2011 Shock out in 6 minutes...

[STM Suspension]

Hi guys. Been busy so haven't been around much.

I was complaining about removing the 2011 shock when someone told me they read something on here about removing the wheel and taking it out the bottom.

I thought about it a little bit, and it can be easier than that...

1. Remove the 2 bolts holding on the muffler
2. Remove 2 exhaust springs and 2 exhaust bolts and remove expansion chamber
3. Remove 22mm nut on front part of dog bone of linkage, bolt side is 18mm. This is tight.
4. Remove lower shock bolt, 15mm head
5. Remove upper shock bolt, 14mm head
6. Raise rear wheel/swingarm, support on jack or what's handy (I used my knee)
7. Lower shock out of upper mount
8. Wiggle shock up and out of the gap where the shock reservoir was.

Done. Pretty easy. Much better than pulling the subframe. It can take a little wiggling, but it's pretty straight forward.

I'm sure you guys already figured all this out- but I've been busy working on pistons, valving and other silly things to get the boingers to boing better. Hopefully this will help someone somewhere.

Take care.

[GMP]

Thanks Dave. Robby (Boomhauer) told me about this a long time ago but it never worked on my '07 due to some rough casting on the swingarm, not quite enough room. A quick spring change only is possible out the bottom though.

FWIW, on a '12 you can even leave the pipe on, just pull the silencer for some wiggle room. Frame pivot bolt, upper and lower shock bolts. Rocker and pull rods rotated back, swingarm up. Drop and wiggle shock free, rotate resevoir to left front corner of swingarm and drop it out the bottom.

[Jakobi]

I did similar the other day with the pipe and silencer still on on my 2010. Frame pivot, front linkage dog bones, whole swingarm off, then upper and lower shock mounts. Wiggled out alright, and that was with the TTX which has a larger OD than the stock shocks.

[nambo-trev]

Ya I did mine yesterday in just under 10 min. Super easy. I've been doing it this way since I bought the bike in 2010!

[STM Suspension]

Originally Posted by nambo-trev

Ya I did mine yesterday in just under 10 min. Super easy. I've been doing it this way since I bought the bike in 2010!

You guys could have told me! I've told everyone to only bring me the shock- I didn't want anything to do with pulling them. I sure am glad there are guys smarter than me out there.

And on that note, I'm headed to Costa Rica for 10 days. See ya!