Thanks for coming on and expanding the information on your custom Ohlins offering.
I totally agree that 90% of riders don’t need the hassle of adjustability and that many shocks range of adjustment is a joke.
For those who don’t know, there is a massive difference between off the shelf Ohlins and custom ones in performance.
I would suggest if you’re going to claim superiority over something like Wilber’s, you qualify which more and demonstrate it with shock dyno comparisons.
It’s impossible a non adjustable can meet some people’s needs, like me. I drag race and I ride pretty **** hard in the back country, very few offerings can provide a range of adjustment that can allow for both, as the needs are complete opposite for the shock. Wilber’s 642s can cover that range required.
While a a fixed shock might offer good performance across the board, a properly adjusted quality triple adjustable will absolutely out perform any fixed rate shock at the extremes and in fringe cases.
Claiming otherwise is ignorant.
Of course no one claimed otherwise. Multi adjustable suspension that has pedigree and is properly developed INTERNALLY will apples for apples deliver excellent adjustability response for widely varying scenarios.
But consumers need to be careful what they wish for, you can purchase low cost shocks with adjusters that seemingly have a ''wonderful'' external response range. Those of us in the suspension industry of course know that this is largely a sham, if the piston and valving design / calibration is crude and aggressive of course you are going to get a wider response range on the adjusters because the seat pressure on the shims is high. So in a sense its little better than adjustable ''fixed orifice'' damping, i.e too much of the damping is on the adjustable bleed bypass instead of properly modulating and suitably responsive shim stacks. Conversely, with very soft main valving stacks that open earlier and wider your external response range to adjustment becomes a lot narrower. This can be graphically seen on a shock dyno. We rely on dyno AND seat of the pants testing. Note that a dyno assists in getting the force curves where they need to be but what a dyno doesnt show is transition. You can have two force curves that look exactly the same on the dyno and will overlay the same, with different valving. One will be a clear winner on road.
There are many non pedigree damper manufacturers that proudly boast ( for example ) ''40 clicks of compression adjustment''.........so what, only about 5 of those clicks are truly useful
One set of Rocket 3 Wilbers that we recently came in contact with were quite terrible, I rode the bike and adjusted it every which way but achieved no credible level of ride compliance. Clearly they were oversprung ( and overdamped ). I tested the springs and they were the same as the oem shocks in rate. But the point is if you have effective low speed compression damping ( which the stock shocks dont ) you can actually come down in spring rate quite significantly, in combination. We have been through all of this with many custom build twin shocks
The purchaser of these Wilbers purchased them offshore in a less than well considered impulsion on the keyboard, believing all the hype. He was quite distressed how badly they worked which is why he came to see me. Likely these shocks would have worked ''okay'' on relatively smooth autobahns or American freeways with a ''well fed'' rider and extra loading on board. But OUR roads in NZ are anything but smooth and very much challenge suspension, the purchaser was also ''not so well fed''. Short of dyno test it was VERY clear that the shocks were oversprung but also overdamped.
I have no doubt that Wilbers inherently make some good stuff but here was a harsh reality how offshore purchases of product that has no local distributor or proper backup infrastructure can lead to stressful issues. The springs on these shocks were quite different in size and I prompted the purchaser to go back to the seller and in the first instance request softer rate springs. He was met with a ''stone wall''....''all of the Wilbers shocks we sell for Rocket 3s have that spring rate, no one else is complaining''. Of course the seller, secure in his office many thousands of kilometres way has happily clipped the ticket and has no idea of our roading conditions. I would also lay money on it that the Christchurch purchaser of Wilbers has settings that could also be appreciably better.Even though he may not realise it. Indeed they will be better than oem and cheap shocks, but improvement is always a term of relativity.
Sadly, this sort of nonsense goes on all the time, and if you purchase suspension that is an ''orphan'' in the market you are inviting such issues
As for the cheaper brands I stand by what I said, they are abysmal and you only get what you pay for. There is no good reason to be ''nice'' about poorly engineered and poorly performing products that contaminate world markets. Indeed, the same for oem suspension. Yes, properly engineered suspension does cost a lot, but its inexcusable when properly engineered suspension is delivered with settings that are not right. And no intent to put it right.
Older readers particularly in the US will remember Ralph Nader, an automotive industry watchdog in the 60s and 70s. He exposed a lot of dodgy stuff and certainly a modern day reincarnation is sorely needed
