Is the consensus on chinese piggy back shocks still the same?

Needing new shocks (blown and sagging springs) and absolutely cannot afford 200+ for new ones for my 400. No shop near me does rebuilds.

I tried searching for the thoughts on the "probably Chinese made" shocks labeled by all sorts of off brands, but everything was from 3 years ago or (typically) older. I haven't seen any new "reports" since 2017.

Now I know Chinese (assuming they are Chinese made) production quality has increased pretty decently over the last few years, but is the consensus on these Chinese shocks still to "stay away"?

Even those old reports go anywhere from fantastic to terrible....and I do see they are getting "above average" reviews on Amazon...

with a budget of less than $200 you don't have much of a choice! lol. The way i look at cheap parts is to see what your money is buying you. there are many more manufacturing operations present in those cheap RFY shocks, than say, a set of Emgo shocks. Because the price range is the same they are probably cutting corners elsewhere to make up the difference. either way I doubt you would notice much of a difference. the classic Emgo shock is my go to budget shock.

You could contact Nils at Restocycle.
He is a IKON shock distributor
His ad is at top left of each page
Very knowledgeable
Dave

By YamaKawa: .... Now I know Chinese (assuming they are Chinese made) production quality has increased pretty decently over the last few years, but is the consensus on these Chinese shocks still to "stay away"? ...

I'd say some china parts have gotten worse as they've learned that they can cut corners with no repercussions.

Someone on another forum said his cheap piggyback shocks broke, I believe at the shock mount. Someone here on KZR reported that the Fr brake m/c handlebar mount broke. If these failures happen at speed, there's a good chance a guy could end up dead.

I bought some RFY shocks for around $90USD two years ago.

The reason I went for these is that by all accounts they're a decent design and well built, the only issuers being quality control on assembly. So there are places like ChrisLivengood who re-build the shocks. I did a fair bit of research before buying them.

There have been reports of the mounts breaking, which is obviously a big deal. However that appears to be an issue with the cheap clevis mounts, and that could be an issue with using a one-size-fits-all approach which could result in crushing the clevis.. I haven't heard any issues with the eyelet mounts like we need to the KZ bikes.

I opted for 340mm shocks with the 8mm spring for my KZ750 LTD, knowing that would be about 50% stiffer than the stock ones which I would bottom-out on even with the preload set as high as possible. Perhaps the old ones had just worn more, because they feel even stiffer than that. Not harsh, but closer to a sports bike than a sports tourer which I was after.

Quality wise, I bought them with the intention of rebuilding for the quality control issues (they can have air in them which means the travel isn't smoot), but there were none, they were really good out of the box. They have been the single biggest improvement I've made to my bike, since they actually have damping unlike the old worn shocks, and don't just dip the back in and run the bike wide when going into a corner hard.

And after 2 years of mostly being outside, they still look great. The paint on the springs can go a bit dull if left for a while, but a clean and polish and it's back to normal. No signs of any corrosion or leaking.

So I'm happy with mine.

Thanks all. I didnt want to deal with paying to fill the nitrogen reservoir up, so I bought the H1 shocks from Dime City. These are standard replacements shocks (none progressive), with the proper unequal eyelets (10mm bottom, 14mm top) that is required to fit my bike (glad I checked!!). They are a quarter inch longer than stock, but I was looking for ways to add some height! Now to add maybe 1 inch or so more...

A photo someone else posted on another forum.

JMKZHI wrote: A photo someone else posted on another forum.

Thank you!!! I had seen that photo before and I searched all over the place looking for it, but I could not find it. I'm really glad you found and posted it! I seriously doubt that a person buying those cheap knock-off shocks would suspect or have any way of discovering that the part that looks like a remote reservoir is just a fake blob of metal. It's amazing to me that so many chinese places produce such bogus junk - have they no ethics whatsoever? It seems obvious to me that shock was produced by at least a small (maybe large) company rather than in someone's basement. So it would take a group of dishonest folks rather than one lone individual to make such a fake shock. It seems to me that anyone buying stuff made in china will end up with worthless junk. Ed

40 years ago people were literally saying the same thing about Japan. Quality assurance and manufacturing practices can vary widely anywhere including China. Apple's manufacturing centers in China are arguably some of the most sophisticated consumer electronic manufacturing centers in the world. These cheap shocks only exist because people with cheap bikes want cheap shocks. The biggest issue for cheap shocks ( or any low cost product) is a lack of QA; as Irish Yobbo mentioned. If you are worried about the shocks failing maybe you should spend more than $90 on a critical suspension component.

There is some truth in what you say DoctoRot, but not in the case related in the pictures. That is a flat out misrepresentation of a product designed to look like something it is not. Yes people claimed Japanese made items years ago were junk, but there was a lot of quality made items also. Today Japanese made items are in many cases top of the line stuff with Chinese made items being suspect on many fronts. The problem with shock absorbers is there seems to be no middle ground on them. You either go very expensive or very inexpensive and those generally are made in China. I have had some experience in machinery and Chinese made mills and lathes are crap, pure and simple. Now the place to buy a decent machine at a decent price is from Taiwan. The bargain place used to be Japan, but as the quality has gone up so has their prices. In many instances today you are finding milling machines with the columns made in China coupled to a head made in Taiwan! Go figure....

Rick H.

So basically what your saying is you get what you pay for... lol. I think Hagon or Ikon shocks are a nice middle ground option. The aforementioned Emgo shocks are OK for cheap shocks because Emgo has some QA going on. The shock above that is broken could not have been designed that way. Its possible it missed a machine op in manufacturing and gotten through to the end user because of a lack of QC during assembly. the reservoir is there is just not connected and therefore not functioning. there is no way to know unless you buy a couple shocks and cut them up.

I don't understand why people buy the cheapest possible thing and then complain about the quality. Its down right idiotic.

DoctoRot wrote: 40 years ago people were literally saying the same thing about Japan.

Friend, you might want to update that number: 40 years ago was 1980.

60 would probably be about right, if we round up. By the mid-1960s I think people were coming around to the idea that "Japanese quality" meant "good".