Rear shock linkage

On my way home from work 2 ago weeks Friday and my rear shock linkage snapped. Fortunately I was travelling in a straight line and managed to stop the bike quick enough to limit the damage and find myself seated in a position just above my rear hugger.........
After 30 mins sitting astride the bike (cos i couldn't put the stand down) making calls to get recovered I found a not to distant wall to lean it against.
My mechanics managed to get on the road the the next day (their brilliant and in Maygrove rd nw6) they noticed on my 2007 rsvr model that it appeared the linkage had never been greased from assembly nor the new one they fitted had.
That was at the cost of a new Ohlins rear shock that had been bent as a result of the incident.....The most gutting thing was that I'd just had the old Ohlins shock reconditioned not 2 months before........
So approaching 2 years old from new and I've had an Ohlins rear shock reconditioned,a new replacement rear shock,a new rear shock linkage,a new set of Ohlins forks and I need a new set of front brake disc's and of cousre pads cos mine have heat spots on them and are causing vibration under light braking.........I never had any of these troubles with my 2000 model and I'm still absolutely adamant this is probably one of the best bikes I've ever riden...
Has anyone else encountered any of these problems ??????
I've done just shy of 15,000 miles on this bike and have always mantained it to the highest standards....My new rear linkage was fully greased before fitting this time....I'm worried that had this happened under different circumstances the result of this failure could have been very different....
I look forward to some replies.....................:smilie

rear linkages failing has been known to fail but only on a very small scale i believe

spk to spoonz as he knows all the ins and outs

AF1 did some stronger redesigned plates

There have been about 7 or 8 failures now that i know of in varying degrees of seriousness with 1 being fatal.

After 2 in quick succession in NZ one of which resulted in a near fatal accident and paralysis there was a Police investigation and a law suit against Aprilia.
The result of which is not for public consumption for various reasons but the linkages were independantly tested and those findings had a lot to do with the outcome.

In short if it were my bike i would put af1 plates on. Statistically i think it's less than 1% failure rate but for £40 ish better to have the piece of mind.
The 04 -08 link plate for any that don't know was dramatically reduced in strength probably for weight reasons (see pics) 0f Pre 04 - post 04.

The RSV4 has gone back to the original thickness pre 04 which tells you something.
Certainly siezed or poorly maintained bearings won't help the situation so keep them tip top.

I put stainless steel plates on mine when i heard about the first 1 or 2 broken plates

As said, for the sake of 30 - 40 pounds its better to be safe, most people spend 10 times as much on new end cans just for the sound so £40 is nothing

Get them changed and grease the bearings every year :thumbup


One other thing.........I think these linkages have all failed on FACTORY spec bikes as far as i know

there was 1 tuono but others were Rsv Factories

Thanks for your imformative replies gang............With reference to the pic that Spoonz posted of the snapped linkage I was sure it was the other end that cracked,so i called the garage to get this confirmed and I'm correct,it was the other end,In which case although i'm still going to invest in a set of plates it wouldn't have stopped mine cracking ?????????

It varied from machine to machine.

If you get your broken links look for excessive rubbing on the inside. Aprilia shot peened the links to prevent surface marks forming stress fractures.
The earlier plates due to the thicker material didn't need peening. One of the theories was that the rubbing wore off the peening and created a rough surface for fractures to develop.
Most of the links that broke seemed to have areas of rubbing but not always in the same place hence the variation in breakage positions.

If you look at the red areas on the stress analysis pic below you can see the highest stress area is actually at the front where yours broke.

spoonz said:

there was 1 tuono but others were Rsv Factories

Click to expand...

Hi Spoonz.

So do you reckon it is to do with the Ohlins rear shock as that is what the fatory has?

Mahoney said:

Hi Spoonz.

So do you reckon it is to do with the Ohlins rear shock as that is what the fatory has?

Click to expand...

To be honest i don't know

There must be a common factor and it was suggested it could be more flex in the Ohlins unit but then it could just be stiffer damping of the Ohlins increasing loads.

It may just be conincidence if there are more factory models than base models in circulation.

spoonz said:

It varied from machine to machine.

If you get your broken links look for excessive rubbing on the inside. Aprilia shot peened the links to prevent surface marks forming stress fractures.
The earlier plates due to the thicker material didn't need peening. One of the theories was that the rubbing wore off the peening and created a rough surface for fractures to develop.
Most of the links that broke seemed to have areas of rubbing but not always in the same place hence the variation in breakage positions.

If you look at the red areas on the stress analysis pic below you can see the highest stress area is actually at the front where yours broke.

Click to expand...

It wasn't that part that cracked Spoonz.....It was on the dog bone part of the linkage....As you view your pic it was the left side...The part nearest the gold casting were the shaft goes through not the triangular part.........

spoonz said:

To be honest i don't know

There must be a common factor and it was suggested it could be more flex in the Ohlins unit but then it could just be stiffer damping of the Ohlins increasing loads.

It may just be conincidence if there are more factory models than base models in circulation.

Click to expand...

Mmmmmmmm..... Thinks me better change mine, I have a non factory 06 but it has an Ohlins shock.
Any ideas on best place to purchase them?

these are good. made by acculign

http://www.af1racing.com/store/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=5467

As soon as i got my Factory i changed my link plates for the AF1 ones. Not too much money, more a piece of mind! When i fitted them, all my needle roller bearings were dry and rusty. New rollers went in as well as nylon washers between the dog and plates, and swing arm and plates. this stops the plates sitting to one side and rubbing metal to metal.

hi, i have just read the first post on this subject and the same thing hapend to my 05 rsv (not the factory model)
i was doing the normal cheaks on it and noticed a long crack in the dog bone linkage from the rear bearing going towords the engine and it was very nearly all the way through.
when i removed the part it looked like the roler bearing seal had faild whitch then let water in and screwed the roller bearings up.
this happend at about 18000 miles,so now i DW40 the new one in that area every week to see if it helps solve his problem