Wilbers shock

[beauchemin]

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

[Admin Jaap]

Toys for boys! Let us know your findings, putting it on your bike and handling!

 

[dlaing]

That is pretty

I did not know they could ship with red springs.

If you could take some measurements, that would be appreciated.

From the notes in the photo it looks like the overall eye to eye length is 286mm and the spring is 53/53-95-130.

I am going to guess that the 95 indicates 95 Newtons per millimeter which translates to 543 pounds per inch.

[kenm]

Are you sure that you want to install that shock? I installed an Ohlins on my 2000 and that accomplished two things:

 

1. The rear worked so much better. It actually tracked bumps instead of just softening them, a little.

 

2. It made it obvious just how mediocre (or bad) that the stock Marzocchi fork is.

 

This led me to acquiring and installing Ohlins forks too. This accomplished two things too:

 

1. The suspension works so much better. The bike tracks bump much better front and rear. It's also much more stable but still has the quick steering of the short-frame V11's.

 

2. My pocket book took a $3.5K hit before I was done upgrading the suspension.

 

For me, it was $ well spent. But be prepared to be led down that path.

 

Regards,

 

-ken

[Guest lexV]

Are you sure that you want to install that shock?  I installed an Ohlins on my 2000 and that accomplished two things:

 

1.  The rear worked so much better.  It actually tracked bumps instead of just softening them, a little.

 

2.  It made it obvious just how mediocre (or bad) that the stock Marzocchi fork is.

 

This led me to acquiring and installing Ohlins forks too.  This accomplished two things too:

 

1.  The suspension works so much better.  The bike tracks bump much better front and rear.  It's also much more stable but still has the quick steering of the short-frame V11's.

 

2.  My pocket book took a $3.5K hit before I was done upgrading the suspension.

 

For me, it was $ well spent.  But be prepared to be led down that path. 

 

Regards,

 

-ken

59641[/snapback]

 

 

 

 

hi,

 

The previous owner installed Ohlins at the rear and Ohlins spring at the front with thicker oil. But the front remains a weak spot. What are your settings?

 

Lex V.

[kenm]

hi,

 

The previous owner installed Ohlins at the rear and Ohlins spring at the front with thicker oil. But the front remains a weak spot. What are your settings?

 

Lex V.

59649[/snapback]

 

Hi Lex,

 

You know, I really don't know. I bought the forks used from Paul Minnaert. The settings as they came work so well that I haven't bothered to experiment. I'll have to do that someday.

 

I have 15wt oil in the fork. If your weight is different, my settings wouldn't help you anway.

 

Regards,

 

-ken

[beauchemin]

That is pretty

I did not know they could ship with red springs.

If you could take some measurements, that would be appreciated.

From the notes in the photo it looks like the overall eye to eye length is 286mm and the spring is 53/53-95-130.

I am going to guess that the 95 indicates 95 Newtons per millimeter which translates to 543 pounds per inch.

59640[/snapback]

 

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.

[beauchemin]

Are you sure that you want to install that shock?  I installed an Ohlins on my 2000 and that accomplished two things:

 

1.  The rear worked so much better.  It actually tracked bumps instead of just softening them, a little.

 

2.  It made it obvious just how mediocre (or bad) that the stock Marzocchi fork is.

 

This led me to acquiring and installing Ohlins forks too.  This accomplished two things too:

 

1.  The suspension works so much better.  The bike tracks bump much better front and rear.  It's also much more stable but still has the quick steering of the short-frame V11's.

 

2.  My pocket book took a $3.5K hit before I was done upgrading the suspension.

 

For me, it was $ well spent.  But be prepared to be led down that path. 

 

Regards,

 

-ken

59641[/snapback]

 

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?

[dlaing]

What measurements are you interested in?  It has been relayed to me from Wilbers that the effective stroke is 58mm.

59723[/snapback]

I am interested in the stroke from the body to the bumper, and more importantly, the stroke from the the body to where it would bottom if there were no bumper.

Of course the only way to truly accurately measure it is to remove the spring and bumper, but I'll bet you can get a pretty good measurement.

"effective stroke" is a subjective term that makes it difficult to compare shocks, although "effective" is more "real"

FWIW

The White Power on the Sporti

is 280mm eye to eye with a stroke of 64 total (or body to bottom with no bumper) and 56 effective.

This can be roughly compared to the Sachs,

which is about 276mm eye to eye with a stroke of 60mm total and has an unknown "effective" stroke,

and the Ohlins,

286mm eye to eye, and with a 70mm total stroke and unknown effective.

Thanks for the information and the great pictures!

[beauchemin]

I removed the Sachs last night. I did a quick length measurement and it appears to be 280mm. I checked it twice because I was expecting 276mm. It was really late so my accuracy might be suspect, but I'll check it again tonight and do some more measuring. Note that this is a long-frame bike, so maybe they changed the shock length when they altered the frame.

[dlaing]

I just measured and got 10 and 15/16 inches or 278mm. I suppose I could still be off by two millimeters. To measure more accurately I would need to put some long bolts of the proper diameter into the eyes.

I don't remember where I got the 276 from

[Guest lexV]

Hi Ken,

 

You right, but compaired to my Ducati Ifind it not easy to find the right seting at the rear. But the main problem is at the front.

A nice used Ohlin vork would be nice.

 

ciao

 

Lex V.

[Alex-Corsa]

The White Power on the Sporti

is 280mm eye to eye with a stroke of 64 total (or body to bottom with no bumper) and 56 effective.

This can be roughly  compared to the Sachs,

which is about 276mm eye to eye with a stroke of 60mm total and has an unknown "effective" stroke,

and the Ohlins,

286mm eye to eye, and with a 70mm total stroke and unknown effective.

Thanks for the information and the great pictures!

 

Yep that's the length of the WP as it also shows in my book diagram (279-281)

Which one Ohlins are you talikng about??

What will happen if you change to a bigger overall lenght shock absorber.?

Is this a way to increase the height of the back side of the bike, ?And what's a height gain from such a difference i.e. (6mm)?

[dlaing]

Yep that's the length of the WP as it also shows in my book diagram (279-281)

Which one Ohlins are you talikng about??

What will happen if you change to a bigger overall lenght shock absorber.?

Is this a way to increase the height of the back side of the bike, ?And what's a height gain from such a difference i.e. (6mm)?

59849[/snapback]

I believe the Ohlins is the one specified on Ohlins' site for the V11S

If you change to a bigger overall length the shaft will contact the swingarm.

I estimate that a length of about 289mm will bind or contact....your mileage may vary.

When I measured, I did not try turning the rear wheel to see if the bind point changed, but that is possible...so beware.

And if you make the travel too long, from what I can tell, the triangulated part of the swing arm is just about to bottom out where it at the parallever link support.

(Here is a link to a picture of it bottoming,

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/5382/bottoming0br.jpg )

[beauchemin]

I went for a ride last weekend - it won't surprise anyone to hear that the rear suspension is much improved. The 9.5 kg/mm spring feels a little stiff, but I'll check my sag this weekend to be sure. The adjustments need some fiddling.

 

My only complaint is that it was very difficult to mount the remote hydraulic preload adjustor. I think I've found a good spot, but it took me hours to design my own bracket (Wilbers does not include one). Mounting the compression adjustment cylinder was easy - I just had to make a simple aluminum bracket to move the clamp.