Are ohlins worth it? | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Are ohlins worth it?

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In a blind taste test, all things being equal, there is no one here that could tell the difference between Ohlins, KYB or Showa.

ALL suspensions are adjustable, some take more work than others, some A LOT more work.
 
kind of agree
all forks have the potential to be good - $$

a crap shock is a crap shock
need to toss and replace

as OP is bike shopping
I figure he's asking about OEM setups
 
bitzz said:
In a blind taste test, all things being equal, there is no one here that could tell the difference between Ohlins, KYB or Showa.
Click to expand...

True. All are capable of building very high-quality, high-end forks and shocks. And they're all capable of building cheap rubbish to achieve a price point! Or missing the mark on real-world calibration.

bitzz said:
ALL suspensions are adjustable, some take more work than others, some A LOT more work.
Click to expand...

The question, of course, is whether it's economically viable. I had this discussion with a friend of mine when the stock shock in his 2001-ish Yamaha R1 became a pogo stick. You can sink money into that one to fix it and still have a stock shock, or you can buy an Ohlins set up for your weight and be done with it. Ohlins it was.

Another friend of mine bought a Ducati 848 Evo, which came with Ohlins suspension ... and the shock was brutally, tooth-rattling, off the scale excessively stiff ... so he ended up replacing it with an aftermarket Ohlins that had more appropriate spring and damping rates.

I have a bike with high-end KYB suspension ... and ended up having John Sharrard rework it to take the edge off the harshness. Probably they did their calibration work on smooth southern racetracks ... definitely not on Ontario back-roads.
 
My comment isn't about Ohlins in particular, but about a better, adjustable suspension overall.

Most OEM suspensions are made for the average-sized conservative rider, with average to beginner skills. Step outside that envelope and you'll be left wanting for more.

My NC700X with stock suspension wasn't horrible, but after 20,000 km there were things I wanted to improve on it.
After fitting an adjustable aftermarket rear shock (EMC) and fully adjustable fork inserts (Matris) with springs sized for my weight and riding style, the bike offered a totally different ride: greatly reduced diving under breaking, much better damping etc.
 
No, absolutely not. OEM throw away is better than a correct rated spring and high quality components.

20200513_172820_1_.jpg
 
I think it depends what you want to do with it. Guys like Shane Kingsley and VTom are putting 75k a year on stock Vstroms, others are putting 2500km a year on the best of the best.
Who's getting their money's worth?
Most, if not all of the bikes you've owned have been built "to a price point", that shows in areas like suspension and brakes.
I think guys like you and I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a factory tuono and another Tuono model.

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Iceman said:
I think it depends what you want to do with it. Guys like Shane Kingsley and VTom are putting 75k a year on stock Vstroms, others are putting 2500km a year on the best of the best.
Who's getting their money's worth?
Most, if not all of the bikes you've owned have been built "to a price point", that shows in areas like suspension and brakes.
I think guys like you and I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a factory tuono and another Tuono model.

Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk
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From my personal experience, the sachs suspension on the tuono rr is good, but the shock didn't have the same adjustability as the factory ohlins shock. The sachs forks were fine for me. I picked up an ohlins shock off a factory that was being parted out. I've ridden the rsv4 factory with ohlins forks and a ttx shock. It was set up way too harsh for a streetbike. If it was mine, I would have had the suspension adjustability to soften the rebound and compression. High and low speed compression damping is a nice feature as well.

Ohlins electronic forks? Push of a button? Amazing, but I wouldn't want to pay the bill at the service interval... or when something breaks.

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matt365 said:
From my personal experience, the sachs suspension on the tuono rr is good, but the shock didn't have the same adjustability as the factory ohlins shock. The sachs forks were fine for me. I picked up an ohlins shock off a factory that was being parted out. I've ridden the rsv4 factory with ohlins forks and a ttx shock. It was set up way too harsh for a streetbike. If it was mine, I would have had the suspension adjustability to soften the rebound and compression. High and low speed compression damping is a nice feature as well.

Ohlins electronic forks? Push of a button? Amazing, but I wouldn't want to pay the bill at the service interval... or when something breaks.

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

its weird...if a bike had ABS that was high tech for me
Now they got cruise control, quick shifters, heated grips, cornering lights, cornering ABS/TC, wheelie control, power modes...Im sure im missing
something

Doh! forgot electronically adjustable suspension..
 
bigpoppa said:
its weird...if a bike had ABS that was high tech for me
Now they got cruise control, quick shifters, heated grips, cornering lights, cornering ABS/TC, wheelie control, power modes...Im sure im missing
something

Doh! forgot electronically adjustable suspension..
Click to expand...
self cancelling signals, TFT dash with phone pairing, electronic adjustable screens..:p
 
bigpoppa said:
its weird...if a bike had ABS that was high tech for me
Now they got cruise control, quick shifters, heated grips, cornering lights, cornering ABS/TC, wheelie control, power modes...Im sure im missing
something

Doh! forgot electronically adjustable suspension..
Click to expand...
My bike has electronic suspension and cornering abs both are super nice I can also turn the abs off to the rear wheel and decouple the brakes if I want to play and slide it around.

Sent from my moto g(8) plus using Tapatalk
 
Electronically Adjustable Suspension is pretty trick, but if the actual suspension doesn't have a good range of adjustment, then it's basically a useless gimmick.

Had a F700GS with ESA, it only had three modes: sport, normal and comfort. On very rough terrain, the comfort setting was not good enough to keep the wheels on the ground.

Compare that to the R1200GS which has five different settings, including a hidden Enduro Pro mode only accessible if you have the secret unlock cheat code...

#spispopd
 
Lightcycle said:
Curious what bike you'll end up getting.

All these questions about exotic suspensions, dessert-based brakes and forks with umlauts in their name, it better be a $100K 250hp barely street-legal homologated race bike or I'll be majorly disappointed!

thumb_desmo-rr_17.ashx
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Those things are even more beautiful in person and the sound from the exhaust is amazing.

151120096130.jpg151120096128.jpg
 
DownUnder said:
Those things are even more beautiful in person and the sound from the exhaust is amazing.
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Does George at Corsa Meccanica still have one on the floor? He did years ago but was in no rush to sell it because it was something to draw people in that very few other dealers had.
 
The "electronically adjustable suspension" is probably motorised adjustment of the "clickers", and maaaaybe preload of the shock. The "clickers" only affect low-speed damping. The high-speed damping is built into the shim stack.

I have Ohlins fork internals and shock on my race bike. Just because it says Ohlins on it doesn't mean it won't need fiddling with. I found their recommended shock spring to be too soft (shock was bottoming) and went up a couple of spring rates ... much better, no more issue with the rear. I had minor fork bottoming last year - same issue, undersprung ... except evidently Yamaha R3s are supposed to be ridden by young'uns, not with my fat arse on it, and the springs I've got are the stiffest ones they make for those fork internals. Ran into front end traction issues this past weekend when trail-braking over bumps ... I think it's bottoming. This morning's chore included adding 15 mL of fork oil to both sides, to increase the air-spring effect as it comes close to bottoming ... won't find out if this helped for a couple of weeks. (Correction - it was 30 mL split between both forks)

Electronically adjustable clickers can still have those issues and more.
 
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Brian P said:
The "electronically adjustable suspension" is probably motorised adjustment of the "clickers", and maaaaybe preload of the shock. The "clickers" only affect low-speed damping. The high-speed damping is built into the shim stack.

I have Ohlins fork internals and shock on my race bike. Just because it says Ohlins on it doesn't mean it won't need fiddling with. I found their recommended shock spring to be too soft (shock was bottoming) and went up a couple of spring rates ... much better, no more issue with the rear. I had minor fork bottoming last year - same issue, undersprung ... except evidently Yamaha R3s are supposed to be ridden by young'uns, not with my fat arse on it, and the springs I've got are the stiffest ones they make for those fork internals. Ran into front end traction issues this past weekend when trail-braking over bumps ... I think it's bottoming. This morning's chore included adding 30 mL of fork oil to both sides, to increase the air-spring effect as it comes close to bottoming ... won't find out if this helped for a couple of weeks.

Electronically adjustable clickers can still have those issues and more.
Click to expand...

Are any bikes running mag fluid in computer adjust shocks?
 
Like GM Magneride? That hasn't come to bikes yet. AFAIK active ride control is verboten in MotoGP and WorldSBK. The new launch-assist and ride-height fiddling/tweaking mechanisms are manually actuated by the rider to get around that rule.
 
Brian P said:
The "electronically adjustable suspension" is probably motorised adjustment of the "clickers", and maaaaybe preload of the shock. The "clickers" only affect low-speed damping. The high-speed damping is built into the shim stack.

I have Ohlins fork internals and shock on my race bike. Just because it says Ohlins on it doesn't mean it won't need fiddling with. I found their recommended shock spring to be too soft (shock was bottoming) and went up a couple of spring rates ... much better, no more issue with the rear. I had minor fork bottoming last year - same issue, undersprung ... except evidently Yamaha R3s are supposed to be ridden by young'uns, not with my fat arse on it, and the springs I've got are the stiffest ones they make for those fork internals. Ran into front end traction issues this past weekend when trail-braking over bumps ... I think it's bottoming. This morning's chore included adding 30 mL of fork oil to both sides, to increase the air-spring effect as it comes close to bottoming ... won't find out if this helped for a couple of weeks.

Electronically adjustable clickers can still have those issues and more.
Click to expand...
would be interesting to hear some real world feedback on you slightly raising the fork oil level in your forks (3ml)
ive heard of people doing this for your intended purpose/result before - but ive never tried it myself
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