I’m ready to report on the upgrade to the suspension on my ’06 StreetBob and can commend it to anyone interested in an exceptional improvement on ride. First some background. When Howard Messner first announced that he had worked with Ohlins to make a conversion package of the Ohlins Drop-in Cartridges for the Dynas I thought, “expensive, I’ll pass.” But, as I thought about it, I decided it would be better to spend the money on something I’ll feel every time I get on the bike and will improve the handling every time I hit the road. So, I bit the bullet and bought the drop-in cartridges. They are fully adjustable- Preload, Rebound and Compression- and were developed from the Ohlins racing circuit. Beautiful workmanship on the parts-they're a work of mechanical perfection. I spent a considerable amount of time looking at the videos on MotorcycleMetal.com website to get ready to do the install myself. I’m no mechanic by any stretch- in fact, someone had to show me how to use a Torque Wrench correctly! I called Howard more than I want to admit asking a question, and he patiently walked me through the project until I had installed them correctly.
Now, to the results. Nothing short of exceptional! I have found a sweet set-up with Preload(37 mm), Compression(16) and Rebound(12) that gives me a feel for the road and control of the bike over every kind of road surface. Pitted and broken blacktop on Chicago streets have smoothed out, thanks to the cartridges. The expansion joints of the raised concrete expressways used to feel like the jolt of hitting a 4x6 railroad tie when I went over them at highway speeds, and now they feel like a minor bump in the road. The wheels stays on the ground over bumps, large and small, at high speed and low. Even cornering is improved- no chatter or loss of wheel contact over broken surfaces. The sense of control of the bike is improved significantly. Front end brake dive is not noticeable, yet the ride is soft and supple. After upgrading the rear shocks a while ago, I felt a significant difference in front end and back end performance over rough pavement, and now with the drop-in cartridges the bike literally tracks better and feels smooth. The ride is more enjoyable, back fatigue is diminished considerably(I have a disc problem after 63 years of poor posture and sports injuries), and I have much better control of the bike.
Cost was around $1500 for the cartridges and tools from Howard at Motorcycle.com. Time to install is a few hours, if you’re at all handy around tools. And the difference in ride quality is astounding. Jay

 

Cool, seems like a worthy upgrade. Good write up.

 

Jay,
Congrats! Outstanding write up. I have the Cartridges already in a set of fork tubes waiting to be install, however, I have a couple additional projects I am going to tackle when I disassemble my front end (new handlebars, and dual disc conversion).
Enjoy and ride safe!

 

Nice write up, good luck with the new upgrade.

 

Thanks for the knowledge.

wonder how these compare to Ricor Intiminators?

 

Thanks for the excellent write up. I also did a front end project with Howard at motorcyclemetal.com, and went with the Ohlins FGK 205 30mm cartridges. They are awesome, and as you're noticing, dramatically improve the handling and ride quality.

We have a bunch of roads which are a mess and sometimes rather than swerve to try and avoid the patches and pot holes, I speed up and am amazed how the bike sort of glides over them and they become hardly noticeable. When it comes to performance suspension, Ohlins is the real deal.

 

I had Racetech Cartridge emulators in my bike before doing the upgrade to Ohlins cartridges. Racetech and ricor have similar produces and are both an improvement over OEM crap, but the Ohlins cartridges were a huge improvement over the cartridge emulators. No comparison in my opinion. Jay