Hagon rear shocks

Claviger said:

Paul if you’d be so kind, would you mind posting the part number you installed? Sorting through the Ohlins catalogue is more tedium than even I can stand (and I can do some pretty tedious ****e).

The only reason I’ve Wilber’s instead of Ohlins is the insanity that is their mess of an online catalogue.

PS: Love the screen mounting system instead of the Triumph insanity brackets, very sleek. Also the blacked out touches you’ve added.

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The shock base units are OS-HD518.
Maybe a phone call or E-mail to the Guys above would net good results.

I bought the screen from a Guy in the States, but it had no mounts, he did tell me this, so I made my own.
I made these so as to push the nose of the screen forward to align with the headlights.

So much more elegant than the Triumph solution!

Oh yeah, suspension. Found a place 42 miles away that’s a full Ohlins dealer/service center, going to make a trip down and see what they have to offer. Not really planning on switching out just curious.

Claviger said:

Paul if you’d be so kind, would you mind posting the part number you installed? Sorting through the Ohlins catalogue is more tedium than even I can stand (and I can do some pretty tedious ****e).

The only reason I’ve Wilber’s instead of Ohlins is the insanity that is their mess of an online catalogue.

PS: Love the screen mounting system instead of the Triumph insanity brackets, very sleek. Also the blacked out touches you’ve added.

Click to expand...

Ohlins Sweden have never made a listing for Rocket 3, here in New Zealand we created our own spec and have made in excess of 60 pairs for this tiny market and no one wants to give them back to us. It needs to be realised that all factories only have so much R&D and production capacity and will concentrate in the areas they decide upon. I understand and accept that.
HD518 is a Harley FXD spec made specifically only for New Zealand and we occassionally use them as a donor spec to reconfigure length , stroke and end fittings , spring and valve to suit bikes such as the Rocket 3. There is a LOT of devil in the detail. The spec we have developed on our shock dyno and on road will in terms of ride quality and chassis control substanially outperform offerings from Hagon, Wilbers and ( no apologies ) those woeful Mexican made shocks! No need with Ohlins to also purchase a season ticket to the chiropractor!
There are no external adjusters excepting for spring preload, people get overly preoccupied and excited about same, but external adjusters usually only adjust bypass flow within a small range, they wont adjust mass flow to account for issues we see with so many shocks that just wont ride abrupt bumps. Its whats on the inside that really counts.
Its a choice between a higher priced shock with pedigree and proper development or lower priced market contamination suspension that will deliver a result way below what is possible.
These Custom build Ohlins are not available from us for export as our workload to service our local market is very heavy and backlogged. We also believe that such technical product should only be marketed and sold and properly backed up inside each country rather than open slather sales worldwide. Every week we deal with people that have purchased offshore, of course if the seller is half a world away ( as is often the case ) they are insulated somewhat from the purchasers displeasure if the performance of the suspension is somewhat less than they expected. Such sellers I have little more than contempt for. So we subscribe to the old world mentality of local purchase and proper and thorough technical backup attuned to the local roading conditions. Excellent results rather than mixed results

I have recently installed Wilber 640 TS shocks to my 16 Roadster. I Have found the ability to adjust from one extreme to another is very good...excellent even!..Going from 12 clicks down to 4 makes a huge difference in the feel of the ride and obviously sooner or later you will find the best feel for you.
Yes they are expensive but quality costs i guess...
I havnt owned ohlins but believe thy too are very good....i have spoken to guys who have them.
It comes down to personal choice dosnt it?...cost and availability and lots of reading and humming and harring...

Tal said:

I have recently installed Wilber 640 TS shocks to my 16 Roadster. I Have found the ability to adjust from one extreme to another is very good...excellent even!..Going from 12 clicks down to 4 makes a huge difference in the feel of the ride and obviously sooner or later you will find the best feel for you.
Yes they are expensive but quality costs i guess...
I havnt owned ohlins but believe thy too are very good....i have spoken to guys who have them.
It comes down to personal choice dosnt it?...cost and availability and lots of reading and humming and harring...

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When you require service and possibly warranty there is no distributor or product knowledge specific service centre in NZ, so I question the long term choice you have made. We have evidenced a set of Rocket 3 specific Wilbers and frankly I wasnt impressed with their ride quality compared to what we have achieved with Ohlins. Whilst there was indeed adjustability you cannot adjust out internal mass flow high speed compression damping that is too aggressive for our road conditions. Moreover, your choice but your money has gone offshore and those that made the profit out of them neither employ locals or return their profits into our local economy. Think about that if your job security is threatened by aggressive overseas competition that is not always taxed when it comes across the border. I make no apologies to be a total patriot to the viability of local businesses and the everyday Kiwi families that rely on same for meaningful employment

Case in point here, the customer here decided he wanted slightly softer springs, he had them within a day or two of talking to us, because we are local and abundantly aware of the roads we have. We knew there was a main choice of two main alternate spring rates that he would settle upon.

My 2 cents worth and there is no wish to play further forum tennis, my business needs my time moreso

I Believe you have a very good product no doubt...but knocking other makes of shocks and the availability of support from those manufacturers isnt the way to get my vote...just sayin

Thanks for coming on and expanding the information on your custom Ohlins offering.

I totally agree that 90% of riders don’t need the hassle of adjustability and that many shocks range of adjustment is a joke.

For those who don’t know, there is a massive difference between off the shelf Ohlins and custom ones in performance.

I would suggest if you’re going to claim superiority over something like Wilber’s, you qualify which more and demonstrate it with shock dyno comparisons.

It’s impossible a non adjustable can meet some people’s needs, like me. I drag race and I ride pretty **** hard in the back country, very few offerings can provide a range of adjustment that can allow for both, as the needs are complete opposite for the shock. Wilber’s 642s can cover that range required.

While a a fixed shock might offer good performance across the board, a properly adjusted quality triple adjustable will absolutely out perform any fixed rate shock at the extremes and in fringe cases.

Claiming otherwise is ignorant.

KSS said:

When you require service and possibly warranty there is no distributor or product knowledge specific service centre in NZ, so I question the long term choice you have made. We have evidenced a set of Rocket 3 specific Wilbers and frankly I wasnt impressed with their ride quality compared to what we have achieved with Ohlins. Whilst there was indeed adjustability you cannot adjust out internal mass flow high speed compression damping that is too aggressive for our road conditions. Moreover, your choice but your money has gone offshore and those that made the profit out of them neither employ locals or return their profits into our local economy. Think about that if your job security is threatened by aggressive overseas competition that is not always taxed when it comes across the border. I make no apologies to be a total patriot to the viability of local businesses and the everyday Kiwi families that rely on same for meaningful employment

Case in point here, the customer here decided he wanted slightly softer springs, he had them within a day or two of talking to us, because we are local and abundantly aware of the roads we have. We knew there was a main choice of two main alternate spring rates that he would settle upon.

My 2 cents worth and there is no wish to play further forum tennis, my business needs my time moreso

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Not much point dangling the carrot then saying that you only supply to your home market, just looking at shock prices is enough to make the average working man choke on his pint!
Now I know my old mum says you only get what you pay for, but really,some of these suspension mods cost almost what I paid for the bike..............

This said, and I don’t disagree that custom valves and sprung Ohlins perform phenomenally, I’ll be making a trip soon to the local Ohlins master.

I’ll see if I can get him interested in it enough to come up with a setup or two for the US market. Will be asking for single adjustable SX36E based design and a triple adjustable with a bigger piston (46 if possible).

Will post more once I get down there, but, I don’t see any reason we won’t have a custom set available from a US distributor in the near future (and if the do make a 46mm triple adjustable I may swap).

I just got off the phone with the local shop. I’m going to drop my bike off on Monday and we will soon have a front and cartridge update for Roadsters to get proper damping and spring rates available. The front end will require you mail in your forks, but it’ll come back setup for your riding style and weight.

Rear shock he’s going to design a high-end racetech application that will be less expensive than most alternative and much better performing. Not emulsion and not a piggyback so no issues fitting with bags. Will be preload and rebound adjustable, as the market for triple adjustables is very small.

While I’m there I’ll feel out the front case setups, who wants triple adjustables and see what can be done.

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