New Goodies installed!

Hallelujah!!! New goodies arrive!



This past weekend I installed a set of Ohlins shocks onto my ride. On Friday I decided to tackle the rear since that appeared to be the easier one to do. I removed the seat, took a look, and thought ten minutes tops! I loosened the lower bolt, then removed the top one, sweet only 5 minutes in so far. Then I undid the nut for the lower shock, went to slide out the bolt, clank! It hits on the resonator for my exhaust! Ah! I do not want to remove the exhaust. So after wasting 15 minutes trying to figure out a way NOT to remove the exhaust, I removed the exhaust. The install was very easy from there. While doing this I decided to install the 365mm torque arm at the same time. That only took about five minutes. Then I had the arduous task on lining up that exhaust and getting everything just so. "Okay all in good, and I tighten the bolts with my T-handle allen wrench. Hmmm, doesn't seem tight enough, let me just tighten it a little more with the socket, there we go, *SNAP*!!! DOH! I broke the exhaust stud! AH!" I did not want to remove that exhaust again. So I got the idea to remove the header in that side instead. Turns out I only had to loosen it and I had access to the broken bolt. It turns out a small sliver was sticking out and I was able to rotate out the broken bolt with a screw driver. Talk about lucky!
Then on Sunday I decided to do the front. I figured this one would take me much longer. You know what? It really did take just ten minutes. It went so well I decided to install my front braided stainless steel brake line hoses. They went on very quickly, however bleeding them took forever. It was a good 30 minutes I bet. I managed to get everything all buttoned up though.
So I put the plastics on, gave the bike a wash, and polished it up a bit.
Today, Monday, I took it out for a ride. I can't believe the difference. I haven't really even set up the sag or anything. The ride is like a caddy! I was looking for bumps to hit when I used to always try avoiding them. I also can't believe the difference that torque arm makes on the turn in. Its much quicker. I will have to do something about the center stand though as I have to put a 2x4 underneath it to get the rear wheel up in the air. I will also have to get the side stand from the Boxer Cup or weld an extension on mine.

The rear shock and remote preload adjuster installed


The front installed



a work in progress


The new brake lines installed


Thanks Roundel Rider for hooking me up on the Ohlins!

Impressive that there was that much of a difference with the Ohlins on. I consistently hear that. And you haven't even dialed them in yet.

How many miles were on your previous shocks?

fparisi said:

Impressive that there was that much of a difference with the Ohlins on. I consistently hear that. And you haven't even dialed them in yet.

How many miles were on your previous shocks?

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Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself. MY bike only has 5000 miles on them. I am a bit heavier, about 240# so I was probably overpowering the suspension a bit. So that probably a lot of it but mostly it was on the washboard type stuff that it would get a little sketchy braking into corners or turning to get through corners smoothly. It would start bouncing all around.

empeg9000 said:

Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself. MY bike only has 5000 miles on them. I am a bit heavier, about 240# so I was probably overpowering the suspension a bit. So that probably a lot of it but mostly it was on the washboard type stuff that it would get a little sketchy braking into corners or turning to get through corners smoothly. It would start bouncing all around.

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Yer gonna love the Ohlins.

I just had the same experience switching to Wilbers. The stock shocks were horrible after only 25K. Now I look forward to washboard turns to further test the shocks. Better handling then my MG LeMansl.

empeg9000 said:

Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself. MY bike only has 5000 miles on them. I am a bit heavier, about 240# so I was probably overpowering the suspension a bit. So that probably a lot of it but mostly it was on the washboard type stuff that it would get a little sketchy braking into corners or turning to get through corners smoothly. It would start bouncing all around.

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Yeah, your size would help explain the huge improvement even with 5K miles on the bike. I consistently hear good feedback even from much lighter riders.

I have heard that BMW designs their shocks for 175lb riders, but that doesnt seem to make sense for the RT riders, so it's probably a rumor. I know that the shocks, you buy pre set up on the internet are all set up for 175 LB riders. Definitely not the way to do Ohlins.