Lost Rider wrote:Wow, all the more reason to just buy the drama free Original Gold Ohlins, the company that has been setting the benchmark for suspension for everyone to compare their products to about twice as long as hyperproyacugar or whateveryoucallit.
BTDT with purple suspension on my GS trying to save a few bucks, took some Gold to finally make me happy, to say that all "high" performance suspension is the same is kind of not true from my experience. We're all different.
Talk of suing someone for saying something on a forum about a company is what's wrong with the USA, and seems quite defensive. Based on that statement alone I would never even consider giving hyperycugar or whatever it is my business. In the end, anyone who's a salesman is, well, a salesman. People with great products don't need to dispute every petty statement made on the internet, no need for this kind of defensiveness IMO.
I heard that all the parts from hypercugar were made in China by slave kids, sue me.
At least we all have many choices, anything is much better than OEM Showa, congrats on your upgraded R1200R Mr. Twig.
haha, nice to see a sense of humor, although it looks a little like trolling.
Yes it's true, Ohlins has been in the USA a lot longer than other brands. They came here for Nascar many moons ago, automotive racing is their big thing, that's why they're in a little town in western NC. They are very supportive, sell a fine product and do a great job with their training program (it's also nice that I don't have to fly to Europe for the training unlike with the other brands). I've been selling Ohlins a lot longer than the other brands and we are an authorized rebuild center for Ohlins, so here's a little info you might find useful, sorry it's a bit long.
Ohlins is very good stuff, but it is aluminum, so you need to pay attention to the rebuild intervals. I have an LT customer who shipped us an Ohlins for rebuild and he has worn through the anodizing on the inside and ruined the body due to a lack of following the rebuild intervals. We don't have this problem with steel shocks. However if you don't mind the Ohlins shorter rebuild intervals, the limited hydraulic preload lift isn't a concern because you don't carry a passenger (only has about 6.5mm of lift), and you understand that it is a mass produced shock and you will need to set it up correctly because it is not custom built (although some riders would not know a poorly setup shock if it hit them in the head
) then you will have a very nice lightweight high performance shock with a racing heritage. The build quality and performance is excellent. However as I mentioned, we don't take a cookie cutter approach to suspension replacement. You hit the nail on the head when you said "we're all different". I have learned that people don't typically want fewer choices, they want more. For some riders Ohlins will not be the best choice, and for other riders it could be. It just depends on the riding environment and load range, which models are available from Ohlins, and how the very good competition stacks up.
Since the Ohlins product is already built and sitting in a box, there are no options. You can't add or delete features the same way you can with a custom shock unless you pay someone to take it apart and make changes for you (Ohlins will do this for you, so will I and a lot of others, but it will cost you). There are some exceptions, for example Ohlins makes 2 designs for the rear of the R1200GS but even in that case you can't customize them without paying someone to do it. One of those shock models has 20mm of installed preload, that's the way they are delivered. In most cases it's too much and that's why the bike sits so high. Ohlins changes the spring if needed for the weight of the rider before they ship the shock to the dealer, but they don't change the installed preload. As the spring rate goes up, in many cases the installed preload must come down. This should be changed by the installer prior to installation to get the static sag right. This requires spring removal and a knowledge of shock setup.
Look up a set of Ohlins shocks for an R1100S or an R1150RT as two examples I pulled out of the air, you will see only one part number for the shocks. The rear R1100S shock is built as a 2 way piggyback shock with hydraulic preload. Suppose you just want a standard emulsion model with rebound only, and your loads never change so a manual preload adjuster would do fine? Not available. The rear R1150RT Ohlins shock has only rebound and hydraulic preload with only 6.5mm lift. Suppose you have a wide variation in the loads you carry and need a high lift preloader, and you ride on crappy roads and want a three way shock with a high speed compression circuit? Not available from Ohlins for these models. In defense of Ohlins, they tend to pick the features that they think best suit the bike. Sometimes this works out for the customer, but not always. You may not always be able to get the features you want. Furthermore as the number of features you don't want on the shock increases, so does the price. You have no control over the shock build.
When you go to a custom shock company you can pick and choose your features, they build the shock for you. Look I love the Ohlins shocks on My R1100S, they work very well. But I recognize that I can't honestly and faithfully fulfill every customer need with only one shock brand and certainly not with just Ohlins.
If you didn't like your Hyperpro, my guess is that something was not setup right or perhaps you purchased the wrong model for your riding style. It helps to get good advice at the time of purchase. I helped a customer recently by replacing his Hyperpro progressive spring with a linear spring, his problems were solved. The range of the progressive spring was not working well for him. It started out too light which he blew through right away, then it ramped up too firm. He really needed a linear spring. Cookie cutter approaches are usually not the best.
Oh, and by the way, do you really think that there is no drama between Ohlins vendors? Hah, that's a good one. I have a bridge I want to sell you.
BTW, I heard that at your place of business you aren't honest with your customers, or you may be misinformed, and the products you are carrying are not authentic. I also understand that this was posted on a forum and one of your customers saw this and he may cancel his order with you based on that information. You were informed about this and know that the accusations were false, but I see no need for you to come into the forum and defend your good name.
Somehow I think your perspective might change in this scenario whether you are willing to admit it or not.
I hope some of you found this information useful, snarky comments aside.
Cheers,
Ted Porter
Your reading comprehension and understanding of my intentions sucks, but I think I'll leave it there.