Gutted - Rear shock leaking

Noticed on Saturday that my rear shock seems to have been weaping as there was a light sheen of oil on the shock. It was also forming a droplet on the underside of the damping unit. Wiped it off and left it overnight. No additional leakage so went for a wee spin up to Hartside yesterday. Checked it when i got there and sure enough, fresh leakage and a fair amount of it. Took it steady on the way up and took it even more steady on the way back as it had turned in to a bit of a springy afair. Looks like its been leaking out the underside, running down the linkage arm and then dispersing on the underside of the swingarm, possibly on to the tyre!

The bike is 9months old, with ~2400miles. I've had the bike four months, ridden it three times, approx 350miles and now it'll go back to the dealer for goodness knows how long. ARSE!!!!

Got a track day in three weeks as well.... Going to find out how good my local dealer is very soon!! I'm guessing 'not very' will be the answer.

Oil droplet on bottom of damping unit


Swingarm mess...




Not a happy camper, but happy to have made it home from Hartside in one piece!!!

That's unusual for such low miles, and from WP. The good news is that it would take a lot bigger oil leak than the one you have, like the whole resevoir full, to have you off the bike. The odd drip would be scrubbed off the tyre within a few revolutions, so don't panic too much. I would also be supprised if KTM didn't have one in stock here in the UK, I doubt if it's a fast moving item. Good luck with it.

Seems it's just faulty seal. It takes 30mins. work to change it.
I have WP shocks in my sled and every now and then seals worn off, mostly 'cause of frost. It doesn't really matter because they need to be opened quite often anyway.

Oh dear. It's because me and my other half had a sit on that bike before you bought it.

Fat as well as spoilt!

M&S will sort it out Mark. Divven't worry.

Just dropped the bike off and have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by the dealer. Very apologetic that it had happened in such a short time frame, and i'll have it back within a week! It will be fixed as opposed to replaced due to the high cost of the unit. Result!!

Time for an update as my misery continues.

According to the dealer, KTM would not authorise a replacement shock unit so instead it went somewhere to get reworked/serviced. Took two weeks as the place doing the work did not have the correct tooling so KTM had to send it to them. Bit strange if it was an authorised WP specialist but more on that later...

Got the bike back on Wednesday night for the track day on Friday. Fitted the akra slip ons and scared all the animals in my estate! What a noise. Bimbled down to Croft on Friday morning and was all ready to rock n roll for the track day. Good crowd and the eight of us were really looking forward to some friendly competition on track. Fairly sedate first session ensued and all was good with the world. After the second session i was the giving the bike a look over and lowe and behold the feckin shock was leaking again. Gutted and furious all at the same time. Same thing as last time, was almost like nothing had been done to fix it. Phoned the dealer and calmly let them know i would be returning the bike early doors on Saturday and was not interested in having the unit "repaired" again, i wanted it replaced. Phoned WP to find out what had been done and (this is where it gets a little weird) they have no record of the shock being reworked. They said that any warranty work on the shocks should be recorded with them so they can keep a track of quality issues.

Anyway it really took the shine off the day and i was not comfortable on the bike for the rest of the day, that's mostly why Gab got past me....

Took the bike back yesterday morning and have been told that KTM had already authorised a replacement shock and were going to ship one. No time line on it though. So that part of the story is complete. I then got contact details for KTM and WP and found out where the shock had been reworked. As luck would have it it was on the same street as where the KTM dealer lives so i went down there and spoke to the guy who did the work to see if there was anything strange he had noticed. In the shop i spoke to two different people who told me very conflicting stories. One person told me that they were not WP specialists and that the shock should not have been reworked and the other told me the exact opposite. What the %$&*?????

So who should refund me half my track day costs given i consider it wasted/wrecked?? Answers on a postcard please?!?! NOT HAPPY.

Figured half was a good compromise, but maybe i should ask for the full amount. Will give them a bell on Monday and see what happens.

I'm with he Dr, it was no fault of your own, try to get a full refund

Hurrah!!!! Go KTM UK!!!!

Spoke to Rob at KTM UK today (top bloke) and we discussed the ins and outs this sorry story for a while (which he knew all about) and he was able to offer me the option of upgrading to a race spec rear shock for nowt!!! It would be shipped today and fitted tomorrow!!!! Holy crap THAT is how customer service should work!!! Although this was a staggeringly generous offer and more than i had hoped for it would be kind of wasted on an amateur like myself and so instead i'm getting a nice shiney new KTM jacket! RESULT!!!

I'm a very happy camper and very impressed with the response of KTM but still hugely unimpressed with my dealer's customer service skills! I guess Triple D at Kendal will get my servicing money untill the warranty runs out!

KTM UK Ltd - 1
M+S Motorcycles Ltd - 0

You're a very lucky person, no doubt.

Please check the following: The KTM Powerpart catalogue states very clearly that the "race"-rear shock they give you only can be used TOGETHER with the upgraded "race"-front fork.

I don't know why KTM mentiones this, no harm to ask them, right?

Good luck,

Marcel.

To be fair, it was mentioned by KTM that it would be best to get the front fork springs and internals upgraded if i went for the upgraded shock option, but like i said the standard shock is more than enough for me!