Hey folks,
Wanted to report on my Hypermotards fork upgrade.
First off, the cartridge kit was sourced from David Behrend at
Fast Bike Industries :: Ohlins #1 Service Center for $699 (springs included) plus shipping.
David was great and easy to deal with, and actually provided some
guidance both via email and phone. He even ordered the kit with the
right springs for my weight. Ultimately, he was completely
responsive, which is probably all you need to know when it comes to
dealing with anyone in the motorcycle industry.
Next, the kit itself is pretty.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
Not quite Ohlins pretty, but at well less than half the cost, I
wasn't expecting that. It's as pretty as the stock setup is, but
actually works which makes it prettier. We all know it's what's
inside that counts. The caps, adjusters, and more importantly the
internals all appear to be well made and machined. One minor drawback
is that the "instructions" are in Italian. But if you can read
pictures, you're good to go (after you continue reading this anyway!)
Install was ridiculous, but in a good way. The hardest part of this,
and perhaps even the longest part of the install process is pulling
the wheel/fender/calipers and associated hardware so that you can get
to removing the forks. The upper pinch bolts on the Hyper are a pain
to access, but cutting down the short end of an allen key to make it
even shorter seemed to do the trick without having to pull the
headlight and surrounding shrouding. I'd recommend not letting your
calipers hang from the brake lines, so find a spot and zip tie them to
the frame somewhere while you work. Also a good idea to put something
between the front brake lever and the grip to prevent your buddy from
pumping the brakes. One other nice tip is to loosen the fork caps a
quarter turn while they're still on the bike, otherwise you'll be
looking for a vice or something similar to hold them while you crank
the caps off (special tool required). Other than that, I'm not going
to tell you how to jack up your bike on stands and remove the front
wheel. If you are nervous about doing that, why are you self
installing a cartridge kit anyway?
Once the forks are in your hands,
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
things are about as easy as one could imagine with a fork upgrade.
I finished loosening the caps, and drained the fork oil into a ratio
rite (so I could measure what was in there, and see if it was even
from the factory - surprisingly, it was, but man was it dirty!
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
). Once drained, move to the bottom of the fork legs. There's one
big allen bolt on the underside of the fork leg (pull the pinch bolts
to access it). That came off without any need for an impact wrench on
my forks. Once that bolt is in your hands, the ENTIRE cartridge
(including the spring) will pull right out of the fork leg.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
Half-way there! Put the old cartridges on display somewhere -
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
You need to do some minor disassembly to the Andreani kit prior to
installation since you must measure your fork oil level with the
cartridge kit installed sans spring. So, pop the cap by screwing it
off, and pull the spring off the assembly with the associated
spacer/washer. Tough right? Drop the kit into the fork leg, move to
the bottom of the fork again, and now tighten the bolt at the bottom
(helps to do this or at least get the bolt started with everything
upright - gravity, ya know?). You should use a new crush washer on
the bottom of the fork leg. I, of course, didn't, but you should.
Tighten that bolt up to factory torque spec (or pretty tight according
to your carefully calibrated forearm).
With everything upright, start pouring oil in. Andreani and David both
recommend the Ohlins 0 oil -
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
. You'll need a little less than a full quart for each fork leg to
get to the recommended level (120mm from the top of the fork leg,
fully compressed with the cartridge installed, but no spring).
Important to note, you need to bleed the cartridge by pumping it up
and down after you've dumped some oil in there to eliminate the volume
taken up inside the cartridge. Just grab the inner part of the
cartridge damping rod, and slide it up and down until you start
spewing a steady stream of oil from the top). Measure with a headlamp
and a ruler by peering down and setting your fork oil level to that
120mm. The Ohlins oil is pretty too -
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
Now, the only tricky part, and it's really not that bad. You have to
now put the spring and spacer back in place, and then screw on the
cap. Easy enough, but there's a small locknut that resides within the
interior of the fork spring that helps lock the cap into place. Using
a regular spanner wrench snaked between the coils, make sure you snug
that up against the bottom of the fork cap. I'd have a picture, but
of course my hands were full of oil at this point! Now snug the cap
into the fork leg, and you're done. Just make sure you snug it up
again after putting the forks back on the bike if you're not using a
vice.
Finally, the impressions. I didn't expect a miracle cure for the
front end of the Hyper - but without twisting a single knob on the
bike after the install, I immediately noticed some bad behavior that
simply disappeared. Small imperfections in the road surface are
imperceptible in the front end now. Yes, gone. It's actually better
than my ST1300 even with the Race Tech upgrade done in there in this
regard. Well, that's amazing, but who cares, I need to know how it
turns. So I throw it into the first bumpy corner on my commute to
work, and that disappearing act happens again, almost. The Hyper
used to stand up and get all squirrely in any corner with a bump, and
now the front end remains planted. It doesn't have the same desire to
stand up, and soaks up the smaller stuff with ease. Bigger
imperfections have brought out what some have suspected as a problem
in the Hyper as well - an overdamped rear! The biggest difference
with the Andreani kit is that now the front is actually good enough
that I can tell the difference between what's happening up front vs.
the rear. Any tendency for the bike to stand up seems to be driven by
the rear trying to wag the dog than a fault in the front. I expected
to have to adjust the rear again with this upgrade, but didn't expect
such a dramatic difference that made me want to attack the rear before
touching any knobs in the front.
Pretty impressive stuff for $700 and a total of 2 hours invested
(probably less than that, but I get anal when measuring the oil
level). I have limited miles on the bike since the upgrade, but I'm
confident that it's better, much, much better than all the knob
twisting I could possibly do with the stock front adjusters - and I
still haven't dialed it in yet. I'll report back in the spring after
some more miles.
Anyone want to buy my stock cartridges? Cheap!
)
Linear Mode
