does anyone have any idea when a nivomat shock is officially kaput?
my k100lt seems to wallow and feel light at the front for at least 15mins before becoming OK {just in time to get too work}
2 up with my son as pillion,the back feels like its bottoming out then ten minutes later its OK!
is this normal and am I being paranoid?
help!!!!

One of the features of the nivomat shock is that it is self leveling.  I had them on two BMW's that I bought new and both of them would bottom out at the beginning of the ride.  I'm really surprised that you are still using them.  While the idea of self leveling is good I found the life of the shock to be very short.  I replaced mine on both bikes probably in less then three years.

gsxrjeff wrote:does anyone have any idea when a nivomat shock is officially kaput?
my k100lt seems to wallow and feel light at the front for at least 15mins before becoming OK {just in time to get too work}
2 up with my son as pillion,the back feels like its bottoming out then ten minutes later its OK!
is this normal and am I being paranoid?
help!!!!

Probably right about now....

I had one on my first LT and transferred it to the second when the first became a donor bike. It worked fine, but I also experienced the unsettling wallowing (mainly when cornering at higher speeds on uneven tarmac). Over a relatively short period, the ride became harder and I was cursing every bump and manhole cover as it felt like it was bottoming out and giving me a hard jolt. As this was a progressive failure, I didn't recognise the incremental deterioration as being the nivomat being at the end of it's long life (I think it was the original fit on a '90 bike). I then took the bike fully loaded with camping gear over to Ireland and that really emphasised that it was truly done for. Another symptom was the fact that the bike (even when unloaded) was sitting much lower at the back end and getting nigh on impossible to get up onto the centre stand as well as stilling very upright on the side stand. There was no sign of any leakage of oil, but when off the bike, it was obvious that it had become a piece of scrap and had ceased to be a shock absorber.

On return home, I finally admitted that the shock was no more and invested in a RAM Shock (Realm Engineering)...holy cow, what an amazing difference! Suddenly the roads almost felt smooth again. I have RAM Shocks on both my LTs now and (now I've got over the upfront cost) am very happy with them.

thx very much for the reply's,especially the centre stand!mine has in the past month become harder to use.
there is no leakage from the unit,but when 2 up i have noticed there  is only about an inch of travel left on the unit!!
i fear it has ceased to be,it is an x nivomat.

It's become time to nail it to the perch Jeff.

its gone ,got a ram shock far better handling now.

Nice to hear a happy ending - has it improved the centre stand-ability too?

yeah, well easy to lift now