Rubber tubing over rear shocks, aka gaiters?

[neil.]

Taking inspiration from the massive 125 rebuild thread by snowtigress, what do you lot reckon to getting some old sections of inner tube (bicycle I guess) and stretching them over the rear shocks on the bike? I am guessing as well as protecting against general road rubbish and weather, there would be the added bonus of MOT testers not being able to check the condition of the shocks? Not that one would ever consider riding a bike with unsafe suspension... Sounds good for those of us who ride all year round and want our bikes to last as well as possible.

Thoughts, anyone?
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[The Artist]

I had gaiters on my old gs125 forks. Took them off, regretted it later when I saw rust on forks.

[neil.]

Yeah I have gaiters on my front forks already, good stuff, but I'm thinking about the rear shocks...
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[That_Hornet]

Shock sock?

Or shock tube, made an appearance on here not long back, google.

[doggone]

I think you will conceal all kinds of nastyness under it and it would be better without so you can clean it properly.
The front fork gaiters are mainly to protect from stone chips which are a bit less likely on you rear shock(s)

[Robby]

The advantage of gaiters on forks is that they can cover the section of fork that is exposed, but isn't a working part, so can corrode. The working part of the stancion will rarely corrode in normal use because it is constantly being wiped past the seal and (briefly) being oiled.

On rear shocks the entire length of the damper rod is often full compressed into the shock body, so also shouldn't corrode. If the majority of the damper rod isn't getting into the shock body then your shocks are too hard for your weight or choice of roads.

If you are going to cover them up, then clean off all corrosion first and give them a good spray of ACF50 or similar long lasting corrosion inhibitor. Otherwise you're just locking in corrosion and moisture so it can continue in a nice, safe, sealed environment.

[iooi]

A couple of issues with doing this.

1, You will lose cooling effect. Which will affect the damping action.
2, Any crap that gets in will be trapped in there. Any rust that has started will get worse quicker.
3, MOT test on rear shock is usually to bounce the rear end and see if it acts as it should, number of bounces. Not often they take a close look at them. Unlike the front forks.
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[neil.]

Cheers muchly for the input. Only corrosion I've noticed on the rear shocks is surface rust on the springs that appears in winter and it's easy to clean off. On front fork gaiters, I guess I've been doing things right then as I give the stanchions a good wipe of ACF50 when I clean the bike and lift up the gaiters. The chrome is good and there's no pitting under the gaiters. Also still got the original fork seals in after nearly 3 years and over 30'000 miles.

Robby, I'm a fat git so the shocks get a big bouncy workout every day! After what's been said I won't bother covering them.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[Teflon-Mike]

Well, not a neutral opinion, twas I that got Snowie sticking that shock in a rubber tube. I just wanted to see if she could get something big and hard in a rubber sleeve, REALLY!

Here's the artifact in question:-
https://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w269/teflons-torque/Little%20Dreams/imag1726.jpg

First off, its NOT a bicycle innter tube, its the 18x 4.00 section innter tube for a motorcycle, in fact the old one taken out of the wheels for the bike the Shock's fitted to, but same size as many others, like CG or YBR etc.

The shock is a snug fit in that size tube, it wouldn't go in the 3.00 section tube from the old front wheel, I doubt that you'd get a bicycle tube over a shock, they tend not to be that big, and if you did, they are thinner rubber, and likely to split. But this is improvised improvements here, so anything goes, its often a case of suck-it and see!

Ideas behind doing this to snowies bike, go like this:

First off, nice shiney shock, bought brand new for NOT an inconsiderable sum, compared to what it was bought to replace, which looked a lot like this, maybe a bit worse!
https://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w269/teflons-torque/Little%20Dreams/imag0783.jpg

Following thought.... err bolt THIS shiney bit to the bike, it gonna end up like that..... how can we forstall that result / prolong the life of the shock?

Now, whey-back-when, the old Girling type shock absorbers were shrouded or gaitered to protect the spring and damper mechanism.

In the 1960's exposed spring shocks became de-rigeur. Most Brit-Bikes still used gaitered or shrouded shocks, BUT racers used exposed shocks, becouse they were lighter, and it was believed that they dumped heat better, and longevity wasn't such an important criteria.

Japs gave us 'race track technology' for the road, and as it was cheaper to make an unshrouded or gaitered shock, and it was percieved as a higher performance part (Laught at that if you remember the old saying, 'Have a Drama on a Yokahama' and the notoriouse LACK of damping in Jap shox!), by the mid to late '70's exposed shocks were the more common fitment.

When the early Mono-Shock bikes came along in the early 80's, there was a vogue for them to again be shrouded or gaitered.

Reason being that the low and centrally mounted damper unit was RIGHT in the crud zone for muck flung off the rear wheel, and in teh wake of anything coming up under the engine, off the front.

And 'out-of-sight, out-of-mind', manufacturers took teh precaution to offer them a little protection, ESPECIALLY as mono-shocks systems were first evolved on Dirt-Bikes, that would see more than a little crud chucked at them.

With the mono-shock systems emigrating to road bikes, and with cost-cutting excersises on cheaper models, they quickly lost a lot of that protection, and on the CB125T, it is quite obviouse that the system has been engineered down to a price, the monoshock not even having any pre-load adjustment, relying on the high rising rate of the linkage to offer load compensation, and the sophistication of the design to offer ride & handling benefits over conventional T-Shox.

So, aware that the shock is in a vulnerable location, and that many older bikes and dirt bikes had gaiters as standard, though that as a mild-mod, gaitering this one may prove worth while, to give it a little protection against the elements, especially as this will be an all-year, every-day, all weather bike, and Snowies main mode of transport.

And yes, I do remember shock-socks and similar after-market products coming in and out of vogue over the years.

Anyway, starting point was a brand new shock-absorber, so there is NO crud, moisture or wear on there before we began.

Before putting it in the gaiter, it was liberally coated with chain-lube to give it a coating of moisture repellant grease, and protect the surfaces of any moisture that might get in there.

Gaiter then limits the amount of crud that can get onto the shock or the spring erroding the paintes or plated surfaces, or trapping moisture to induce rust.

Intension is that when teh bike is serviced, the gaiter will be lifted, the shock cleaned, and re-greased, when teh suspension linkage is.

The rear suspension on this particular bike is quite a sophisticated linkage, and has quite a lot of joints, and it DOES need propper lubrication periodically to keep it working well.

Most of the examples in my collection are pretty bludy ropey, and that is almost entirely due to neglect.

On most versions only the swing-arm pivot bushes actually have grease nipples, and I'm pretty sure that most owners wouldn't know what a grease gun looks like, even if they cared to enquire! Only the really early examples actually had grease nipples on any othe linkage joints, and even then, not on all of them!

Snowies bike will NOT be suffering such ignorance or neglect, she WILL be servicing it quite thoroughly and frequently, and she will be nagged to make sure her nipples are lubed ....... Oh... yeah, and she sticks some grease in the suspension from time to time!


As for the question of heat dissipation...... I could go into a long and tedius discourse on the topic of damping, and the advantages of a short-stroke mono-shock compared to a pair of long stroke T-shocks, and how for teh same energy dissipation, a mono-shock unit will have to dump twice the energy as a single T-Shock, and being a short stroke device have generally less mass to absorb that heat and area to dissapate it..... and all that sort of stuff....

Bottom line here is that this is NOT a high-performance race bike, or heavy weight tourer, where the amount of energy going into the damper is all THAT high, and we live in wet, windy, britain, not some meditereanian paradice..... dont REALLY think that this thing is EVER likely to be so hard worked or get so hot, that it will start suffering seriouse damper-fade......

YES it IS something to have a think about, especially of you were thinking of doing this gaitering to say a ZX9R or something, but, in THIS case, I dont expect it to be an issue......

If Snowie ever starts complaining that the back end is getting a bit lively after some hard riding............ I'll be a very lucky boy!

Oh.... sorry, if she ever complains about the BIKE getting a bit wobbly after a bit of thrashing..... well..... we may have to re-think the situation......

But at the mo, pros seem to outweigh the cons, so we're going to suck it and see ......... might also give the gaiter a chance too!

Sorry, for all the inuendo! It's Sunday, naughty thoughts day! And I took her over to see a comp-trial this afternoon. Blokes in Lyca wiggling thier bums about, you know how women get!
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Robby]

One of these days I'm going to read on of Mike's posts without having to scroll the screen. Do hope you come along to one of the BCF events though, you'd be a good person to have an in-depth geeky chat with about fixing old bikes.

Interested that you haven't put a jubilee clip around the top and bottom of that inner tube, it's protected from direct fling but crap and moisture can still work its way from above and below. I'd be tempted to clip it and cut (or burn with a soldering iron) a small drain hole just above the bottom clip.

[neil.]

Hmm, making a small hole would also ease pressure on the rubber during compression of the shock - it wouldn't balloon out. I have done this on my fork gaiters. I was also thinking heat-shrink might be good at the top/bottom of the tube as well, neatening things up a bit, but jubilee clips have the advantage of making it removable. Saying that, on my bike anyway, the shocks aren't meant to be taken apart/maintained (apart from cleaning)...
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[finpos]

It used to be common to do exactly this to winterise your bike, Just leave the bottom undone so when it leaks it doesn't fill up!

f.

[Teflon-Mike]