Looking for help and I'm baffled. January I installed progressive 1" lower gas shocks on my '10 RK and the other day riding with my buddy who's about ten bikes in front of me I had a loud metallic snap in the front end. I felt it in the bars but not under the tire. it was so loud my friend pulled over as I slowed to a stop using only the rear brakes fearing something went very wrong in the front end. Now I have the front apart but the forks are still intact and everything appears to be working the way it's supposed to. I've checked for any dings that might show something hit me and also checked for any cracks or looseness.
Has anyone run into anything like this? Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks in advance. ~ Nels

 

This may or may not be related... just throwing it out there. I was riding my 12 UC home one evening and heard this very loud metallic "clang". The best way to describe it is a metal on metal impact. Like someone took a wrench and hit my engine. My first thought was that some metal part on the bike had snapped. Then I thought maybe a part had fallen off and impacted another part as it fell off.

After pulling over and inspecting the bike (in the dark), it seemed like everything was there. I then rode back to the spot it happened to look for whatever had fallen off. After finding nothing, I continued home. It took me a few days to find that the sound had actually been a single very loud ping (detonation) from the engine. I was able to duplicate the loud metallic pop by quickly blipping the throttle from idle and listening near the engine. I'm not sure why it happened while I was riding that night. Maybe I created the same condition by not letting off the gas and shifting quickly... who knows.

I'm only mentioning this because, at the moment of that original loud metallic sound, I was convinced that something metal had broken, snapped, or fallen off.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm sure it is not what hppened to me as we were riding at a steady throttle . The sound I heard was like a hammer smacking an anvil a forceful blow. Only other thought I have is like a spring snapping into place that wasn't seated right. Ironically we had just discovered my buddys handlebars had snaped in the center between the risers. At least I was able to weld them for him today. We,ll be on a road test tomorrow or Monday.