Ohlins Rear Shock

[docc]

. . .  By blocking one hole and running lighter oil the transition as the piston passes the remaining hole is more subtle, allowing you to better use the full range of travel.

 

 

 

Might try a heavier weight fork oil to start as I am sure it could use a refresh after 15 years.

 

Bingo .....  GuzziMoto is on it . Your fork won't build pressure because of the holes he's speaking of which effectively defeats the purpose of a cartridge fork . If you don't do anything else to improve the damping then the heavier oil will help.

 

 

So, I see where Guzzi Moto says "  . . . and running lighter oil . . . " , yet there are those of us who found running a lighter oil even in the factory set-up is advantageous to attenuating the harshness somewhat.

 

None of this will give you any real satisfaction if the spring rates aren't right.

[vents]

It's a given that spring rates should always be dialed in first but the damping problem remains . I said "  If you don't do anything else to improve the damping then the heavier oil will help " and I'll stand by that . 

[GuzziMoto]

It would take some pretty heavy oil to get any dampening with the two giant bleed holes that were in her V11's stock cartridge. It was crazy. Heavier oil might help, but it will make the transition from no dampening to lots of dampening even more severe. In general, I would rather run thinner oil and actually use the oil by pushing it through the valving. Trying to make those two giant holes work by running thicker oil is not what I would do. But if you can't / won't fix the valving issue then that might be better for you than it is stock. Part of that likely involves how much you weigh, because if you are too heavy for the stock springs anything you can do to slow down blowing through the travel might help.

But in my opinion, step one is setting sag and using that info to decide if the springs are the right rate for you. If they are not, replacing them with straight rate springs of the correct rate would be next on my "to do" list. From there, decide if you need to change the dampening, and if you do I would suggest mod'ing the forks so that there is dampening, The best part of the mod is that the adjuster actually adjusts.

As I recall, later forks aren't as bad and lack this design deficiency. But it sounds like the OP has one of the last sets of the crappy forks. As mentioned, if you are taking them apart to work on them I highly recommend you put them back together without the springs installed. That was when I realized how bad they were. If yours are anything like my wife's forks were it will be self evident if you put them together without the springs and run them through their travel. If they are not the same, that should be apparent as well.

 

By the way, I now have a cool tool that compresses the spring to take them apart. But I did the V11 forks before I had that cool tool. So I put a nail into the door frame of my shed at the right height, compressed the spring, and used the nail to hold it compressed so I could take it apart.

[vents]

As I said , GM is on it . And no, the oil won't fix the problems caused by the holes . I think the fork is also shy on rebound damping and the oil will help with that and stiffer springs only make that seem worse  . 

 

My bike has the crappy design I believe and for the way I like to ride , it's a real drawback . I haven't had time yet to pull them down yet , but will be looking for a fix in the near future . It's a shame that this design saw production, imo .