I've noticed my 02 Road King was making a clonk when backing out of the garage, it can be reproduced by bouncing the rear of the bike up and down. Sounds like its coming from the shock assemblies (both sides), almost like the piston is knocking or the bushes have worn?

Any suggestions? Video of said noise is here

 

Have you checked the tightness (?) of the mounting bolts on both sides. What air pressure is in the shocks at this point.

 

Checked the torque, all good. The shocks have about 10psi in them at the moment. I was away in Europe over the weekend with gear in the boxes, I am only 82kg.

 

Is your axel nut hitting the muffler?

 

Nope, not hitting the pipes...

 

Had the exact same problem and my mechanic investigated all the possible joints. The result was that the shocks were damaged on the inside. I decided to go for a set of Ohlins HD 159 and did not regret it.

 

sounds like a cyclic hiss from an air leak... I'd suggest putting a Schrader valve on each shock... pump it up to your standard comfort psi and see if it still does that.

I would have inverted each shock and mount on the bike after having removed the schrader internals, attach a hose to a catch can, using your own strength - raise and lower the bike and dump out what fluid you do have and replace the fluid...

insert the schrader internals... pump up to your psi and see if you still get that knock

 

Cyclic hiss? There was a squeak sorta noise at the start of the video, but the clonk is my worry?

 

Just been having a fiddle in the garage. Seems that the noise is from the right shock, you can feel it when pushing the shock up and down off the bike, doesn't feel like play though, they require all my weight to get them to compress a bit. The shaft looked like it has some oil on it, so I wiped, pushed the shock up and down a bit more and it appeared to be back.

Thinking it may have a seal leak? But they were still on 10psi which I set back on Friday?

 

Are you the original from the factory owner ?
Are those the original factory shocks ?
2002 Road King...how many miles or kilometers?
The boots (rubber part) on those shocks do not look factory to me...they looked like lowered shocks.
It sounds like something is loose in those shocks.
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