Ive heard many people on this site say that the original XT rear shock is no good and really must be replaced before a long trip. In 2004 I was preparing my 34L for my first trans Africa and took this advice to heart so I had original shock rebuilt, a couple of days after announcing this i was assured by severla people that this was the wrong thing to do and that certainly I was going to run into trouble. Now 35000km of hard riding with heavy panniers later my rear shock is still very happy and behaving rather well.
This could be due to the fact that when I had the shock rebuilt it was still in good nick so the rebuild simply replaced functioning parts and prolonged its life. Ive never been on a new bike with super suspension so perhaps my expectations are lower that some people, but in general Yamaha seems to have gotten the 34L right and it has worked very well for me.
Jim
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"If we don't find something good at least we will find something new." Voltaire
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