No real concerns, as all of the Ohlin's shocks offered by Howard are excellent in their own right and will always be optimized to give each customer with the best performance each given shock can provide.

The decision as to which shock to choose will always come down to individual needs / desires, expectations, personal preference, and the ever-present value type judgments.

Similar to you and your #2 Ohlin's, I'm sure the folks who have purchased a #1 Ohlin's from Howard are equally satisfied with how those shocks have improved the ride qualities of their H-D, never mind the beautiful finish and styling.

In a perfect world, I would truly wish for a #3 that looked like a #1... Vanity is what it is at times.

That said, I'm heading for the parking lot and my Ohlin's equipped R1100S for some wet, commute-time therapy. Alas, the H-D's at home in the garage and spared from daily-commute duty.

 

The Motorcycle Metal web site shows the #3's and #4's at the same price ($960). #3 is separated with internal resevoir and external rebound adjustment, while #4 is separated with external reservoir but no external rebound adjustment. Both offer adjustable length (nice!) and external spring preload adjustment.

If you were trying to decide between the two, the main difference is: having adjustable rebound dampening (#3) or an external reservoir (#4). Since I've never owned aftermarket shocks before, I'm curious which you all think is more important.

If you like to ride aggressively (as I do when outside the city), I would think the external reservoir would come into play to keep the oil from heating up too much. How big of a factor does hot oil play in the performance of the springs? Does it degrade the performance of the springs, and if so, how much? How much hard riding do you have to do to heat the oil up? If you're just hitting twisties mixed in with straight roads, does it really make that much of a difference, or is it more of an issue just for guys on the track?

On the other hand, is rebound dampening important for aggressive riding, or is it more important if you like to change the settings back and forth between comfort crusing and aggressive riding? It seems if you're able to get the factory to dial this in right when you place your order based on your weight, driving style, etc, you wouldn't need to change it again.

 

Rebound is not static but a dynamic adjustment and the proper adjustment for one ride may be wrong for another because roads have bumps of all shapes and sizes. If you are out riding the streets, you could find you wished you had more or less rebound for a certain riding section, now unless you stop, get off, adjust then re-ride the section, point is moot. Rebound(compression too) is not a set and forget adjustment, if that is the case with any rider, your may have wasted money on paying to have the adjustment option on your bike.

 

Howard schools folks on this time and again: quoting from the earlier linked information on www.motorcyclemetal.com:As for the influence of heat and how much of a factor it might play on a street bike / cruiser, my sense was... for the way we ride our FXDWG 98% of the time, neither the external nor remote reservoir would provide as much value as the adjustable rebound feature. Come next summer, and with the heat that comes off the H-D's motor, I may have to revisit that decision. Hopefully not...

Now, if we did a lot of twisty mountain riding and/or had roads that really put a much higher work load on the shocks, I would have probably dropped the bigger dollars for a customized #6... remote reservoir w/adjustable rebound, etc... which is what I have on my BMW R1100S (rear, front is basically a #5).

Howard or someone else who truly knows how much work it takes to generate enough fluid heat and/or changes in the fluid viscosity to warrant specific changes in the dampening adjustments can correct me if I'm dreaming / Full of Shinola, but I've always found that I needed to change the dampening on my shocks as the seasons changed here in Atlanta, as well as on my steering dampners: less dampening in the winter when it's in the teens - low 30's for my morning & evening commutes, vs the summer when normal day-time temps are in the mid-to upper 90's.

If I only rode our FXDWG solo and under similar conditions all the time I suspect that a non-adjustable shock would be OK... well, assuming I'd never had adjustable shocks. However, given that we ride two-up as often as I ride solo on the H-D, and that we'll ride year-round and in a variety of different places that put different demands on the suspension, having the ability to fine tune the dampening is something I place a lot of value in.

Again, case in point from this past weekend, we took our first long ride on the FXDWG which included a 75-mile to and 75-mile "transit" ride to the North Georgia mountains. The transit ride was on straight or gently rolling roads and in between them was a 50-mile loop through the mountain roads with all kinds of up and down grade twisties, esses, off-camber turns and a variety of different aslphalt conditions. In addition to tweaking the dampening on the way to the mountains to dial-in the ride feel on the new shocks, it was nice being able to add a little extra dampening after lunch as we headed into the mountains: about 15 seconds and an extra click of the external rebound adjuster on each shock. Perhaps there's a placebo effect at play, but I've always been able to immediately tell the difference that those small changes in dampening provide in much the same way as different tire pressures and/or tire compounds produce different road feel and handling. Mind you, I'm kind of like the character Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder, I don't have a hot clue when it comes to the physics and engineering behind this stuff, I just know when something doesn't feel or work the way I want it to feel or work I need to find someone who's smart enough to tell me how to fix it and/or provide me with the right parts. Howard is one of those smart guys...

So, it all comes back to what's important to each owner and/or their expectations. There are obviously far more folks riding H-D's with non-adjustable shocks who are quite content with the ride.

For me, I started out on dirt bikes and spent the last 33 years riding sport and sport touring bikes and only rode my first Harley earlier this year. I tried to immediately improve on the lousy OEM shock by installing Progressive 440HDs & fork springs based on feedback from other H-D owners. My bad; should have talked with other sport bike converts. The Progressives were better than the OEM, but still not anything close to what I'd come to expect from my years spent riding sport and sport touring motorcycles.

So, what's important to you and what are your expectations?

 

Great reply TandemGeek. I e-mailed Howard this same question last night, and between his response and yours, confirmed my gut feeling that the #3's with adjustable rebound are what will suit me best. He also offers a pretty nice discount to HD Forum subscribers, which I didn't know about. My 2012 WG won't get here until after the new year as it will be put on a slow boat to Korea Dec 29th, so I have a lot of time to kill planning how to spend my money on expensive aftermarket stuff. Sucks because the bike was manufactured Sep 29th....

Anyway, to answer your question, my expectation is that rebound dampening will be more useful to me than the external reservoir, based on the type of riding I do (which sounds similar to what you described with your jaunt last weekend). I can see myself tweaking it mid-ride the way you described. Plus I don't like the idea of the extra space the reservoir will take up, all of which is leading me to the #3's.

Thanks,
Mark in Seoul, Korea

 

Always wanted a set of Ohlins when I had my kawasaki KZ700. Why are they mounted backwards?

 

To fit my saddlebags.

 

Dropped-off our yellow Ohlin's springs to Scott at Atlanta Custom Coatings on Tuesday and picked them back up with a fresh, gloss-black powder coat finish yesterday.

Here they are in all their glory re-installed on the shock bodies: pretty sweet!



Re-installed them this morning before making a 24 mile round trip to Earl Small's to talk with Orie about an upcoming engine tune, pick up a part from the guys in parts department, and to visit with my sales consult., Brian for a bit: damn, that bike rides nice!! I mentioned how much more I enjoy riding the bike with the Ohlins to Debbie and she echo'd my sentiments, recalling last week's awesome fall-colors ride through the local mountains.

I'm afraid the BMW may find itself relegated to nothing but cold & wet weather-duty now that the Wide Glide is nearly as comfortable: just gotta fix the Wide Glide's front suspension in the not too distant future.





A huge thank you once again to Howard @ Motorcycle Metal... who did an awesome job on setting up those shocks!

 

So exciting. Spoke with Howard today. Goint to be getting new shocks for the Fat Bob and the Ultra Limited. Going with #6 on the limited, not sure what Howard thinks should go on the Fat Bob yet. Hopefully will talk to him tomorrow.

Seems like a great guy!

 

I am sorry for not doing a better job of explaining what shock you purchased but that is a #3~#4 and does have an internal reservoir as well as a sweep valve which controls both compression and rebound, not just rebound. I machine the internals to allow oil flow pats the needle valve both ways. This also "softens" up the last top of the compression stroke. Here is what is inside of your shock. The reservoir is formed by a separator piston between the shock oil where the shock piston is and the top of the shock. The nitrogen is is introduced into the top of the shock through the hex piece with the torx cap with a needle. The nitrogen fills cavity and pressurizes the oil by the separator pushing against the shock oil.

Advantages over a piggyback/hose mount:
* All in one
* space saving
* Easy to install

Disadvantages over a piggyback/hose mount:
* Can not have a single compression or rebound adjuster.
* Oil is not cooled by either a "dog bone" (in the case of a piggyback) or a hose (in the case of a hose mount) to remotely mount the reservoir away from the shock and in either case, the reservoir cooling the oil.
* More sophisticated valving single purpose valving (ie: high speed, low speed, & rebound dampening) can be installed into the shock system.

Internal reservoir as per your #3~#4 shock.