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Are ohlins worth it?

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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..
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if you ride with wheelie control on all the time you sure are
 
boyoboy said:
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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:unsure: is this a trick question, how high is 3ml ?
 
boyoboy said:
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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You have to be careful ... too much oil will send internal pressure inside the fork through the roof and excessively much could hydro-lock them; either way adds up to blown fork seals. I calculated how much volume remained inside the fork at max bump travel with the specified oil level, subtracted the estimated amount of volume of the fork spring and the fork cap, compared that to the corresponding fully-extended volume (thus establishing the "compression ratio" LOL), worked out how much "compression ratio" it would take to ruffly correspond to the additional spring force of the spring rates that I really think should be in there, worked out how much extra oil it would take to do that, and that's what I added to each fork. (It wasn't much ... about 15 mL to raise the fork oil level about 20mm) Even at this, it's not 100% guaranteed that this won't blow a fork seal. It is increasing the amount of pressure inside the fork during bump travel. I hope there's enough margin in the stock fork seals to accommodate it.

I also did some digging, and found out that despite Ohlins telling me that "no stiffer springs are available for this application" ... That's BS. YES, I am at the limit of their application chart. BUT ... The FZ07/MT07 uses the same series of cartridge inserts and the part numbers for the recommended springs start with the same digits, differing only in the digits that refer to the spring rate ... and the FZ07 application chart includes the spring rates that I want. FZ07 Ohlins fork springs in R3 Ohlins forks, here we come. Doubt if they will show up in time for the next round, though. I'd rather not use higher fork oil level than I really need.
 
If you put too much in your trials bike forks you can either drive the seals right out of the fork legs or smash your teeth on the handlebars when you do a big drop.
 
Seen both
 
Brian P said:
You have to be careful ... too much oil will send internal pressure inside the fork through the roof and excessively much could hydro-lock them; either way adds up to blown fork seals. I calculated how much volume remained inside the fork at max bump travel with the specified oil level, subtracted the estimated amount of volume of the fork spring and the fork cap, compared that to the corresponding fully-extended volume (thus establishing the "compression ratio" LOL), worked out how much "compression ratio" it would take to ruffly correspond to the additional spring force of the spring rates that I really think should be in there, worked out how much extra oil it would take to do that, and that's what I added to each fork. (It wasn't much ... about 15 mL to raise the fork oil level about 20mm) Even at this, it's not 100% guaranteed that this won't blow a fork seal. It is increasing the amount of pressure inside the fork during bump travel. I hope there's enough margin in the stock fork seals to accommodate it.

I also did some digging, and found out that despite Ohlins telling me that "no stiffer springs are available for this application" ... That's BS. YES, I am at the limit of their application chart. BUT ... The FZ07/MT07 uses the same series of cartridge inserts and the part numbers for the recommended springs start with the same digits, differing only in the digits that refer to the spring rate ... and the FZ07 application chart includes the spring rates that I want. FZ07 Ohlins fork springs in R3 Ohlins forks, here we come. Doubt if they will show up in time for the next round, though. I'd rather not use higher fork oil level than I really need.
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Your dedication to thinking and actually calculating and designing changes always makes me happy Brian. Do you have an oring on a fork leg to check travel?
 
GreyGhost said:
Your dedication to thinking and actually calculating and designing changes always makes me happy Brian. Do you have an oring on a fork leg to check travel?
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Zip-tie, but same effect. I've known the suspension was bottoming (both ends) since partway through last year. The rear got sorted out with a new stiffer shock spring late last season, but this past round revealed that the front was now an issue and needs to get sorted out.

This isn't the first I've heard of Ohlins recommended spring rates being a smidge on the light side for racing applications. I have a suspicion that they're ok on smooth, high-speed european circuits, but not ok with the cratered lunar surface that we have to deal with.
 
Brian P said:
This isn't the first I've heard of Ohlins recommended spring rates being a smidge on the light side for racing applications. I have a suspicion that they're ok on smooth, high-speed european circuits, but not ok with the cratered lunar surface that we have to deal with.
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Remember: starvation diet; at least until you're within the proper range for those springs!

Problem solved!

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk
 
Brian P said:
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)
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Update on this. It worked OK with the fork oil raised a little, but the quest for fixing this properly (higher spring rates) remained. Ohlins sez "the springs you have are the stiffest ones for this bike". The end.

Hmmm. What other bikes does Ohlins build the NIX22 cartridge kit for? Dug into the application charts at mothership Ohlins Swedish website ...
Hmmm. Yamaha FZ07. What springs do they use for those?
Innnnteresting. Spring rates 0.85 - 0.95 depending on weight of rider. (R3 chart only went up to 0.75)
Innnnteresting. The part numbers of the recommended springs are exactly the same between the two bikes except for the digits that correspond to the spring rate.
Ordered a set of FZ07 0.85 fork springs for that bike's NIX22 cartridge kit.
They showed up a few days ago, and I installed them yesterday. Dropped right in. Backed preload off by 2mm so that my rider-aboard ride height (sag) should stay in the ballpark with the higher spring rates. I sucked a bit of oil out of the forks to get the oil level back to the originally-specified level.

Why couldn't Ohlins figure this out?

Test-ride will be at the last SOAR round. I'll be bringing the 0.75 fork springs with me just in case, but I don't think I'll need them.
 
So easy to test trials bike forks,
just pound them into a couple of vertical walls and you know real quick if it's right.
 
Put Ohlins on my Road Glide .a month ago . The bike went from major front end dive and unstable front end . The rear from being bouncy and bottoming out . To a bike that rides on rails . Even my passenger new to riding noticed the diffrence . They are expensive but worth it .
 
Wait, we never finished addressing the sprinkle issue...
 
GreyGhost said:
Are aftermarket front suspension goodies available for the Nikens?
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Yup. Bike is with John Sharrard as we speak for front end happiness and custom Hyper Pro shock goodness in the back, made special for the tubby girl.

However, sprinkles do not show up an anywhere on my invoice.
 
The old m50 brembos were top of the line, the new stylema ones are the sprinkled version ?
 
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