This show kind of started when I bought this BMW G650 XChallenge bike. It has so crazy system as the rear suspension/ absorber. The full shock absorption and suspension is made by Continental manufactured Air Dampener that looks like this:
My Air Damping system didn’t keep the pressure anymore so it was time to change it to something better! So I made the change in the winter 2021-2022:
After this change I was riding and enjoying my ride until this years early spring when I suddenly noticed that the Touratech was going to the bottom all the time. I did only about 12000 kilometers with it during these 2 seasons. That Touratech Shock absorber was not working anymore.
I sent email to Touratech and they answered right away. They wanted me to send my shock back to the factory. So luckily warranty was still valid!
After one week I sent another email and I was asking “What’s happening with my rear shock?” and they answered that maybe next week someone is coming to check it. This was little bit disappointing! But ok, they promised to contact me right away when there was something new happening.
But then I started to think “Can I trust this Touratech anymore? Will it break again right away? Could I afford to buy Öhlins??” And quite soon I made the order about Öhlins rear shock (Best in the market?)
I got that one very fast and installed it to my bike. I made this ride with the new Öhlins rear shock. But that ride ended in to the pool of oil!!
My bike throwed the oil out! At this point I didn’t know where it was coming from. And when I showed the pictures to few other guys they said it’s so clear oil it must be coming from the brand new Öhlins!!
But 2 days later I found the leak from that small oil hose:
After I changed that hose I thought again that everything is ok and I made this amazing 300km ride!
But I noticed during that ride that the brand new Öhlins is actually leaking! It was getting softer and softer and all the time there was oil especially under the absorber reservoir and that happened to be the spring of my sidestand. It was soon totally black and wet from the oil that was coming out from the Öhlins!
At the moment my bike is in Biketeam Raisio and they are trying to solve some other problems with my bike. I should be removing the Öhlins from my bike and send it maybe to Estonia (I bought it from there) or to TTM Factory.
It’s not clear yet if they accept in that company in Estonia from where I bought it that the Öhlins would be serviced here in Finland?? But I’m quite positive that it will be ok!!
I also got the message finally from the Touratech thet they sent my shock back to me (fixed!) so I should have it next week! Edit: I got it already today (16th of May)!
Quite a show!