New Ohlins shocks finally installed!
Thread Starter
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Elite HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 4,082
Likes: 11
From: Long Island, NY
New Ohlins shocks finally installed!
Wanted to thank everyone for their advice and suggestions.
Just put the new Ohlins shocks HD 219 on my bike this Saturday and put on around 100 miles. Still too soon for a full review, but my first impression is it's a whole different level compared to the 440's which were previously on the bike for the past 7 or 8 years.
The Ohlins really instill a level of confidence by keeping the back tire planted on the road when riding the bike hard through turns and twisties (also on hard straight acceleration) especially when the road is rutted and potholed. Even going over train tracks is smooth.
Howard from Motorcycle Metal did a great job in setting up the shocks. I'm still playing around with the settings so I'm sure they are not yet dialed in as good as they eventually can or will be. Regardless, the ride is still excellent, much improved over the 440's.
My original plan was to install the Ohlins shocks, ride them for a week to make sure I didn't need to make changes to the springs or internals, then pull them off (temporarily reinstall the old 440's) and send them back for powder coat and chrome, then do the final install. I may still do that but I like the original yellow spring and gold reservoir more than expected. In fact, my bike has gotten more attention (mostly very positive) in the past couple of days than it has from any other mod! I will probably still go with a gloss black powder coat and chrome spring but now I'm not 100% sure.
I posted a few pics so you can see how they look. Look forward to reading your comments. Thanks again for the help.
Just put the new Ohlins shocks HD 219 on my bike this Saturday and put on around 100 miles. Still too soon for a full review, but my first impression is it's a whole different level compared to the 440's which were previously on the bike for the past 7 or 8 years.
The Ohlins really instill a level of confidence by keeping the back tire planted on the road when riding the bike hard through turns and twisties (also on hard straight acceleration) especially when the road is rutted and potholed. Even going over train tracks is smooth.
Howard from Motorcycle Metal did a great job in setting up the shocks. I'm still playing around with the settings so I'm sure they are not yet dialed in as good as they eventually can or will be. Regardless, the ride is still excellent, much improved over the 440's.
My original plan was to install the Ohlins shocks, ride them for a week to make sure I didn't need to make changes to the springs or internals, then pull them off (temporarily reinstall the old 440's) and send them back for powder coat and chrome, then do the final install. I may still do that but I like the original yellow spring and gold reservoir more than expected. In fact, my bike has gotten more attention (mostly very positive) in the past couple of days than it has from any other mod! I will probably still go with a gloss black powder coat and chrome spring but now I'm not 100% sure.
I posted a few pics so you can see how they look. Look forward to reading your comments. Thanks again for the help.
Thread Starter
|
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 4,082
Likes: 11
From: Long Island, NY
Thanks for the comments. Looks like I'll be leaving them stock for a while.
Beautiful day so I took the bike to work. Good chance to compare the ride with the Ohlins on familiar (and in some cases pretty rutted up) roads. Can really appreciate just how good the O's are! They basically absorb the irregularities in the road and make the ride really comfortable and improve the handling and control of the bike.
I've started making incremental adjustments to the compression and damping in order to find the setup I like best.
Beautiful day so I took the bike to work. Good chance to compare the ride with the Ohlins on familiar (and in some cases pretty rutted up) roads. Can really appreciate just how good the O's are! They basically absorb the irregularities in the road and make the ride really comfortable and improve the handling and control of the bike.
I've started making incremental adjustments to the compression and damping in order to find the setup I like best.
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Road Captain
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 689
Likes: 6
From: Glen Rose TX
+1
Balance it out with some other bits done the same color on the frontend.
Balance it out with some other bits done the same color on the frontend.
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