2005 RX1 Mono Shock Suspension Durability Results

[SLEDSTART]

Hi reX do you think i should opt for the next upgrade spring for my attak,now to let you know just what i am doing,we ordered it stock,and are having all the stock shocks from the apex gt installed on my attak,but i weigh 240-250 dry and ride ready about 260+ and i drive very very agressive,but when i had my 03 rx1 shorty i dident notice much damage to either front torque arm or the rear,and other than slider wear and front add on idler wear wheels breaking off bolts thats about it,and i had 164 1.175 woodys studs on the stock button track,but i only kept the stock skid in for 2,000 miles or so,than in went the zr skid??

Here's what I would do:
- Examine the front pivot arm. If it's the same as the 05 mono, pull the skid, remove the arm and have it reinforced. It's not worth the downtime and frustration to have it fail during the season - even if it is covered under warranty (this will void your warranty on the arm). Sometime during the summer I'll probably do an FEA analysis to figure out some reasonable reinforcements. I will likely publish the results here.
- Pull the front a-arms (front suspension) out and grease the inner and outer bushings.
- Unbolt the clamshell steering shaft bushings and grease them (every high mileage 05 I know of has suffered from these seizing up if they weren't greased by the owner/dealer). My sled became very dangerous (could hardly steer) when it happened to mine.
- As far as the spring; the 06's will likely have new springs (at least some models will get variable rate springs to resist bottoming too). I would ride the sled with the stock spring and then make a decision. With 260 lbs on the seat you likely will need a stiffer spring though.
- For the idlers; if they aren't updated, I'd ride the sled until they need changing the first time and insist a set of accessory rubber wheels (they are colored) with replaceable bearings are installed instead.

Likely you will find the rest of the suspension (and sled) is very durable (if you grease it regularly) and it should ride very well. For 06 the slide rails have been reinforced and grease fittings have been added.

REX...what is a FEA analysis? Anyhow, if you do post what you find as far as reinforcements to the skid...thanks in advance. It would be appreciated by many here.
I have become swamped at work and have yet to pull my skid. Earliest I will look at will be Monday. I am still really curious what I find. I deal with 2 pretty decent dealers. One here in IL. And one up in upper Michigan.
I have not talked to them yet about the skid, but I am curious what they will say. I want to wait until I inspect my skid before I go talk to them.

 

[ReX]

REX...what is a FEA analysis? Anyhow, if you do post what you find as far as reinforcements to the skid...thanks in advance. It would be appreciated by many here.
I have become swamped at work and have yet to pull my skid. Earliest I will look at will be Monday. I am still really curious what I find. I deal with 2 pretty decent dealers. One here in IL. And one up in upper Michigan.
I have not talked to them yet about the skid, but I am curious what they will say. I want to wait until I inspect my skid before I go talk to them.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA): Oversimplifying, it's software that us mechanical engineers use to make sure the things that we design don't fail in yield (bending/buckling) or fatigue (cracks that slowly develop).

Essentially it's a software tool where anything can be broken down into tiny "finite elements" that can be accurately mathematically represented. All of these elements are then mathematically solved in a matrix to figure out how something performs under load.

 

[Snorover]

Ok guys here is my take on the bushing wear:

I have had Yamaha's sence 1979 and the bushings all were worn after about 5000 miles and all those bushings had grease zerks to lub them.

My 2005 Rx-1 skid had about the same amount of wear with 5320 miles on them.

My conclusion is--- THE GREASE ZERKS ARE NOT REQUIRED...

An unanwered problem I had is: I set my spring to postion 6 on setup.
I really had a good setting and it rarely bottomed out. I noticed on my last ride that it seemed to bottom out all the time. When I pulled the skid I noticed that the spring postion was now on three(3). What happened to have the spring postion to move from 6 to 3?????

Check your spring postion to see if it has moved.

 

[ReX]

Ok guys here is my take on the bushing wear:

I have had Yamaha's sence 1979 and the bushings all were worn after about 5000 miles and all those bushings had grease zerks to lub them.

My 2005 Rx-1 skid had about the same amount of wear with 5320 miles on them.

My conclusion is--- THE GREASE ZERKS ARE NOT REQUIRED...

An unanwered problem I had is: I set my spring to postion 6 on setup.
I really had a good setting and it rarely bottomed out. I noticed on my last ride that it seemed to bottom out all the time. When I pulled the skid I noticed that the spring postion was now on three(3). What happened to have the spring postion to move from 6 to 3?????

Check your spring postion to see if it has moved.

I can only assume you must be joking or you only ride on the smoothest trails in North America.

My pivot arm bushings were completely gone at 1500 miles. The rear arm bushings were worn through by 2800 miles. When I pulled the skid at 2800 miles I was able to pour the water out of the cross tubes. Let that water sit over the summer (or even during the winter) and the tubes will rust, taking out bushings even faster.

Having the ability to pump the water out of the rear suspension and lube the bushings is essential if you expect to have a durable sled.

My spring position never moved. Maybe you had it not quite in the notch and it "popped" back. Once when I was adjusting mine (trying to get it to position #7) the tool popped off and it snapped back to #1.

How much do you weigh?

 

[Snorover]

No I am not kidding. I found that the wear was the same and no I never had any water inside.

I weigh 200 and I set the spring at postion 6.

I didn't notice the difference untill I had about 5000 miles on, so the spring didn't move because it wasn't seated.

 

[rxrider]

Yamaha is looking into what problems the '05 mono RA skid has. When my sled was in for some minor maintenance my dealer pulled the skid and took it completely apart, they took pictures which they sent to Yamaha for analysis, reinforced all welds, painted up the skid again, suggested that grease zerts was installed which I agreed on, and put it all back together again. I only paid for zerts, rest was a warranty job initiated by Yamaha to learn more about the cracking issue some of us encounter. Skid on my '05 was showing hairline cracks at a few welds at the pivot-arm, so I'm very pleased that my dealer took care of me and reinforeced all welds on the skid.

 

[gt4472]

Just picked up my sled from dealer with this explaination. Yamaha will pay,next fall, for replacement of all bushings, spacers, idler bearings and RA cable and associated hardware. I believe that we are suffering from shock fade and they will verify shock is up to spec. Time will tell
GT

 

[ReX]

Yamaha is looking into what problems the '05 mono RA skid has. When my sled was in for some minor maintenance my dealer pulled the skid and took it completely apart, they took pictures which they sent to Yamaha for analysis, reinforced all welds, painted up the skid again, suggested that grease zerts was installed which I agreed on, and put it all back together again. I only paid for zerts, rest was a warranty job initiated by Yamaha to learn more about the cracking issue some of us encounter. Skid on my '05 was showing hairline cracks at a few welds at the pivot-arm, so I'm very pleased that my dealer took care of me and reinforeced all welds on the skid.

rxrider, how many miles are on your sled?

 

[rxrider]

ReX - 1100 miles or 1800 kms on my '05 RX-1 ER.

I ride hard and our trails are perhaps the worst there is. We have no groomers in Norway, and our trails are out in the wilderness, not on snow covered roads. So I guess you can imagine how beat up our trails are. I have broken W-arms and other skid parts on most sleds I have own. I started sledding in 1979 on a Yamaha GP440.

Yamaha reinforced the weldings on my skid before it broke, it was only showing signs of cracking (hairline) in some welds on front pivot-arm.

I hope Yamaha get the mono skid flaws fixed on the '06 sleds as I'm trading the '05 RX-1 ER for a '06 Apex GT.

 

[cobalt650]

Just picked up my sled from dealer with this explaination. Yamaha will pay,next fall, for replacement of all bushings, spacers, idler bearings and RA cable and associated hardware. I believe that we are suffering from shock fade and they will verify shock is up to spec. Time will tell
GT

Is this the official word that all Yamaha dealers will have?? My dealer seems to be out of the loop and not very educated in regard to '05 issues.

 

[ReX]

My dealer has basically assured me that come September they will update and repair my broken suspension with whatever Yamaha has available at the time. Calls to customer service provided the same information.

They haven't been able to tell me what updates will be available (if any) in September. I have no idea if they are only going to fix up higher mileage sleds with problems or all sleds, including the low mileage sleds without problems.

If the new pivot arm isn't substantially reinforced I will pay to have mine strengthened.

As far as shock fade being the problem - it isn't. My shock definitely fades quite badly now, but that's after over 10,000 kms. Even with the shock in need of rebuilding it doesn't bottom out with the heavy duty spring installed. I typically run the RA near the center position.

The problems, as already mentioned in this thread are:

- front pivot arm subject to fatigue failure over higher miles (anywhere from 1800 kms (1100 miles) to 9000 kms (5500 miles) depending on riding style and conditions)
- cracks forming in the slide rails where the middle idlers are mounted (single bolt) - (anywhere from 2400 kms to 9000 kms again depending on riding style)
- premature idler bearing failure and no way to change the bearings without the entire wheel ($68 each) - (these bearings got rough very quickly (few 1000 kms) on my sled)
- lack of grease fittings and premature bushing failure largely due to this (the bushings are fairly soft plastic also) - (without grease some of my bushings were shot in 2400 kms (1500 miles))

Most of the guys on this forum expect the 06's will have most of these issues fixed (the prototype demo models had grease fittings and reinforced slide rails already).