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Equipping the Bike - what's the best gear? Anything to do with the bikes equipment, saddlebags, etc. Questions on repairs and maintenance of the bike itself belong in the Brand Specific Tech Forums.
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

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Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
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  #1  
Old 22 Jul 2008
Ian Ian is offline
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Talking Wilbers Shocks?
Hi,

Does anyone have any practical experience of using Wilbers shocks on a long overland trip? Esepecially on a 600cc+ bike? Recommended or not?

Thanks in advance.
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  #2  
Old 22 Jul 2008
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I have one for the rear on R1100GS with stronger spring. Does the job well.

They have shocks available for most of the bikes and they customize shocks for your weight and riding style you specify for them (for free!).

They are servicable, need service from 20,000-50,000km or every 2 years or so. Services are available in South America (BA), States, Europe and some else - if being in a very remote place so you probably can send shocks to the nearest service, they service it and send them back for you if really urgent (if shock starts to leak etc problems occur) with DHL or similar package service (max with few days delay worldwide).

I reckon any servicable shock is up for the long overland trip job if the manufacturer provides (reasonably priced) services and their products are proven (Wilbers, WP etc). They're built to be overhauled-serviced unlike the "one-go" shocks that mostly come with the stock bikes.

I can recommend them.

Wilbers GmbH
Last edited by Margus; 22 Jul 2008 at 07:35.
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  #3  
Old 22 Jul 2008
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I have a wilburs shock it was built to suit my riding requirements solo / solo + passenger/ solo + Passenger + luggage etc. I gave them my weight, pillions weight, max luggage weight etc, the quality is excellent the service from wilbers is excellent and setting up and adjusting the shock simple and excellent. It Transformed my bikes handling in all conditions I would recommend Wilbers. PS i had white power stuff on my last bike also excellent but had two failures of the rear shock inside 30,000 miles and one front fork failure of internal damper luckily white power did that stuff as warranty work. Wilbers also have a 5 year warranty.
I found that when I needed to talk to wilbers I spoke to a guy that was overseeing the building of my shock so the purchase and the requirements I needed were done on a very personal service basis.
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  #4  
Old 31 Aug 2008
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Be interested to hear what you decide to do. I've been hummimng and haaing about a Wilbers, too.
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  #5  
Old 6 May 2009
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Thumbs up Wilbers
Installed on a R1200 GS Adv 2 years ago and have done 30,000km in some pretty harsh conditions outback in OZ.
Really good for fine tuning (if you get the external reservoir model for rear) and so much more ability to soak up continuos pounding.
Just be sure to accurately estimate total load when ordering so spring rate/size is set up correctly.
I'm pretty happy with mine. Superb quality-no doubt, but fairly expensive.
I'd use them again on different bikes.
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