My nice new Wilbers shocks get quite dirty when riding offroad. While they are rebuildable for about $100, I would like to extend the rebuild interval as long as possible. Here's a picture showing just how dirty and exposed these shocks are on the BMW R1200GS.
Some time ago during conversations with Klaus at Wilbers USA, the importer, he told me that Dirt Skins would be building some neoprene shock covers. These units weren't generally available and were being built as prototypes or one-offs. I spoke with Andrew about this and explained I was looking for some Wilbers shock covers like Klaus had built. He let me order a set. They arrived yesterday.
They are basically neoprene tubes with a velcro "zipper".
The tubes
The zipper
They installed very easily in less than 10 minutes. Most of that 10 minutes was spent cleaning the shocks before putting these in.
Front
Rear
These not only cover the coils and shaft, they also cover the rebound adjusters (and the preload adjuster in front). These cost $30 plus shipping for the set. I look forward to seeing them get very dirty and having them extend the lifetime of the shock seals on my Wilbers.
Copyright © 2005, by H. Marc Lewis and Steve Powers. All rights reserved.