A follow-up on the
shock that failed:
I had GP Suspension tear it apart and asked for a frank assessment on what went wrong, whether the emulsion shock design of the value Wilbers 640 I bought some years ago should be upgraded to one of the Penske or Ohins offers, or what they think happened.
Nothing was actually blown, no damage to any component, but he did say the oil was extremely dirty and soupy. Asked how many miles on it and I had pegged it at about 19,000 miles. 11K from the Iron Butt Rally before it went TU, 3K to get to the starting line, and about 5K between the Utah 1088 and other riding commuting. That would have been under full rally load all the time. And he said 15K is the recommended service interval.
Combine that with the fact I thought I had twisted in full pre-load, but hadn't twisted in any....and I'm thinking I just asked too much of the shock.
I also asked him if switching to a different shock would help and he suggested it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference given their mileage service is the same. Maybe a little improvement because of a slight increase in oil in the Ohilins and Penske, but I decided it was probably not worth the big financial investment in the longevity department.
It doesn't totally explain why it went so bad so quickly, but over the course of 100 miles it could be the oil changing critical stages from good to crap. And maybe it was also a bit temperature and cycle related. Part of me thinks the shock may have been a bit better in the cool morning hours of the final night.
So, I went ahead and had him do the service and send it back. I'm keeping the shock, naming it "Wonky", and going to plan factoring in a 15K service requirement for future long rides. If I do the Iron Butt Rally again, consider doing 12,500 miles again (I did only 10K in '07), and have a 3,000 mile commute to the starting line...I may have to ship my fresh shock to the starting line and limp there on a stocker.
Wonky and I are best buds again.