Ohlins fork cartridge kit owners...

[Raiden]

I've read so many threads about people complaining about the forks on this bike and I never really experienced this. I never did a track day yet though and I don't go too crazy riding on the street so I guess I never put myself in the position to experience the lack of handling everyone is talking about. Until last Friday, I was visiting a buddy upstate and on my way home I was doing some highway slab that started doing some sweeping turns with some fairly bumpy pavement not too horrible but not smooth. I was in a nice right hand lean and the bike got really squirrely doing about 75 or 80mph man it was a butt clencher. Traffic was moving fast but cars were in tight formation so a get off would have been bad. Hard to explain but it was like everything was smooth at that cruising speed until I turned in and then I felt like I was about to get a tank slapper, at that point I got back into the right lane until the road smoothed out. I'm going to try some different set ups with the stock suspension if that doesn't work this may be my next mod.

[GMP]

You don't have to be a racer of even a fast guy to find the flaws in this fork. Just go ride some rough patch work pavement like you did and you immediately know there is a problem. If your familiar with suspension tuning and revalving you know why. What your feeling is the overdamped rebound and too soft part of the progressive springs not allowing the fork to respond to the multiple bumps, and as the fork stays down in the stroke, rake is decreased and stability goes to hell. The closer together the bumps or edges are the worse it is, even in a straight line upright condition. Poor mans improvement(I wont say fix) is lighter oil and stiffer springs with less preload.

[NYSport]

Spent the day at the track. 90 degrees and sunny, ouch.

The front forks now perform like a top notch Ducati should. First of all the front-end drive under hard braking is much improved, so much so that it was a non-issue, truly a superior improvement. Next, the tracking under all conditions was dramatically improved, bumps no longer upset the front-end. I will say that NJMP is a pretty smooth surface. But if you look hard enough and I did, there are a few "rough" stops in some of the corners. I felt like the contact patch was always firmly planted, the feedback was very good.

I guess the best thing I can say is that I felt very comfortable and confident with the suspensions performance. I was able to concentrate on riding issues with no thoughts about how the bike would handle the track.

I am very satisfied with the upgrade.

[08hyper]

Originally Posted by NYSport

Spent the day at the track. 90 degrees and sunny, ouch.

The front forks now perform like a top notch Ducati should. First of all the front-end drive under hard braking is much improved, so much so that it was a non-issue, truly a superior improvement. Next, the tracking under all conditions was dramatically improved, bumps no longer upset the front-end. I will say that NJMP is a pretty smooth surface. But if you look hard enough and I did, there are a few "rough" stops in some of the corners. I felt like the contact patch was always firmly planted, the feedback was very good.

I guess the best thing I can say is that I felt very comfortable and confident with the suspensions performance. I was able to concentrate on riding issues with no thoughts about how the bike would handle the track.

I am very satisfied with the upgrade.

Thanks for the review, it DOES help. Aloha Alex

[sakurama]

Okay, first ride today and I can safely say those are most ill performing forks I've ever experienced. Thanks for the feedback here. I guess I'll be making calls Monday morning.

[Decreasing Dave]

This is one bike that needs a steering dampner.

Most can be adjusted to not need one, this bike can't.......yet.

Dave

[sakurama]

Yeah, Dave, like you I come from a racing background (dirt and street) and a damper is just something I fit to every bike. I consider it like a belt or suspenders: generally never needed but very embarrassing results the one time you do and don't have.

Yesterdays ride was on some very rough pavement and it was an eye opening experience the way the front wheel skipped around with a mind of it's own.

[AXE]

This bike doesn't need a dampenerfor most riders. You can get the stock suspension dialed pretty well. If not, the $4-500+ would be much better spent on suspension upgrades now that we have a few options. You can't mask poor setup or bad suspension components with a dampener.

Out!

[johnchypermotard]

Originally Posted by AXE

This bike doesn't need a dampenerfor most riders. You can get the stock suspension dialed pretty well. If not, the $4-500+ would be much better spent on suspension upgrades now that we have a few options. You can't mask poor setup or bad suspension components with a dampener.

Out!

no, but i do know that a steering damper (not dampner) will mask a lot of bad traits that a bike has.

in!

[MongoWERA]

Both terms are correct