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Emailed Ohlins and this was their response. Not worth it for me. I set the preload at 1 1/8" 1up. My wife only weighs ~110lbs so no need to adjust preload from 1up to 2up. Unless we load the bike up for a trip.
For a rider who makes constant PL adjustments, it is simply Teflon lined for smoother operation.There is not a performance advantage.
They are $68 ea. Shipping is only $7.50.
I always adjust with the bike on a lift and clean the best I can under and over the spring/collar and spray a little wd40 first. I say always. Maybe 3 time s total. I would. I would not use a lubricant or oil that does not evaporate as it may collect dirt. My .02
I always adjust with the bike on a lift and clean the best I can under and over the spring/collar and spray a little wd40 first. I say always. Maybe 3 time s total. I would. I would not use a lubricant or oil that does not evaporate as it may collect dirt. My .02
a little dry lube like a Teflon spray thats so common nowadays will help immensely on the standard adjuster. No need to upgrade (as mentioned above) unless you plan on doing a lot of adjusting back and forth.
OK I guess it’s time for me to chime in. I bought shocks for my Road King HD 0392 from our main go to Man. Installed per the directions and after the break in they rode beautifully. The following season I adjusted the sag and ended up trashing the threads. I cleaned them but apparently not well enough to not trash the threads (or did I?). Took them off sent them in to Ohlins and paid the service fees. Got them in the mail one day open the box and they were fixed but they had all sorts of gouges in them from the vice or handling or something. See attached photos of how they came back. I was happy to have them back and figured the gouges were just part of the game of having to have them serviced... or a result of needing the service and I decided to live with it and not b$tch about it. I mounted them directly with no adjustments.
Fast forward to last week I found that one of the screws that goes in the little nut on the top was missing, so I began the pursuit of getting one. I never checked this little screw for tightness because I was told never to mess with it or the nut. So I am in conversation with our Man yesterday and he’s providing direction to get the little screw and the associated O-ring. Since I’m looking at the shocks and I’ve got our Man on the phone I bring up all of the nicks and gouges from the service...and our Man said that the damage was absolutely unacceptable and said he has no idea how it could have even happened given the tools and equipment that is used at Ohlins. He said that I should’ve brought up the issue upon receipt of the shocks, so bad on me I mounted them and rode them. Yesterday, I decided there is no sense in bringing it up now because it would be highly unlikely to get support.
So I’m in the garage (again this was yesterday) with nothing to do and decide since I lost about 30 pounds maybe I should check the sag and what not. Found out that I should make adjustments, pulled the shocks and cleaned them really, really well to avoid messing up the threads. Mounted them and decided this time I was going to take pictures of the threads to prove I cleaned the shocks up well before adjusting. I used Safariland CLP to lubricate and then I separated the lock but from the adjusting nut. Then...wow...what’s that? The threads trashed from underneath the lock nut. See photo. Our Man, when he reads this will be interested that the story further developed beyond our conversations yesterday lol. Now I am definitely wondering if it was even my fault that the threads got trashed prior to me sending it in for service. When that had happened I was almost certain that I didn’t do anything to cause the damage. I thought that the nut had been cross threaded on the body. Now seeing damage to the thread underneath the nut that I had never moved makes me think the nut and the threads marry.
So now what? I have shocks that perform well but you can’t adjust them without ruining them. Yes they are the lowest cost line of shocks from Ohlins and I am wishing I would have gone with a shock that offered better adjustability. For the cost of the shock plus the service I could have bought the top of the line shock. And now I can’t adjust them again without another service.
Our Man has provided nothing but excellent support for me. This post is simply to give buyers information when making purchasing decisions. I would hope Ohlins would take interest in making this right but I’m not holding my breath since its basically just my word at this point. I'll send Gary an email once I find his email address.
There are a bunch of photos of all the nicks and gouges that happened during the service, then some pictures of the shocks after cleaning and re- mounting, and a photo of the thread that was under the lock nut (not in order...I’m trying to do this in my phone).
I have good news. Ohlins is going to support me! Once I reported my issue...they stood by me with support. As did Howard, he has even called to check in with me to see the status. The biggest problem with this whole ordeal is that in my post above I stated that I had previously paid for service fees. Which, I no longer believe to be the case. I believe that the previous service was covered under Ohlins warranty. Yes, I feel pretty embarrassed having made the claim that I paid service fees on what a company warrantied. That is a big deal in my book. So I wanted to post to try to set that straight.
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