Rear chassis greasing; is this still current?

4643 Views 18 Replies 13 Participants Last post by stinger96, 4 d ago

On2Wheels

Discussion Starter · 9 mo ago

I've just read this article on vstrom.info about rear chassis preventative maintanence and was wondering if Suzuki were still being sparse with their grease for the current V-Strom?
I stumbled upon it because the centerstand has started squeaking, and I guess it's time to grease its joints. I was wondering if I need to do the rest of the rear chassis as well soon (I have 27k km on the odo)?

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

Griff

· #2 · 9 mo ago

Never does any harm, especially if You ride in wet weather a lot.

Reactions: 3

Mak0

· #3 · 9 mo ago

I grease the parts that are highlighted in the owner's manual about once a quarter, though my dealership told me to do it after every wet ride. This includes the center stand.

It is definitely not as involved as what you have linked. I guess it cannot do much harm, but I feel no reason to do that so long as the bike behaves well.

AKStrom

· #4 · 9 mo ago

Mak0 said:
I grease the parts that are highlighted in the owner's manual about once a quarter, though my dealership told me to do it after every wet ride.

Pretty sure I'd be spending more time wrenching than riding here in Seattle if I followed that advice. 9 months of the year, every ride is a wet ride.

Improperly Torqued

· #5 · 9 mo ago (Edited)

I just lubed my undercarriage today (cue the bad jokes). Dogbones, lever, and lower shock mount. It's not hard at all if you have the means to lift the rear without relying on the center stand (a task which I hack slightly differently every time). By far, the biggest hassle is getting the spring off the center stand and removing the center stand. (The second biggest hassle is reassembling the cushion lever while aligning the two washers it needs -

. Super annoying.)

I didn't bother with the swingarm pivot. Never did that on my '08, and it was fine for 13 years and 60k miles in the Northwet; and the one post I've read here from someone who did it said it was already well lubed anyway.

It was probably a 4 hour job, but most of that was spent deciding how to anchor and jack it this time. Next time I feel like drilling in concrete, I'll put in a couple of anchors for my cheap Harbor Freight stand, and then I won't have to haul concrete blocks around to weight it down for jacking - that'll make it even faster.

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Luiz Roberto Baum

· #6 · 9 mo ago

When I have serviced the swingarm and the suspension links I saw a little amount of grease...

Luiz Baum

Improperly Torqued

· #7 · 9 mo ago

Luiz Roberto Baum said:
When I have serviced the swingarm and the suspension links I saw a little amount of grease...

Ok, maybe I'll get around to the pivot. Just ran out of give-a-sh*t today by the time I reassembled the cushion lever.

MeefZah

· #8 · 9 mo ago

Literally never greased anything except the center stand at time of installation. This on several Stroms over many miles, one which I rode 80k with nary an issue, others around the 30k-40k mark with, again, nary an issue. Lots of dust, lots of water crossings, lots of rain. Save your effort.

Reactions: 2

DesertBike

· #9 · 2 mo ago

I'm almost done cleaning and re-greasing all the rear suspension bearings and linkages on my 2004 DL650, more or less as in the linked vstrom.info thread.

One thing from that thread that doesn't seem right: should you really grease the inner faces of the various nuts? Doesn't that mess with the torque values?

Sladep

· #10 · 2 mo ago

DesertBike said:
I'm almost done cleaning and re-greasing all the rear suspension bearings and linkages on my 2004 DL650, more or less as in the linked vstrom.info thread.

One thing from that thread that doesn't seem right: should you really grease the inner faces of the various nuts? Doesn't that mess with the torque values?

Correct. Grease the inner faces of the dog bones and outer faces of the bearing races.

Reactions: 1

BorisJ

· #11 · 1 mo ago

Jeez, in 32 years of riding in all sorts of weathers in France and the UK all I've ever greased has been visible springs and levers. Gresing the swing arm pivot? Errr, we're not all mechanics!

nvr2old

· #12 · 1 mo ago

I bought a new KDX 175 in 1980(?)(One of the first single shock K"s). Put a couple 100 mi. on it the first weekend and then tore it down to check and lube bearings. The shock pivots looked to only have oil on them(No grease) , but showed no wear. Then came the swingarm next. The bearings were dry with wear in the races. Dealer supplied me with new without any hassle. Steering head was properly lubed.
So since then at some point all my bikes have had the rear suspension removed and lubed. Most were fine , but not all. None had got to the point of damage. My 05 650 had only a thin film of grease and no wear.
Like so many things it's a crap shoot on what the factory did(Or didn't do).

Reactions: 1

DesertBike

· #13 · 1 mo ago

I will say that the bearings on my 2004 DL650 seemed to have a reasonable amount of grease, and the bearings looked great. No visible wear. No grooves, scratches, nothing, all fit tightly and turn smoothly.

Not bad for 19 years and near 50k miles on the road with no maintenance.

Of course, I wouldn't have known that unless I looked.

stinger96

· #14 · 6 d ago

Luiz Roberto Baum said:
When I have serviced the swingarm and the suspension links I saw a little amount of grease...

Luiz Baum

Agreed-both mine and my wife’s swingarm axle (2020 1050 XT ADV & XT) were almost completely dry.

The pain is the service manual specifies to remove the center stand and exhaust system for swingarm removal.

We were able to pivot (up and forward) the swingarm at enough of an angle to grease the right side bearings without removing. Left side was easy to get to if I recall.

Reactions: 1

On2Wheels

Discussion Starter · #15 · 6 d ago

stinger96 said:
Agreed-both mine and my wife’s swingarm axle (2020 1050 XT ADV & XT) were almost completely dry.

The pain is the service manual specifies to remove the center stand and exhaust system for swingarm removal.

We were able to pivot (up and forward) the swingarm at enough of an angle to grease the right side bearings without removing. Left side was easy to get to if I recall.

Did you have to remove the shock when doing this?

Sladep

· #16 · 6 d ago

On2Wheels said:
Did you have to remove the shock when doing this?

You would certainly want to disconnect the lower shock mount and linkages in order to lube all those bearings as well while doing the swingarm bearings. They are all part of the system that makes the bike handle as designed and need to have sufficient grease.

Fox

· #17 · 6 d ago

Sladep said:
You would certainly want to disconnect the lower shock mount and linkages in order to lube all those bearings as well while doing the swingarm bearings. They are all part of the system that makes the bike handle as designed and need to have sufficient grease.

When I got into mine at 135k at the time I replaced the original shock, the needle bearings had completely disintegrated

Sladep

· #18 · 5 d ago

Fox said:
When I got into mine at 135k at the time I replaced the original shock, the needle bearings had completely disintegrated

Yep, there we go. It doesn't pay to not check and lube them early in their life. Also pays to not pressure wash them.

stinger96

· #19 · 4 d ago

On2Wheels said:
Did you have to remove the shock when doing this?

We did just to have better access to the front dogbone and swingarm bearings. As said above the bottom shock bolt definitely needs to come out and has bearings. Only one more bolt to get the shock out of the way completely.

Reactions: 1

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