Feelings on Ohlins for dual rear shock?

[marcmiller001]

Hi all,

I was able to do some highway miles at 70 to 75mph yesterday when taking the r65ls down to have new exhaust worked up and while at 55 to 60 it is a great ride, it gets a bit nervous. I know the front forks likely need to have oil changed ...so that is planned...but I had the rear shocks preloaded and they still have a bit too much bounce to them. Anyone have experience with the Ohlins? They are pricey but proper shocks...from my many years in Motorsports no doubt makes or breaks ride and handling experience.

Thoughts?

[wilcom]

Thoughts?  

Might want to talk to the fellow below, Tom Cutter. He is in your neighborhood and is an " airhead" guru and races. He has a good understanding of suspension and will point you in the right direction as to your use.

Tom Cutter
Yardley, PA
www.RubberChickenRacingGarage.com

[Tony Smith]

Hi all,

I was able to do some highway miles at 70 to 75mph yesterday when taking the r65ls down to have new exhaust worked up and while at 55 to 60 it is a great ride, it gets a bit nervous. I know the front forks likely need to have oil changed ...so that is planned...but I had the rear shocks preloaded and they still have a bit too much bounce to them. Anyone have experience with the Ohlins? They are pricey but proper shocks...from my many years in Motorsports no doubt makes or breaks ride and handling experience.

Thoughts?

They are top shelf shocks and will do the job - the skill is in setting them up - something you will be at least passingly familiar with :-) Worth talking to them so that your starting setup is in the ball park - there are of course specialist motorcycle setup businesses who make their recommendation without fearr or favour to any manufacturer - but the thought occurs that you are not going to be racing and R65 so you have significant room to cost compromise.

[Justin B.]

My '81 R100 has Konis and my wife's R65 has "Progressive Suspension" and they both feel OK to me.  I've really never been able to see much difference in rear motorcycle shocks, maybe because I really don't push things to the limit.  I rode "hard-tails" for years so maybe I've got "dead-butt," or something!    But, all that didn't have anything to do with your question!

The most often mentioned shocks for these old cows seem to be Ohlins, Ikon, and Hagon.  Ikons are made by an Australian company that bought the stuff from Koni.  I think the general consensus is anything is better than the stockers.

[Barry]

Might want to talk to the fellow below, Tom Cutter. He is in your neighborhood and is an " airhead" guru and races. He has a good understanding of suspension and will point you in the right direction as to your use.

Tom Cutter
Yardley, PA
www.RubberChickenRacingGarage.com

I seem to recall Tom Cutter recommending YSS shocks.

[wilcom]

I seem to recall Tom Cutter recommending YSS shocks.

I don't know what he is stocking now, but I believe Tom would set him up with the shocks/fork setup  that he needs. Tom has raced for quite awhile and has a good understanding of the suspension and what would be recommended for Marc's application.

Plus they are both from Transylvania and race so both speak the same language

[Tony Smith]

On a completely different note, a few weekends ago I got around to pulling the Betors apart. I had intended to fit a plug to the bottom so that I could change fluids easily, but like a lot of things I decided to see what changes a fluid weight/viscosity change would make first.

I ended up putting Castrol fork 5 in them
(which will probably not surprise anyone seeing as I bang on about the superiority of Castrol fork/shock fluid constantly).

Well, the Betors were not too bad before hand - now they are bloody near perfect, which isn't bad considering the fairly low acquisition cost.

I am so un-confident of actually making any improvement that I am goign to leave them alone and concentrate on fitting the K100 front end and the R75 final drive that have both been awaiting my attention for a little while.

[BPT]

I recently installed Hagons on mine and it's amazing how different (better!) the ride is.  Of course, my originals were probably completely shot and I have nothing else to compare to, but so far very happy with the difference in ride.  Very, very noticeable.

My application will be completely different with the sidecar and such.  But maybe some others here will chime in about the Hagons for more performance related riding.  And as I posted previously, Dave Quinn was great to deal with.  He's incredibly knowledgeable but good with explaining things simply to those of us with less experience.

[georgesgiralt]

Yes, rear shocks are something not to overlook.
I run Fournales shocks since the early '80. Getting old, I thought these shock where relatively uncomfortable but perfect for the handling they gave to the bike. (these shocks use air as the spring, and as such are virtually free from bottoming and of course very light because air is so light compared to steel. Add to this that one can adjust the sag at will with the simple use of an air pump)
So my back complained (and my wife refused to ride on the R65). So I went to Mike Capon Shock Factory and bought a pair of his "simple shocks". These are "standard shocks with a steel spring and an adjustable damping system with the use od a dial. HE adjusted the spring strength to my weight and the one of my wife.
At first, the precision of the ride was gone. But comfort was here. So I adjusted click by click the hydraulics until the ride become quite as precise as before. Comfort reduced but did not completely loose the improvement from the Fournales shocks.
I had to augment the preset of the springs too to account for the very bad roads in my neighborhood.
I hope these shocks will run as long as the Fournales (more than 150 000 km, with only a couple of oil change and one set of seals change during the years) but for now I'm a very happy customer. Modern "plain" shocks still have their words...  

[marcmiller001]

Thanks for all the input - I am planning on reaching out to Tom Cutter to inquire about the adjustable YSS shocks that should be a direct bolt on replacement to the originals that are clearly worn out.

[Bob_Roller]

Do you have the original Boge shocks on the bike now

[marcmiller001]

Do you have the original Boge shocks on the bike now

I do - originals that are pretty "shot" - see photo. I might try "living with them" for a while. I just ordered a subframe and seat and want to spread my costs out. Shocks would be the final "big expense" for this thing... and would be nice to ride it a bit to sort out the other issues before sorting out a new set of rear pogo-sticks.