3 clamps on shock spring?

[Terry500]

I bought my '06 ST1300 bike in June and finally removed the right side cover. I discovered two broken clamps hanging from the shock spring coil and one clamp still intact. My guess is the PO tried to soften the suspension. Are these clamps stock? Kinda doubt it but thought I'd ask. Thanks

 

[Sadlsor]

Not stock.
And now, not stuck.

 

[Bmacleod]

Wow!! i am going to go out on a limb and say the previous owner was on the short side, no?
That is not normal or factory.
My guess is he tried to shorten the spring to make the bike lower.

 

[Paul]

You will be amazed how your bike rides now. lol

 

[SMSW]

Only three clamps? Everybody knows you need four.

 

[Terry500]

Ah, pretty much what I thought. Thanks all for the confirmations & a chuckle.

 

[STRider]

That is some serious back alley engineering!

 

[St-Gerard]

Can you say Fuggy

 

[MidLife]

I bought my '06 ST1300 bike in June and finally removed the right side cover. I discovered two broken clamps hanging from the shock spring coil and one clamp still intact. My guess is the PO tried to soften the suspension. Are these clamps stock? Kinda doubt it but thought I'd ask. Thanks

Would make it stiffer/harder.

And then, if he managed to compress the spring in excess of the 9 mm of the preload adjuster, he would have had a gap up there that would make for a rather interesting ride.

Be careful with the remaining clamp. Although the OEM spring is on the wimpy side, it is still 900 lb/in. So 1 mm of compression can trap up to 35 lb in the clamp, which can send the clamp flying if it breaks while you look at it.

Max out the preload before you do anything on the clamp, to minimize tension on it.

And then closely inspect the spring, to make sure there is no crack inducing type of damage on its surface.

 

[Terry500]

Thanks MidLife. I left the 3rd one alone for now (still under tension). I'll deal with that stored energy another day, after learning more about the ST rear suspension. Appreciate the heads up with the precautions.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

I wouldn't leave it there. You don't need that thing breaking while you are moving at sixty MPH and it punctures your tire causing a rapid deflation, gets jammed in your brake, rips out the brake hose or ABS wiring, etc.. You never know what will get damaged when a foreign object is introduced. When you are moving at speed there is a lot of energy there.

I would get some nice over-weight friend to sit on the passenger seat, or otherwise compress the rear spring as much as you can using ratchet straps or whatever you can come up with, and get that thing out of there under controlled conditions as opposed to waiting for it to break at an inopportune time and it bites you.

 

[Terry500]

Oh, good thought about the shrapnel . Didn't think about that.

 

[motornut]

Check your forks for them being raised in the clamp too, most of the time the whole bike is lowered to match. Although clamping the spring is a clue to the quality of the modifications. Removing the clamps will change the angle of the forks and change the handling.