Front End sag.

[Unison845]

I have 2 2003 R1150R with 4500 miles. I notice that the Front End start to sag and cause both bottom inner side of the oil cooler to rub the Telelever. It looks like it is getting worse recently and start to scratch of the paint of the Telelever about 1/2 inch mark. I would apreciate your comment on what could cause this, shock or fork? I also adjust the front shock to maximum hard setting but it did not help.

[boxermania]

Unison845

Interesting phenomena as I have never heard or seen something alike. There are a couple of things that can be happening.....the best bet is for you to post some pictures taken from the side of the bike at eye level as your post doesn't provide much to go on.

In the meantime I'll give you a couple of suggestions to chase after, in order:

1) The front shock coil spring is broken, or a the parts that retain the coil within the shock are broken
2) The ball joint on the front of the A frame (Telelever) has come loose at the threads because of corrosion, this has been recorded before.
3) The Telelever has been bent at the middle or has broken loose from the engine attachments points.

Last but not least are you into wheelies?????

I'm perplexed, let us know what you find

[Unison845]

Thanks Boxermania for the reply.

This bike was bought from an owner who has stored in a shed for couple years. I am not sure if he did wheelies. When I bought it couple months agon, it rides fine and did not have problem on the front suspension. Just couple days ago, I noticed some scratching noise and found this out. I took good care of the bike since I acquired it, never did wheelies.

I took some picture of the suspension. I noticed that the at the bottom of the shocks, it is a little wet from shock oil, but no dripping nor oil running down. The bike is on the side stand when picture is taken, when I sat on the bike without stand, I can feel that the bottom of the oil cooler has may be 1/8in clearance. So, a slight bump would cause it to scratch the telelever. Basically everything from the front suspension looked OK (from what I see), that's why I though it might be the fork or shock, but not sure.The fork also looked OK, no sign of oil leaking. The spring also looked OK.

Unison845

Interesting phenomena as I have never heard or seen something alike. There are a couple of things that can be happening.....the best bet is for you to post some pictures taken from the side of the bike at eye level as your post doesn't provide much to go on.

In the meantime I'll give you a couple of suggestions to chase after, in order:

1) The front shock coil spring is broken, or a the parts that retain the coil within the shock are broken
2) The ball joint on the front of the A frame (Telelever) has come loose at the threads because of corrosion, this has been recorded before.
3) The Telelever has been bent at the middle or has broken loose from the engine attachments points.

Last but not least are you into wheelies?????

I'm perplexed, let us know what you find

[Biff's R]

Unison,
One good thing is that is not my old '03 Roadster(VIN #). It got smashed. The only thing I can think of is that the oil coolers are not aligned right. There should be some clearance there. I will go out and take a look at my Telever arm.

[Beemeridian]

11

[P_Jensen]

It looks like the screws which hold the Oil cooler and cover are not in the correct position. There are 2 long screws used to hold the outer cover and 3 short screws used to hold the oil cooler assembly to the tank. I would feel along the bottom edge of the tank to see if the middle screw used to hold the oil cooler assembly to the tank are too long? The correct order is three (3) short screws to hold the cooler assembly to the tank, two (2) at the top and one (1) bottom center (I think this is were the wrong length screw is). And then 2 longer screws to hold the cover in place (one front, one back), these screws need to be longer because they also pass thru holes in the oil cooler assembly before engaging the wellnuts used to hold the cover in place. Be careful when removing the covers, the plastic nubs used to align the top break easily. After removing the two screws at the bottom, tilt the cover out slightly at the bottom while pushing the top in towards the tank and gently lifting up.

[reidmct]

I am wondering if the tank is not mounted properly. There appears to be very little space for the telelever to move. Maybe the tank (and therefore the coolers) is too low.

[boxermania]

Unison

Great pics....still searching. Regarding the various nice responses.....

The shock is loosing oil, this will diminish the compression and rebound characteristics, however, the spring is the one that fixes the actual suspension height. Since I have never seen one BMW shock leak I wonder if the spring might be weak....what is the mileage on the bike.

If the tank is not mounted properly, like on the front mounts, I don't think you could install the rear locking bolt and the tank would be unstable. Now I wonder if the tank tabs are cracked and allowed the tank to mount lower on the frame. If so there should be contact between the tank and the top of the frame at the front.

Being that the bike was on the side stand, the angle of the ball joint seems a bit steep, difficult to tell, I would have expected that angle if the bike was on the center stand with no weight on the front wheel.

The one thing that caught my eye is that the rubs are different from right (light and to the outside) to left (hard, and starting closer to the center of the arm) of the bike. Of course that could be just assembled differences on the oil coolers and their covers.

Suggest the following:

Place bike on center stand
Align steering dead center
1) Take pic from front of the bike, of the whole width of the bike, kneeling down and shooting through the middle of the forks. This is to see if the forks are bent to either side.
2) Take the same pic from the left side front. To cover the forks, wheel, tank, up to the handlebars
3) Take pic of the top of the tank, right where it comes into the steering head.

If nothing is wrong, I would say that you have a weak shock....however, other than worn I have never seen one that would do you have experienced. I believe that I have a pair of 30K miles shocks that were donated to me for an experiment. You can swap the front one and see what happens before shelling out some cash. You can have it for shipping costs......

Where is home?....there might be a member of this forum close by that can ride over so you guys can compare bikes.....wish I could be of more help.

[P_Jensen]

If you look very carefully at the second picture posted (the one showing the shock from the right side) just above the second wrap of the coil from the bottom there is a nut on the end of the screw holding the oli cooler cover in place. Those screws should be screwed into small rubber bushings with internal nuts, the screw should not protrude out enough to scrape the suspension arm. The nut is the reason one side scape is different from the other side. The side with the small vertical line is from just the end of the screw. See my previous post about checking the screws, I think you need at least one rubber bushing and proper length screw. The right side may only need a new screw. The left side screw and nut might be able to be turned around so the nut is on the outside until you can get the correct parts. On the right side I would try switching the front screw with the back one for now. Also you should touch up the scratches with something to prevent rust.

[Unison845]

Thanks everybody for comments.

The bike has only 4000 miles when I bought it. After few weeks, I noticed couple screws holding the bottom oil cooler has been lost, so I went to BMW dealer and get couple set of screw with bushing (that's is before I knew the bottom oil cooler hits the Telelever). I replaced the screw and rubber. Then after couple ride, I noticed the rubber on the left bottom tank is lost, worse the hole has been bent like a V shape, so I bent it back and put screw and nut (instead of rubber bushing) on the left side.

I noticed that when I sit on the bike and feel my hand under the cooler, it propably has about 1/4-1/2 inch clearance with the telelever.

"Biff's R comments: The only thing I can think of is that the oil coolers are not aligned right. There should be some clearance there."

It's possible, If I realigned and spread the cooler out by 1/4in , I think the telelever will not hit the bottom edge of the oil cooler. Can somebody with a R1150R post a picture so that I can see the vertical alignment of the cooler and the telelever? I would apreciate it.

It's possible that the shock has been blown, but I think that the coil would keep the front end from sagging, right?

Anyway, I think the cooler need the be adjusted outward.

Boxermania, Thanks for the offer, I will wait to see if anybody post some picture before making decision on swapping shocks. I might stop by BMW dealer to see what they say before doing any fixes.

[brad d]

check to see if the rubber stops that the u shape clips on tank slide on are still there

[CycleRob]

I think brad d and boxermania had it right with the front tank mounts. Both of the ribbed rubber support caps are prolly missing. Grab the front of the fueltank, if it already isn't resting on the frame, and try to lift it up. You should feel/hear NO clunking metal-2-metal noises and no up/down movement. If you cannot fit your fingers under the front edge of the tank, the factory support rubbers are missing.

.

[boxermania]

P_Jensen is absolutely correct. First, there is nothing wrong with your bike, you are missing the rbber encapsulated nuts that go on the lower part of the tank to hold both the oil cooler(s) and their respective covers.

This rubber encapsulated nuts also hav a recess for a small flat washer that normally falls off when the threaded fstener is removed. Your well intentioned repair, bolt and nut, overextend the plane of the tank and are ruboing against the telelever.

Microfiche the right parts, fix it an enjoy the bike.

[Beemeridian]

11

[boxermania]

Beemeridian....good observations on your part.

Let me clarify, yes, it appears that the shock oil is leaking out, albeit somewhat prematurely, that's why I asked about the mileage and wheelies. Even if all the oil were to have leaked out of the shock and the spring was healthy the vertical distance would not be compromised. The bike would not be fun to ride as it would behave like a pogo stick.....bouncy, bouncy.

There is a possibility on your second comment regarding the lateral position of the tank/oil coolers in regards to the Telelever. Likewise the bolts provided by the dealer are just of the garden variety, not the ones for the application and one might be protruding, past the tank more than the other. No way to tell from the pics, other than going over the whole installation with the correct parts.

[Unison845]

Ok, I sove the problem. As some of you pointed out, the fuel tank was misaligned. When I bought the bike, the owner told me that he has to replace the battery that he bought from the BMW dealer. I think he took the tank off to install the battery and when he put it back it was not properly aligned. After adjusting the tank, I bent the edge of the tank a little bit, now using the screw and rubber from BMW, the oil cooler now do not hit the tank anymore. Case solved.

Also Boxermania pointed out that the shock does leak a little bit and propably need to be replace in the future. Does anybody know a good, not so expensive aftermarket shock for replacement?

Again, thanks for all of you that take take and pointing the "sagging suspension problem".

Beemeridian....good observations on your part.

Let me clarify, yes, it appears that the shock oil is leaking out, albeit somewhat prematurely, that's why I asked about the mileage and wheelies. Even if all the oil were to have leaked out of the shock and the spring was healthy the vertical distance would not be compromised. The bike would not be fun to ride as it would behave like a pogo stick.....bouncy, bouncy.

There is a possibility on your second comment regarding the lateral position of the tank/oil coolers in regards to the Telelever. Likewise the bolts provided by the dealer are just of the garden variety, not the ones for the application and one might be protruding, past the tank more than the other. No way to tell from the pics, other than going over the whole installation with the correct parts.

[Beemeridian]

11

[Boxer]

Here is a link to a thread with excellent discussion and links to new, or nearly new shocks, at big savings from a company called Martin Conquest Ltd.

I got one from them. They only sell the rear shock I believe. I may be wrong. Check out the site.

[Biff's R]

Here is a link to a thread with excellent discussion and links to new, or nearly new shocks, at big savings from a company called Martin Conquest Ltd.

I got one from them. They only sell the rear shock I believe. I may be wrong. Check out the site.

They only do the rear shocks. They make trikes, and do not need the rear end.

[Beemeridian]

11