What I hated about the Konis

[Dan Bocek <dan@di.com>]

>   Please tell us what you hated about the Konis on the ur-Q.

Well, two things really.  The first and most obvious is that even though 
Koni claims they are adjustable, it's really quite a joke.  You have to 
take out the whole f--king strut and compress and remove the spring 
before you can adjust it.  Put it all back together, and if it's not 
quite right?...you guessed it, you gotta take the whole goddamned appart 
again!

The other thing I didn't like about them was their propensity to freeze 
up.  It turns out (and a Koni engineer told me this himself) that there 
is a rubber seal on the top of the cartridge which rarely gets any fluid 
splashed on it.  With time, it gets brittle and flakes off into the 
fluid.  This clogs up the oil passages inside the shock, and before you 
know it, the shock freezes up, making for a very stiff ride and 
unpredictable handling.  This happened to me with two of the Konis (both 
rears, about 3 months appart, for what it's worth).  After the second one 
went out, I started researching the Tokikos.

                                                         Dan Bocek
                                                         dan@di.com