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'95 R100R Ohlins problem

It's hitting on compression. I pulled the spring off my shock this afternoon and took some pix, but I left the camera at the shop. :(

It's hitting at FULL compression, with the external bump stop mashed and possibly some deflection in the rest of the system. With normal weight on the bump stop, there is still space. Will add a photo here tomorrow.
 
The spring doesn't have much to do with it; suspension is designed to bottom out regardless of the spring.

Here's a picture at close to full compression. You can see the shock body is pushing on the external bump stop but it's not compressing it much.

Ideally, the lower body would be a bit longer. Like the Wilbers. :) But, in full disclosure, my suspension compresses a bit more than normal because some P.O. slotted the upper shock mount :mad. This adds maybe 8mm to the total suspension displacement, which could very easily make the difference between touching and not touching. The above picture does not represent the additional compression allowed by that modification.

I wonder if there is anything else going on with that R100R that allows more compression than normal. If you remove the spring and take a fully-compressed length measurement I'd be happy to do the same.

shock3.jpg
 
Anton -

From your picture, which you said is near full compression, it appears that there is an angle between the driveshaft tube and the final drive housing. Seems like a strange way for the driveline to bend. I was thinking that if you had hit a hard bump or something, the rear drive would kick up, creating a reverse bend with the driveshaft.
 
Any chance the paralever 'stay' bar (I don't know what it's really called - stay that runs from the hub to the frame under the swingarm) is binding?
 
OK .... Thanks to Anton's photo I was able to explain to Ohlins USA that the shock was hitting under compression. They asked similar questions, to those posted above, about the condition of my paralever. My paralever was removed, the transmission output seal replaced, the drive shaft inspected and the paralever bearings replaced 8k miles ago. Ohlins did not have an answer as to why it is hitting and they have not seen this situation before. They agreed that replacing the bump-stop with a slightly thicker stop would be a good idea. I plan to send the shock to them for this work unless I can think of another solution.

Regarding the lower linkage arm, the name of which I am unsure, it seems to be working correctly, not too tight or too loose. It looks to be stock. Were these ever available in different lengths to lower the bike?

Anton, thanks for the help and the offer of measurements, unfortunately I don't have and good way to remove the spring at this time. My mechanic may be able to if it still seems important.
 
RealOEM seems to indicate there's only one part number for the rod of the R100R paralever - 33 1 72 310 160.
 
I think raising the lower spring retainer with a shim, making a thicker and more steeply tapered retainer, or changing the design so that the base is longer would be a better solution.

Still, a thicker bumper can't hurt although by definition it will rob you of a tiny bit of travel.
 
I think raising the lower spring retainer with a shim, making a thicker and more steeply tapered retainer, or changing the design so that the base is longer would be a better solution.

Still, a thicker bumper can't hurt although by definition it will rob you of a tiny bit of travel.

what he said
 
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