Rear shock came apart

[gyjoe]

I returned the other day from a ride of about 180 miles, pulled into the driveway, swung the kick stand down, and got off the bike. Then I realized that the back end of the bike was suddenly so high that the kick stand wasn't long enough to keep it from falling over! I also noticed that the rear was very springy, and knew there was a problem with the rear shock. I could see that the shock was loose inside the spring and thought that the rod had broken, but found that it had unscrewed from the "dog bone" at the top of the shock. Once it came unscrewed, of course, the spring pushed the separated shock parts farther apart and the bike higher off the ground. It is strange that I didn't notice any difference in the handling of the bike; maybe it let loose right at the end of the ride. Luckily the threads didn't get messed up, so it would be a simple fix IF you have a coil spring compressor or hydraulic press with the proper adapter, and I had neither. I figured out a crude (and probably dangerous) way of compressing the spring with a hi-lift jack and keeping it compressed with a whole bunch of zip-ties until I could get the shock re-threaded, this time with red loctite. I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem, but it is something to keep in mind.

[liverchip]

I've had cheap coil-over shocks come apart as well, not on my bike however. Harbor Freight has an inexpensive spring compressor which is probably a bit safer than the compress and zip-tie method.