I was going to abreviate your nick-name, then thought better of it! I have found that the more I spend on my bike the easier it gets to spend even more.

Tell us more about your Ohlins front forks, while I wait for my Ohlins shocks to arrive.

 

Like many others, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

 

And I just can't see them (the Ohlins) being $1,700 better than the Progressive cartridges or the Ricor Intiminators.

 

Since I do not know what the pricing will be and neither does Ohlins, why this speculation on pricing. As far as rthomp159goes, you ride a set of Marzocch forks and have stated many times how much better they are on your bike. A set of Ohlins forks or the forks I make are many times better than the forks you have due to various reasons, most of those being what is in side of them (technology) and the high tolerance standards they are held to.

I thought you rthomp159goes did real good in purchasing a great performance upgrade for your bike. You ride your bike and ride is important to you. The first thing happens when riding to some is the bike goes down the street. I wish my bike to ride well first than make it fast. Paint and heavy chrome billet wheels rate little for me (only). There is great differences in suspension as I have been showing all members.

There are many solutions, not only from me, that give your bike a much better ride than stock. Of course HD could do it much better than I but they can sell sub-performance suspension to the masses and get 1) away with it, 2) Keep their profit margin/bottom line up.

Unfortunately you must look elsewhere to get the ride you paid for in the beginning. I will be working on this option and will release the pricing once completed.

I am modifying a members fork here (I will determine if it can be done first) by lowering it (he is nuts lowering a bike) 2 " and still have full travel/stroke. Many said this can not be done and I disagree 100% (at least 1 1/2") With our existing X-Factor cartridge we can lower the stock front end and it would ride straight and comfortable. Like I always have said "In my opinion, hard parts hit sooner when the bike is lowered".

For the lowered crowd we have developed our #3~#1 shocks for you as well as lowering the front forks without giving up comfort as is clearly evident on the other offerings such as all of them. We do it first and final here.

 

Howard, I don't doubt for a second that the Ohlins (or Traxxion) forks and shocks are fantastic units. There's no doubt that quality components make for a better ride and handling. There's also no doubt in my mind that you've done a tremendous amount of work in making these bikes ride and handle far better than they have any right to.

At less than a grand, the Marzocchi inverteds gave me a better ride, better handling, and the look I was going for on my 'Train. To me, they're worth the $900 or so they cost. One of the things those forks accomplished was losing 20 pounds or so off the front end and reducing unsprung weight. That benefit wouldn't be realized with the cartridge systems we're talking about here.

All I'm saying is that I have a hard time swallowing that a $2000 Ohlins front end is going to perform noticeably better for the typical bagger rider than a $300 pair of Progressive cartridges or Ricor Intiminators. I'd be happy to be proven wrong (though my wallet wouldn't be!).

 

Well said and a BIG +1
No matter how defensive Howard gets he just doesn't seem to understand that a huge number of us don't have big bucks to throw at our suspensions. He can trash talk his competition all he wants but I welcome any manufacturer that can bring a suspension product that's relatively effective compared to it's cost.
I eagerly await the opinions and/or tests concerning the new Progressive Monotube front end.

 

I happen to be lucky enough right now to have the money to buy pretty much any upgrade I want for my Harley, and I still wouldn't throw $2K at the suspension of an 800 pound bagger (with floorboards???!!!).

Throw that kind of money at a sport bike and you've got a new animal. Throw that kind of money at a heavy bike with limited ground clearance to start with, and you still aint going racing on Sunday.

 

Fully laden my bagger weighs in at close to 1200 pounds with my wife and I on board. There is little to be gained trying to improve a good sports bike, but there is vast scope and EVERY point in improving a heavy bagger fitted with cr@p stock suspension.

 

Yeah, thats one thing about my handle that never occured to me. Bummer huh.

Once your bike owes you twice what your wifes sensible French hatchback with a 6 speed auto, turbo diesel engine and 55 airbags cost then another few thousand seems insignificant.

Most people wouldnt hestitate to throw $2k at their pizzweak 96 cube motor to get it to go properly, but to throw that sort of money at their suspension is crazy? I dont get it.

I figure its gonna cost 4 grand for my suspension freighted to Australia. Ouch.

Howard - "Paint and heavy chrome billet wheels rate little for me (only)." Not just you, mate, lots of people have called my bike a sleeper cause it looks stock but its just that my available funds have been spent on the things that matter - performance, performance and performance. It will get fancy paint one day, but its so far down the list.

Damascus "I happen to be lucky enough right now to have the money to buy pretty much any upgrade I want for my Harley, and I still wouldn't throw $2K at the suspension of an 800 pound bagger (with floorboards???!!!). Throw that kind of money at a sport bike and you've got a new animal." Why would you throw it at a sport bike? I have had a bunch of different japper fastbikes and they all handled well enough and because they weighed as much as a damp towel they could get away with having a few inadequacies in the suspension dept. My tractor and I wiegh 1050lb in street trim and its a lot of mass to have go wrong at 110 mph over a mid corner bump. These bikes need more control if you wanna ride them on their limits. I understand that not many out there ride like that but a few of us do.

rthomp - And I just can't see them (the Ohlins) being $1,700 better than the Progressive cartridges or the Ricor Intiminators.

Make no mistake THEY WONT BE. There is always a law of diminishing returns with any performance upgrade. My engine cost over $20k Aussie. Is it 10 times better than the $2k stage II would have cost? Look at home theatre - is the $150k system 10 times better than the $15k system? Of course not. Just like a Ferrari isnt 5 times better than a Corvette. But it is better.

 

Great quote! I may have to borrow that sometime to help put things in perspective.