Should I be worried about this ? (GS Rear Shock)

[Zaroka]

Hello, I'm New here, Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, Anyways I may have taken my GS500 for its first proper test drive last night with a pillion (since a top end rebuild etc etc ) and I was somewhat abusive too it, ( I wanted to see what It could do) So I did the norm, took it onto main roads found out how it handle/accelerated etc.. I then may have decided to go up the local Hill which just happens to be the tallest in my county.. and well there is only one road up and its pretty rough, (pillion wasn't impressed  ) So anyways I got back home, Looked the bike over just to see everything is still there and well As I hope you can see in the attached photo, sorry about the size the original was too large in file size to upload  .. what i think Is maybe called the cushion? on my Stock GS Shock has kinda given up... So is this an issue and it must be replaced Asap or does this always break and is nothing to worry about if there is no leaks? I don't know if it would cause an Mot fail in future either 

Also the wet stuff on it on the left side I'm 90% sure is my chain lube which likes to fly everywhere, (Gonna use different stuff next time) Its also only wet on the chain side which backs this up and I haven't seen any shiney oil spots or noticeable leaks.

If its buggered then I'm thinking of just doing the R6 Shock mod since It costs near enough the same as buying a used Gs shock so may as well upgrade   

P.S It's annoyingly hard to post things on here due to the verification process >.<

[mr72]

That's an elastomer bump stop. You can replace it but disassembling the shock is not really trivial. I'd replace the entire shock since they are a dime a dozen. In fact I have a stock GS500 shock with an intact bump stop in my garage that you can have for the cost of shipping alone.

[ShowBizWolf]

Welcome to the forum Zaroka!

mr72 pretty much said it all... it's just a stopper.

After you post 5 times, the verifications go away. It's an anti-spam thing

[Zaroka]

Thank you both for the replies
Al take your advise and not bother trying to take it apart, I imagine al need special tools to compress the spring or something like that, and as you say they're pretty cheap,
So out of curiosity how vital is that part?

I noticed it had bad cracks in it after I bought the bike.. least now i know where too look in future, (ignore the fact I also missed that it had a rusty tank and needed the entire fuel system fixed along with the engine rebuild and seize brake calipers, and wonky suspension and the brake pedal was near enough touching the floor lol.. took awhile to get it road worthy, It had sat in a shed for atleast 13years and the valve stem Oil seals had shrunk  other than that It looked almost spotless It was just very neglected, anyway it runs great now

And Thank you for the offer! Al keep it in mind. I'm not sure what I'll do just yet, I'm debating upgrading it, It may be easier for me to get one locally, or just upgrade as I live in the UK so I think shipping will be quite a lot to here, Assuming you are from the US

[mr72]

So out of curiosity how vital is that part?

If you bottom the shock, it's vital.

It prevents bottoming, or at least greatly reduces the chances of bottoming. In some shocks (dunno about this one in particular) bottoming could potentially damage the shock.

Elastomer like that is very progressive and what happens is when the shock gets compressed far enough to contact the elastomer then the spring rate goes up and goes up even faster the more it compresses. If you torched yours like this then it might mean you need a stiffer rear spring.

[Zaroka]

Hmm.. I did have the shock on the standard setting (4) So I do wonder if I had it set stiffer if that would of prevented it from breaking the stopper.
Al see about replacing it asap anyways, might do a cheap swap with the stock suspension for now rather than upgrade as I've seen a bunch for sale at 25 quid, already spent enough on the bike this year x)

Thanks for all the info, Has been really helpful  

[Bluesmudge]

The setting on the stock rear shock only adjusts the pre-load, it does not make the shock any stiffer.
Since the GS shock is barely adequate with a single rider, you probably just worked it to death. That stopper can prevent a hard bottoming out of the suspension (which could cause a dangerous situation or kill the shock) so I would consider getting replacement. Another stock shock will do, but R6 and Katana shocks also fit and are an improvement over stock.

[Zaroka]

Okay's. Well the plan now is replace my inlets as there is a vacuum leak causing a few issues that are more dangerous, I've known about it for awhile but its now causing issues where I open the throttle and it pops and I have No power, so that's been ordered and will hopefully be fitting them next week and turns out my rear brake is missing the Shims for the brake pads, I hate squeaky brakes so ordered them also, Heard they should help reduce the squeaking.

The suspension although looks.. well dreadful, It's still got a bit of that rubber left and as long as I don't plan going up anymore hills that have pot holes 5inch+ deep then I think it will last for a little while, Defiantly going to do the R6 mod once I can afford it though, I'm too short to be adding any height like the katana shock would, Turns Out the shocks I saw for £25 have little cracks in the bump stop, which I thought they might, same as mine did so I don't see the point in buying one as it will probably just fall apart as well.

Now just trying to figure out what I can put where the pillions boots rest against the fairings to stop her scratching them up 

[ShowBizWolf]

Zaroka, if you're interested in more info about different shocks, check out the wiki link:
http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Upgrades.RearShock