike. You don't want to hit any bumps though - with your suspension gone, the frame will start absorbing the hard hits and well...You didn't say where you were at - what the road situation was. If on the pan am, you're lucky, road is as good as it gets. 500 miles is a long way to go on a broken rear shock though.

I don't know of any suspension specialist in Lima to recommend.

YOur damping is gone on teh rear - you still have the spring. It will 'pogo' down the road. If you hit a bump hard it will 'bottom out' more easily. It is the 'bottoming out' bit you want to avoid .. that is what strains things .. travel more slowly. The quickest thing to do is get another shock .. expensive but quick. Return the old shock to a good repairer (I'm assumeing you get a second hand shock - not a good one) and when that is fixed have it sent on to your next major stopping point. They might even hold it for you for a month or two while you travel. The alternative is a repiar .. possibly a heavy machinery place (they repair those hydrolic rams) might do the job .. if they can get the parts ..

Rode my 1100gs 5000m on a blown rear shock . It blew 50m from the road in Senegal & was like ridding a bucking bronco but it got me home. When i took it off it came off in 3 bits top/bottom & spring so take it easy & make sure to keep your wheels on the ground. Got another 2nd hand one for £50 off ebay.
kev

Hi Chris - we met you coming off The Melody in Cartgena a while back. I'm now back home and not loving it.

Friends of ours had a blown rear shock riding 2 up in Bolivia and I think in the end they just kept riding till they got somewhere it could be repaired properly. If there's nothing nearby, I'd probably just ride it as I'm sure the shock will need quite a few replacement parts. I got my blown shock rebuilt in LA and the guy replaced just about everything inside it.