Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
Not even the same issue….they were having fading issues not spring or clip failure….which is obviously what happened to Prado’s bike…
Yes, shock issues continue to happen…. Fade, spring retainer, whatever. WP has some issues that need to be cleaned up. They had riders skipping motos and now riders with potential mental distractions, concerned about shock failures.
You can build anything to fail, and if you know, what causes it, then surely you should know that and be aware of it. My point was more that you should not be that close to the edge of the working envelope, that you could adjust it to be outside of that envelope enough to fail.
I didnt have to build the stuff we made, but after some degree level cretin decided he could do better than Ohlins with an unlimited supply of someone elses money , and designed a damper that was so complicated with multiple pistons contained within a bigger centre piston, that you could not build two dampers the same without selectively assembling every single part.
We needed to do a 'revalve' which meant that some parts needed remaking, and it cost $35000 , with Ohlins it was $20 of shims.
When you are having failures that nobody else has, you must know what you are doing differently.
And blaming 'quality issues' for when design drops the ball, is all to common.. When things are designed to fail, they fail, and they fail often.
Plenty of KYB and even Showa A-Kit shocks available out there for KTM's and forks as well.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Every shock and fork used today can easily have the shim stacks arranged such that you get cavitation. The problem seems to be that with the system they have, for the riders to get the performance they desire, it ends up being out of the functional range. Neither WP, nor any other manufacturer can stop technicians from doing that. KTM does use different linkage ratios compared to the other brands, and they made frame changes recently. My guess is to fix the problem they have to change the frame or swingarm, against the production rule, or make a significant design change to the shock such as shaft diameter or piston diameter. It doesn't sound like the current shocks they have access to matches the requirements of the system. From what little we know it doesn't sound like a quality problem, and nothing about the tuning parameter ranges is unique to this design. It sounds like the current shock that is very similar to KYB and Showa designs doesn't match the system needs. The design is so similar to Showa and KYB it wouldn't surprise me if they had the same problem when used on this bike under the conditions the factory guys are using them.
Damn Chinese parts! 😆
Why didn't we have this problem in 2004?
I can guarantee you that every shock being made by the techs is being pressure balanced before being tested by the rider. The only way that shock is getting on the bike at this point with the issues they have had. It really is a weird issue because for the most part between the factory shock, kit shock, and OEM they haven't had any huge design change. Just geometry changes with the frame and linkage. But I find it hard to believe they wouldn't have changed that with a linkage by now. From what I have seen it looks like manufacturing issues but seeing as Europe doesn't have the same problems, that doesn't make much sense. Whatever the issue is has to be stemming from being allowed on the bike at cavitation limits, or material failure. I will say that Prados failure looks like a spring failure and is different from what we saw over the summer.
How different is the shock damping between Supercross and MXGP?
Very different, doesnt mean the shock wasnt pressure balanced before being given for testing. Stiffer valving, higher nitrogen pressure to compensate.
Either broken spring or its a failed air shock
KTM needs to suck up their pride and put on KYB's already. Pretty bad when all your top guys the past 2 contracts run KYB on their practice bikes.
I agree they need to fix the issues. As for forks, didn't they bring new factory forks last year? I thought ML indicated they were mostly all using them in MXGP and eventually RJ had them?
Also, what fork internals does Eli have? They were not Cone Valve externals and the caps were sort of like the 6500/CV. Did not look like KYB. The nearly complete lack of mention by the media is odd. I believe Lewis mentioned in his pod he was using a new WP fork. Not any detail though.
I watched Prado at the test track this morning for about 20 min and didn’t see him blow a shock 😁😆😆
They finally ditch the WP?
Fox Racing Shox with WP stickers I believe.
🤣
Pit Row
Post a reply to: Hearing Prado already had a shock blow