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Where is the post? 2003 KGT rear shock replacement question

J

jjciii

New member
2003 KGT
I have been searching for the post where a guy replaced his rear shock with a Wilbers and he listed a step by step. If you know the title or where it is, please let me know.
My bike has 35k on it now and I feel that the rear is soft even with the adjuster all the way engaged. Yes, I do run bags weighting about 20 lbs each.
 
Didn't see it in the K Bike DIY and didn't have any luck with a search.
I did it a few times on our 03 K1200RSs and I member it being fairly straight forward.
Seems like it was a tight fit to get the adjuster routed past the fender.
 
JC -

I've done some searching as well and can't seem to find anything. You've posted this in the Flying Brick K-bike forum area. Is the bike a "Brick" or is it a Wedge-K bike? I'm not that familiar with all the variations. What is the model in question...K1200GT, K1300GT, or??
 
horizontal 4 cyl - called a 'brick'

20774 said:
JC -

I've done some searching as well and can't seem to find anything. You've posted this in the Flying Brick K-bike forum area. Is the bike a "Brick" or is it a Wedge-K bike? I'm not that familiar with all the variations. What is the model in question...K1200GT, K1300GT, or??
Click to expand...

I was told long ago that a horizontal 4 cyl is called a 'brick'. So that is where I have been looking
 
20774 said:
JC -

I've done some searching as well and can't seem to find anything. You've posted this in the Flying Brick K-bike forum area. Is the bike a "Brick" or is it a Wedge-K bike? I'm not that familiar with all the variations. What is the model in question...K1200GT, K1300GT, or??
Click to expand...

The 03 K1200GT is a Brick. It's very similar to the 03 K1200RS.
 
Lee said:
The 03 K1200GT is a Brick. It's very similar to the 03 K1200RS.
Click to expand...

Thanks...as I said, I have troubles with these differences. I see on the main forum that we've identified the Wedge-K bikes starting in 2005.
 
20774 said:
Thanks...as I said, I have troubles with these differences. I see on the main forum that we've identified the Wedge-K bikes starting in 2005.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's very easy to get the two K1200GT bikes confused.
 
That said, I can't seem to find anything for the K1200GT that has a specific reference to step-by-step of a Wilbers shock on our forum. Could be that it was posted on ADV??
 
20774 said:
That said, I can't seem to find anything for the K1200GT that has a specific reference to step-by-step of a Wilbers shock on our forum. Could be that it was posted on ADV??
Click to expand...

Might have been on the old i-BMW site. That was a forum started for the K1200RS and had a ton of technical info.
 
KGT rear shock removal proceedures

20774 said:
That said, I can't seem to find anything for the K1200GT that has a specific reference to step-by-step of a Wilbers shock on our forum. Could be that it was posted on ADV??
Click to expand...

The post was on this web. There were questions about room for the remote res's (1 or 2 depending on what you bought) Perhaps having to remove the charcoal canister to make room.
I also question if the bike will collapse or using the center stand is enough.
 
To much movement = tired shock?

Let me take this time to expand on why I think the stock shock is tired.
Like I said previously, I have the preload turned up all the way. Why? because I would bottom out our dips at speed. I also noticed a bit of pogoing on sweepers at speed. What speed? Well the dips I would say 80 mph. On the sweepers , 60-80. Otherwise, it is a nice soft ride and no complaints.
Oh, BTY, I have a stock front shock also, but with an after market stabilizer.
 
CA1200 said:
Let me take this time to expand on why I think the stock shock is tired.
Like I said previously, I have the preload turned up all the way. Why? because I would bottom out our dips at speed. I also noticed a bit of pogoing on sweepers at speed. What speed? Well the dips I would say 80 mph. On the sweepers , 60-80. Otherwise, it is a nice soft ride and no complaints.
Oh, BTY, I have a stock front shock also, but with an after market stabilizer.
Click to expand...

I thinks I was replacing our rear shocks at 30,000 to 40,000 miles.
I would get a hinge in the middle of the bike feeling in fast sweepers.
Our bikes had around 90,000 miles when we traded them and they still had the original front shocks.
The fronts probably needed replacing but I could never feel a problem with the front.
If I had changed the front I probably would have felt the improvement :)
 
I've always taken a simplistic view of suspension operation, even knowing that doing so is glossing over the subtleties.
The springs are what hold you up and provide the resistance to suspension travel in either direction (you are literally twisting a steel bar to compress your suspension). I view the damping, both compression and rebound, as just that: a dampening on the rate of wheel movement.
With that simplistic view one could say that if you are having issues with suspension bottoming on big dips, the problem should be addressed via the spring rather than with improved damping. Of course the pogoing suggests the damping isn't up to snuff, either, so the shocks do need attention.
If you are going to do a replacement, you may want to search out some stiffer (higher rate) springs, especially in the rear.
 
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