Awesome. How did the jri's work? What was the reason for the switch? They look like a really nice shock.

 

The JRi's were a nice shock and rode good , but after I put the 30mm front fork cartridges in I wanted the best for the rear end too so went to the Ohlins #6's

 

Ordered the JRI B13" from Howard today.

 

Great read. Thanks for the info Matt. Sounds as if you truly customize the shocks for the customer. That is worth whatever you charge. Box shocks may be better than stock, but valving and set up its what separates okay from great.

 

There are so many choices of shocks and fork setups. Too bad there is no way to do a head to head of aftermarket equipment. Ohilins, Traxxion and Progressive cartidges, Ricor intiminators, Racetech cartridge emulators, plus others I left out. Not to mention the other ride/handling improvement products like CCE triple trees and the variety of braces and bushings.


It would be great to afford and afford to wait and get Motorcycle Metals new 49mm triple trees and 30mm Ohlins for pre 2014 bikes when they go into production. I wish Howard the best with this endeavor, he's so close. At this time, from what I've read the CCE triple tree/fork tubes combined with the Traxxion AK-20's would produce the best riding and handling front end combo available today with tune-ability.

 

Problem with comparisons is the set up. I would bet any of the reputable companies shocks, set properly would beat a box shock all day long. Now box to box, I would wager the ohlin shock beats them all. They really are the pinnacle for us every day guys, imo. Add in the fact Matt makes the shock for you and the way you ride, it really is a no brainer, again imo.

 

Matt is a sales person at OhlinsUSA who sells shocks but he can also build a shock. I am Howard Messner, not Matt Sage (sory for the confusion). Matt does not ride or has ever owned a Harley and Matt did not take a few years (total) riding each and every shock and perfecting it to each bike than getting friends to test ride their own bike and get it to ride correctly. Different bikes and different riders (weight, riding style, and model & years). Matt goes to shows or is at his desk because that is his job. Matt does not figure out how to improve or develop Ohlins shocks for Harley's, again, that is what he is paid to do. There are several motorcycle technicians who work all day working on Ohlins shocks, day in and day out. They do not sit on the phone fielding phone calls, they work on shocks, that is what they get paid to do. If anyone who wishes to know and has been around on the HDF long enough, you would have seen the very first quality shock for Harleys, they were Penske's. They were developed and marketed by me. The same was true about the Ohlins shocks. The Ohlins shocks were not developed and refined nor was there the amount of different models available than as there is now.

Your choices are to either go to someone who has the ability and experience to custom tune or rebuild a shock or you buy a shock in the box. Ohlins only sells a shock in a box that was manufactured in Sweden and never sees the light of day (all Ohlins shocks are removed from the box and tested to see if it has leaked oil or nitrogen prior to shipping from OhlinsUSA) until either you or your dealer removes it from the box and removes the seal head to re-valve it.. Ohlins does not re-valve shocks unless you request it and spend $350/pair extra but OhlinsUSA does put the spring on that your vendor requests or what you specify.

I go to OhlinsUSA, I know most people who work there by name and face. Ohlins does try to be the very best in the field and sells many shocks to many re-sellers. The reason why there are persons at the track personalizing your shocks is because that is what is required. Spend time with the client and try many different combinations to get the shock to perform the way it should for that client.

You may also ask yourself why no one really heard about Ohlins for Harely's before I got involved with them. This was long before anyone at Ohlins had any interest in Harley's other than Mike Hensley who provided me with the opportunity and wiliness to take a big chance. When I got there, Ohlins was selling out stock because there were no sales. There is a search button up top on the tool bar, I suggest anyone who wishes to know the facts or history, use it. It is a very good idea to know the facts prior to publicly writing something on the internet that will be here forever.

 

Howard,

I am confused. I ordered from you your number 6 shocks and when I received them within the box contained a manual from Ohlins and TWO SETS of MOUNTING INSTRUCTIONS, one for a HD 357 and one for a HD 927 set of shocks. The set up data contained in each of the mounting instructions is different. The 927 instructions were printed in black and white and the HD 357 was in color printed from Ohlins. The 927 looks like a photo copy.

I also downloaded the instructions that was in your e-mail and told me to refer to your web site for the set up data. I also looked at my invoice from you and it says that I got the 36HRC single tube length 337/13 1/4 stroke 90.5mm . So as you can see I have three different sheets of paper telling me three differet set ups. I'm a little lost with what the recommended set up should be? My customer ID is 2443 if you care to look it up and clarify what shock that I have and what the recommened set up is would be very helpful.

As far as how I set them up was by trial and error. I rode the bike with me and my passenger and gear and adjusted until what I thought felt good as far as performance. They are currently set at about 28mm sag and set the rebound first then the compression to the best ride for me. My total shock travel over 200 miles is 2-1/2 inches and has not bottomed out. The ride is cadilacic soft but still absorbs the bumps firm. I like the ride so far and seems balance with the front end however I can tell that they are stock springs up front.

It would be nice to hear in these post some techinical knowledge that you have so that we may all learn the correct way to set up the shocks and then adjust them for the different conditions that the riders experience. My wife actually really liked them when I had them set up with about half of the avaiable spring prelaod put into them. It had a really nice sport bike feeling to them but they did not match the fronts at all so I set them up a lot softer 28MM sag and adjusted from there.

At this point I could care less what shock is best as I now have invested in your products. I do not care what Matt knows I bought the shocks from you and all I hear on hear is that you know what you are doing but the truth to be told I am confused with my three sets of paperwork and just want to learn how to set them up for different conditions from a technicial aspect. I feel like I am steering from the seat of my pants.

Thank you and I hope that you can understand where I am coming from. The product that I have purchased is superior to any but only if I can learn how to adjust it rather then turn dials and guessing.

 

Let me apologize to you Howard. I did mean you build the shocks for the rider. I mixed up the names. The fact you do this at an extremely reasonable price is amazing. Again sorry about the name mix up.

 

Man I had been planning on progressives and now I see there is a much better option by the reviews here. I hate the stockers and am looking forward to an upgrade.