beauchemin

Hey Ken - thanks for the warning. I was already anticipating that the forks are going to feel like crap once the rear end is sorted. I hope that there is a fix short of buying Ohlins forks. Did you consider sending the Marzocchis off to a suspension shop for new internals?

I got lucky with the red spring. They normally ship with blue, but I was told that they may have some red or black springs left over from when they offered those colours. Apparently nowadays it's hit and miss for colours other than blue. You have good eyes! Yes, all those numbers are correct. My riding weight with gear is 205 lbs, and that was the spring specified by the Wilbers tech. What measurements are you interested in? It has been relayed to me from Wilbers that the effective stroke is 58mm.

Just arrived last night. Here are some teaser photos. I will provide an update in a few days once its installed.

Regarding a supercharger on an air-cooled engine... isn't heat dissipation a problem? I'm no expert, but I do know that more power = more heat, so I would expect that water-cooling would be required for reliability.

If you want power, get an R1. If you want a rolling vtwin symphony then get Staintunes! You can't beat them for their awesome sound that is "just right" - not too loud and not too quiet.

Nogbad quoted from the topic titled "spring question" http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5817 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I can't think of any circumstances where I would care enough about the fast idle lever to be bothered with fiddling about trying to fix it. Unless I develop some weird obsessive compulsive disorder where my bike has to be perfect I guess my fast idle will never be fixed." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what's up Nog - what caused you to develop that disorder all of a sudden?

What you need to do is put the seat latch spring back where it belongs. I tried this swap also and found the seat latch impossible to operate. See this post for a description of the required fast-idle lever spring: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3907&hl=

That's not true. It does not matter where the bearing is made. The important decision is to chose a reputable manufacturer (SKF, FAG, INA or whatever) and the correct type of bearing. An SKF factory in China is exactly the same as an SKF factory in Germany.

Since you seem to have the correct spring rate, it sounds like the high-speed compression damping is too high. It will be interesting to hear what Setup recommends. I think that the answer is to have a shock with position sensitive damping (which I believe is what the WP shocks on the link-less KTMs have). A close second is to have both low and high speed compression damping adjustment.

The problem might not be from simply sitting on the seat (to test, try standing on pegs while accelerating). Could it be some indirect result of loading the engine, which you won't get during stationary running? Good luck with this head scratcher!

Even if your compression damping wheel was working, you would probably find that the shock has too much compression damping. That has been my experience, as well as others. Sadly, for improved rear-wheel control, the only solution is to replace it.

Why? If the distance between the seats is 112.8, and a 113 spacer works, then a 112.6 spacer should also be fine. It's within the same tolerance that a 113 spacer is.

It sounds like you nailed it! As noted by others on this forum, a weak ground (or "earth", for those so inclined) connection is a CLASSIC cause of ignition-related problems (among others).

Has anyone actually measured the distance between the bearing-shoulders inside the hub of the rear Brembo wheel? If we can expect this distance to vary from wheel to wheel, then doing a production run of the spacers will be pretty much impossible -- won't it?

I agree that it is very tempting if that feature is there. The only problem is that it is still an off-the-shelf shock (except that you will get the proper spring rate for your weight). What you might NOT get is the correct damping range. The Wilbers advantage (as with Penske, or any other custom unit) is that you get it tailor-made for both spring rate, and the appropriate damping ranges for the adjusters.

The standard Wilbers spec is a length of 285mm, with an effective stroke of 58mm. I'm going to go with the standard length, since its consistent with the Ohlins length. I wonder if the Ohlins 70mm stroke is the theoretical stroke (without bumper) or the effective stroke (with compressed bumper). Does anyone know? On the WP, the total stroke is 64mm, with an effective stroke of 56mm.

I thought that this shock did not have adjustable high-speed compression. However, according to the Ohlins installation manual, this shock comes with low AND high speed compression adjustment. Can anyone verify if this is true? Here's the oline PDF: http://www.ohlins.com/pdf/mounting_instructions/MG127.pdf

Very nice piece of gear, but I'm not sure about that purple spring..... For low-speed compression adjustment do you have to stick your fingers between the coils to grab and rotate the rod? How hard is it to get to with the shock installed?

OK, so in the interest of being prepared to finalize the order as soon as I hear from Wilbers... I assume that I just go with a specified length of 216mm + the stroke? (Up to a maximum of 286mm, of course.)

When you say "there is too much movement", I assume that you mean that the forks feel under-damped? It sounds like you need a heavier fork oil so that you can get your compression and rebound adjustments closer to the middle of their respective ranges.

It's going to have to be a fixed length. I just did some digging at the Wilbers website and it states that the ride height adjuster is not available for the V11. I'm still waiting to hear what length/stroke Wilbers specifies.

Do you think that a fixed length of 280mm (same as WP) is a good compromise?

The Wilbers (with remote hydraulic preload) is not cheaper -- $975 from Guzzitech. The Ohlins is $900 but lacks the high-speed compression adjustment. I haven't specified a spring rate - the factory will decide. I have specified my weight in full gear, my riding style, and desired ride. I'm 205 lbs in full gear. The more I think about it, the length adjustor might be a good idea. Maybe the thing to do is specify a length of 281mm, with +/- 5mm adjustment -- that way I can try both ways. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm placing an order for a Wilbers shock (for '03 V11S), but I'm not sure what length to specify. The Sachs is 276mm and the Ohlins is 286mm (thanks to dlaing for his great work in this topic http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...topic=5488&hl=). I'm considering getting the length adjustment, but I would rather just specify the "ideal" length and then stick with it. I considered Ohlins, but what has sold me on the Wilbers is the high and low speed compression damping.

Wow Steve! It sounds like I missed an unforgettable rally. Unfortunately I was moving house that weekend... can you bring pictures to Wolfgang's place in July? CB