I purchased the #2~#3 (B) Ohlins Blackline shocks from Howard at Motorcyclemetal. These are the "entry-level" emulsified shocks. They are 13.25" long and only offer preload adjustment capability. I could not find the new blackline shocks for dynas in this length without the added rebound and compression damping adjustments which adds a few hundred dollars to the price tag. Come to find out, Howard purchases the blackline shocks design for sportsters in the 13.25" length and re-valves them to work for dynas. This is great because your only other options for dynas right now is a shorter shock length (12.75" i believe) or a highly adjustable version which is $300 more. The shocks were built to order and delivered to my door for less than a set of Works Black Trackers with the forum discount Howard offers.

The Shocks:
They are great. They stabilized the ride significantly. They provide excellent traction over rough pavement where the stock shocks would allow the rear tire to break loose under acceleration. They absorb big hits with ease where the stock would harshly bottom out. Ground clearance, for me, was one of the best features. No longer anticipating scraping boards mid corner.

With all that said, just realize that expensive shocks will not give you a new bike. I think some people have very high expectations for new shocks and are then let down once they install them. These are a huge improvement over stock but they will not cure cancer, fix your marriage, or end world hunger. Just have realistic expectations before spending big bucks on highly adjustable versions or remote reservoirs.





Before and After







Had to remove exhaust bracket and bend outward slightly to gain clearance at the swing arm.



Bottom bolt is close but does not touch when the shock is fully extended. Had to bend the bracket to get this clearance.

The Service:
I ordered from Howard because he was the only vendor who carried these blacklines in the length I wanted without the added cost of rebound and compression adjustment. Overall, the experience was as I expected from the other reviews I have read. Howard is short on the phone but will always make time to remind you of 1. how busy he is and 2. how big of a favor he is doing to re-valve these shocks. Howard also assumes that you have zero technical understanding of anything. I'm ok with all of that and found it easy to overlook. The instructions he provides are confusing and over-complicate a relatively simple task of bolting on your new shocks and setting the sag.

The only thing I had a hard time overlooking was how my shocks were delivered to me. I am not interested in bad mouthing anyone or stirring up nonsense drama but this is an honest review of the whole buying process of these shocks. I opened the package to find that the shocks were not individually wrapped or secured in the box. The preload adjustment tool and installation hardware was just floating around as well. The packaging does have shaped foam inserts where the shocks are to be placed but in my case they were able to come in contact with each other while in transit. There was a very minor, purely cosmetic, blemish on the threaded body of one shock. They had a film of oil on everything and the plastic containing the foam had ripped cause small pieces of foam to stick to everything. I was very disappointed and immediately called Howard. He informed me that this is how they come from Ohlins, no individual packaging, and he coats them with oil before sending out.... OK. I told him one of the shocks had a very minor blemish on the threads, his response was "Your shocks are not damaged".... I gave Howard the benefit of the doubt, maybe this is how they come from Ohlins. Even though I was pissed about my new shocks already having minor damage, I realized it's purely cosmetic and very minor so I ended the call. Pictures below on how the shocks arrived.




The shocks were clearly in contact during shipping. Tool and installation hardware were also not secured.



Packaging broke open causing pieces of foam to stick to shocks.



Only damage I found, purely cosmetic and hardly noticeable but still damage to new hardware.



Light coating of oil on shocks is normal per my conversation with Howard.

In conclusion, I appreciate the versatility that Howard offers in his line of performance based shocks from Ohlins. You really wont find anyone else offering these custom built options. Minor personality differences aside, Howard is trying to provide you with top quality shocks and he delivers. If you know you want Ohlins shocks in a length Howard offers on his site then look no further.

 

Man! That's a LOT of preload. I always thought preload should start out as little as possible (maintaining the 1/3 rule,) so there would be as much travel as possible and room to crank down for loads like riding 2up. Have I been misinformed? Thanks for your help.

 

Yeah, I have the Bassani, and now your new shocks put your pipe right where that bolt is bitch to get at, just like mine.

That is unfortunate about the shipping. I always like to put the "experience" marks on my new stuff, too.

Congrats man, looks good.

 

There's actually not much preload, it's the length of the spring which caused the amount of exposed threads on the shock body. I know this because I had to back the preload adjusters off completely to compress the shock during installation due to the tight clearance with the pipe. There's probably 5-8 turns of preload after the adjustment collar makes contact with the spring. I asked Howard about it as well because it seemed like a lot of threads were showing. His response was that you could replace the spring with a longer one but all you're really doing is increasing the weight of the shock assembly.

It's the same principle as the front fork springs. The length of the spring doesn't really matter because you just cut the spacer to set your preload and make up the difference.

 

Spring pre-load comments: The shock has a given stroke. A spring has a given stroke. This stroke is determined in part by the length of the spring. This spring is 220mm long and was delivered with 13mm of spring pre-load which should be fine for this application. This spring can be pre-loaded maybe 50mm more than shown, look at the threads remaining under the pre-load nut. The spring has 126mm of stroke and is pre-loaded 13mm. The stroke of the shock is 97mm. Let us d the math so 126mm - 97mm - 13mm preload = 16mm of additional spring pre-load on this spring which is a lot. Just because the spring is not the full length of the shock and the spring is long enough to do what it needs to do (which this does) than that is all of the spring you need. To have a longer spring to go to the top only weighs more and adds worthless metal weight.


My experience is somewhat different from my prospective. There may be a few points left out also from Mike. How big of a favor I am doing? A Hurricane and building a pair of shocks and delivering them one working day late after they were delivered to me from OhlinsUSA? What about the other customers who also ordered shocks and were in the same large box who lives in California? Yes, first ordered, first out. Making, designing and re-valving shocks take time to do. If you wished your shocks delivered directly from the factory there are many vendors who will drop ship your shocks from OhlinsUSA. Try that and let me know how well it does work out for you. I will not go over the timeline here because I do not really care if it took longer. Having a customer writing twice when I gave you Mike a time line without the Hurricane when you ordered those shocks, waiting the only 4 sets to come in from Sweden (they were not in the USA) which I purchased all of them, having them shipped from N.C., build them, than shipped to you takes time.

I guess I am blind but maybe you need to show where these shocks are damaged. I would place a direct call to Ohlins in Sweden and complain about the packaging not meeting your expectations. I took those shocks apart and examined them very carefully. You should note that there is always a possibility when taking shocks apart and re-assembling them there is always a chance of some cosmetic event happening when choosing the color black overlay on aluminum. I saw no such imperfections.

 

Hi Howard,

No complaints about the timeline the shocks were delivered. In fact, I think they were delivered in a timely fashion. You may have misread my comments.

Also, asking your customers to post honest reviews and then publicly disagreeing with their opinion is counter-intuitive. Even more so when those customers actually recommend your products and services to other forum members. (See last paragraph of original post)

Thanks again for your help.

 

Repost the scratch or blemish, as shipped.
The supplier asked you to do so, and you either didn't read his post clearly or glossed over that.
For clarity and transparency, I think you owe him and one of the top shock manufacturers in the world (Ohlins), when you claim damage on an open, public forum.

No big deal, scratches and blems happen all the time....
Just repost the damage and show it.

 

Image attached

 

Another image

 

Wow, how disappointing! Unfortunately there's no excuse for that careless packaging. I'd personally be extremely pissed, as I'm sure many others would. Even if they weren't damaged I'd still be pissed. You bought a top shelf product and you receive them scratched & filthy, just carelessly tossed into an over sized box with lousy packing material? Even the low cost Progressive 412's come packed much better then that. I'm really finding it hard to believe that Ohlin's packed them that way. Mine came boxed in a nice Styrofoam fitted insert with all hardware in sealed packets. And I bought mine used. The seller re-packaged them in the original box. Even if Ohlin's did pack then that poorly, which I think is total BS, They should have been re-packed before shipping to the you. Then when you questioned the packaging you're told they're not damaged? WTF?

What lousy service! Anybody can try sugarcoating this anyway they like. But it is, what it is.

image hosting free no registration

image hosting free no registration

Yeah I know, this means no soup for me!!! That's OK, I'll gladly get my soup elsewhere.