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MGB MGB bike racks and lever shocks

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wkilleffer

wkilleffer

Jedi Knight
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Hey gang,

In an effort to get back into some shape other than a bit fat, I've started riding my bicycles around a bit, and put my bike carrying rack on the MGB so SWMBO and myself could transport our mountain bikes to area trails. It's not designed to carry more than two bikes at a time. It also works for taking my road bike places where I can get a good ride in. The car looks pretty good with the rack installed as well.

Trouble is that I noticed that the lever shock on the rear driver's side might have been leaking. So, I topped it off and bounced it to get the air out, and checked the other shocks. They all seemed fine. These shocks are from Vicky-Brit and are about three years old, well outside of any warranty that might have applied. I still have the old ones which might be rebuildable.

The question is has my bike rack habit caused damage, and in loading it up, am I doing something that could cause something to wear out faster than normal? This applies to anything other than tires. I'd hate to have to give it up, cause it's a great excuse to get the car out, and it's the easiest car we have for mounting the rack and loading/unloading the bikes.

Thank you,
-Bill
 
I ~seriously~ doubt that a bike rack with two bikes on it would cause your shocks to start leaking. However, I could be wrong about this, and will give way to someone that has more experience with the stock shocks than myself.
 
Rob's right: there is NO WAY I would believe a bike rack and two mountain bikes would significantly overtax those shocks! Send your spare set to Peter (member here) for rebuilding and swap out. You should never need to do it again.

I've hauled 'stuff' from 26" color TV's to FIVE drawer steel file cabinets on the back of our B (when it had a luggage rack. UGH!). Shocks are still FINE.
 
Peter garantees his shock rebuilds for life.
 
Now I have to ask, what *would* overtax those shocks? I knew someone who hauled a TV that was close to 32" on the back of a Sprite once, and no damage was done. I might want to get a 3-bike rack sooner or later, so I can cruise trash piles and yard sales looking for hidden treasures.
 
P'rolly not a good idea to go 'round with Rhinocerotidae regularly attached to the boot lid, while goin' over speed-bumps...

but short of that I can't imagine anything you'd really do to tax them past capacity. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
Shocks only go up and down and their arm limit is much further than the car is capable of allowing them to move.

So weight is no issue. In fact those shocks are so tough I don't think it would be possible to hurt them with driveing or weight. Running them dry would be my only guess as to problems.
 
Most likely you can't damage an MGB lever shock without damaging the car itself. They are very tough. Also, two bicycles and a rear-mounted rack weigh far less than a week worth of luggage. Don't worry about it.

Buy replacement shocks from Worldwide and forget about it.
 
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