Are ohlins worth it? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Are ohlins worth it?

bigpoppa

bigpoppa

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Never ridden a bike with ohlins, but italian bikes are generally build with good components anyway, is it worth an extra 5k if the forks say ohlins?
Are the sprinkled brembo's really that much better than regular brembos?

I dont have any intention of taking my regular bike to the track
 
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bigpoppa said:
Never ridden a bike with ohlins, but italian bikes are generally build with good components anyway, is it worth an extra 5k if the forks say ohlins?
Are the sprinkled brembo's really that much better than regular ones?

I dont have any intention of taking my regular bike to the track
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I have brembo brakes on my bike and they’re good, but I don’t have the skills to determine just what value they are worth over another brand. I’ve had pretty decent Nissin brakes too though.

Ohlins stuff always looked good and well made/rebuildable but there were often competing products that looked to offer great value/performance too.
 
brembo stuff works great on my bike

suspension is by Sachs (Ducati uses this stuff as well)
and without a doubt the best riding bike I've owned
the damping is absolutely spot-on

I think you can get a Japanese bike with good suspension - Kayaba, Showa
but it has to be one of the spendy ones
 
My (extremely amateur) opinion is that it depends on two factors:

First, if you ride fast enough (or have real ambitions to ride fast enough) to make the suspension critical to the predictable handling of the motorcycle. The faster you go, the harder the suspension has to work to stay pliable and responsive, whether it's absorbing bumps or keeping the bike stable under heavy braking etc.

Second, if your body weight is outside the effective range of the stock springs and damping. I'm a big guy (read: fatass), and at close to 300 lbs, any stock setup is overwhelmed, with preload maxed out and dampers getting rigid. Springs and damping can be changed, but the cheaper units sometimes don't allow for fine tuning, and so having Ohlins or equivalent allows for a rebuild appropriate for your weight (this also applies to small riders who need preload basically off).

The only note of caution is that not all Ohlins is created equal. Like OEM tires, stuff installed at the factory may not be the same quality as the label would indicate, at least compared to off the shelf items. Just because it's gold and has the logo, doesn't mean you're getting the latest TTX shock and gas charged forks. My old 2007 ZX-10R came stock with a supposedly Ohlins steering damper, but the lack of actual damping, even when maxed out, suggested they'd paid for the logo, not the parts.

(Personal note of interest likely only to me: When I bought my 2018 Tuono last year, I had the choice between the RR (Sachs) and the Factory (Ohlins). Because of my weight, I knew I was going to have to respring and likely revalve both. But when I did the math on the premium for the Factory (with suspension and a solo seat being the only differences) plus suspension work vs the RR and new suspension bits, it was basically a wash. Add the fact that the K-Tech stuff I would get was definitely better quality than the OEM Ohlins stuff, and I went with the RR. If I had been a year later when they put the electronic suspenders on the Factory, I probably would have gone that way and rebuilt, as you can't get the electronic bits done later without major work.)
 
Ohlins suspension usually incorporates adjustment for preload, compression dampening and rebound dampening. Economy bikes generally lack one or more of those suspension adjustments completely or don't perform as well at one or more of those tasks . Ohlins offer a wide range of springs that can be spec'd & fitted before purchase. Cooling is a huge deal on suspension and things like nitrogen gas reservoirs mounted external to the shock body or simply a larger volume of oil and nitrogen gas contained in a more massive shock absorber body can be engineered to offset those issues.
... there is something else you won't see in a cheap suspension component -> research and engineering. It's much cheaper to just go the Chinese knock-off route and just add the the most basic features that qualify, then sell the feature with the implication you are buying the same tech. Cheap shock absorbers are called Spring Holders, because that is about all they do.

High end Brembo brakes are going to have 4 pistons or more up front and 2 minimum in the rear, the pistons will be pushing against each other, not both on the same side of the disc (huge difference in performance and better brake pad wear)

Not track riding the bike doesn't mean you won't benefit from superior handling brakes and suspension. Do you keep your motorcycles a very long time or trade them off frequently. Component upgrades for the next owner are a total waste of coin but if you own the bike forever, you will have a very long time to enjoy your investment.

It amazes me how many are willing to spend big bucks to purchase complex to service ABS systems that pump and release what equates to very poor performing brakes. Do you have good brake, throttle and clutch control? Then I'd be spending my money on better binders before installing nanny features on mushy brakes. ymmv.
 
My Triumph has full Ohlins with decent Nissin brakes, my now sold on Duc had Ohlins forks, somebody elses rear and better Brembo brakes. I have no idea if it was worth any extra, I really like it, they both ride very well and I'll never exceed the capabilities street riding.
Its like any other higher end product, you buy it if you want it.
 
A previous poster mentioned the Ohlins steering damper on a 2007 ZX10R. I know about that part. It really is an Ohlins damper, but it was "neutered" in order to placate lawyers at Kawasaki. It has a larger bypass orifice than standard on that damper so that if an owner cranked the damping up to max, they wouldn't get so much steering-damping that they couldn't maneuver the bike in a parking lot and tipped it over and blamed Kawasaki for this. It can be "converted" to a standard Ohlins steering damper by any Ohlins service center - take out the Kawasaki-specified bypass orifice and replace it with the Ohlins-standard one. The other difference is that the housing has the ball-joint connection built into it instead of having an adjustable clamp ... because since the damper was designed for a specific bike, they know where that connection has to be, so there's no point making it adjustable (where someone could improperly adjust it and run out of steering damper travel and crash in a parking lot and try to blame Kawasaki).

My van has Brembo brake calipers on it. The vehicle was designed in Italy, the original assembly plant was in Italy, so they used a local supplier for the brakes. It is most definitely not a high-performance vehicle. Brembo makes high-end parts ... and they are an OEM supplier for run-of-the-mill parts.

My ZX10R has the plain ordinary standard suspension parts on it with 112,000 km on them. Works well. Original rear shock, hasn't been serviced. "if it is not broken, don't fix it"

Jonathan Rae's ZX10RR has Showa suspension on it. Seems to work for him. (but a World Superbike is not using the run-of-the-mill assembly line suspension parts)

My race bike (yamaha R3) has Ohlins front and rear ... because the original suspension is unsuitable for racetrack use with me riding it.

A customer of mine makes high-end automotive suspension parts. They also make ordinary automotive suspension parts in enormous quantities.

It's just a name. They're just chunks of metal. Ohlins stuff is generally good ... but it's not magic potion. Other stuff can work well.
 
Brian P said:
A previous poster mentioned the Ohlins steering damper on a 2007 ZX10R. I know about that part. It really is an Ohlins damper, but it was "neutered" in order to placate lawyers at Kawasaki.
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Huh. Makes sense, in hindsight, except for the fact that they neutered it to the point where it didn't do much except look pretty. I guess they were trying to address fears related to the previous model, which had a rep for some serious slappers. Either way, even if the quality was there, the actual performance varied wildly from the aftermarket equivalent...
 
Regarding the sprinkled brembos

I'm navigated and motivated by food


Eg: wife knows if she wants me to see the boring opera she knows ill only go if she tells me about the awesome restaurant next door

Or the errands she wants me to run, she'll be sure to mention the awesome dosa place on xyz Street instead of giving me directions i won't remember.

Me and @Joe Bass are kindred spirits you see.

Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk
 
Have Ohlins suspension and damper on all my bikes, street and 2 race bikes. For the track it makes sense, for the street don't feel like it's doing anything extra than stock stuff. Have a "real" brembo master on the A race bike and an R6 stock brembo on the street bike and B race bike. The "real" brembo is better, but the stock R6 is pretty good also for street or race. Never had brembo calipers to give any feedback. Not sure if the ohlins stuff on Italian bikes is the "real" aftermarket ohlins people buy for racing, my buddy had to change to aftermarket ohlins internals for his Ducati.
 
And
bigpoppa said:
Or the errands she wants me to run, she'll be sure to mention the awesome dosa place on xyz Street instead of giving me directions i won't remember.
Click to expand...

This is the first time ive ever seen someone reference a dosa on a bike board (or any board for that matter that isn't a food related one)...
 
For street you probably won't care about the difference on brakes, i assume we are talking m40 vs m50 mono bloc calipers.
 
Evoex said:
For street you probably won't care about the difference on brakes, i assume we are talking m40 vs m50 mono bloc calipers.
Click to expand...
yes
 
Ohlins and Brembo build to whatever price point you choose.
Brembo even has a subsidiary plant in India called Bybre (By Brembo) for lower end products.
Suzuki had a recall a few years ago for Brembo master cylinders - I guess they bought the $10 unit instead of the $20 part.
 
As one who has switched from the stock suspension to Ohlins (on an european mfg bike), I can honestly say that it was worth it.
The caveat is that this should be done by suspension specialists that will calibrate the Ohlins for your 'dimensions' and riding style.
Or, you will be left regretting the expense.
I used Accelerated Technologies and am pleased with the end result.
 
If you're thinking of upgrading suspension components, talk to John at Accelerated Technologies in Buckhorn, he carries a variety of manufacturers' products.
 
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