Öhlins Shock Absorbers For Bmw R1100rs
Öhlins Shock Absorbers For BMW R1100RS
CW EVALUATION
Expensive, but nice
OWNERS OF MODERN, TELELEVER-equipped BMW Twins are either blessed or cursed, depending upon your perspective. Blessed, because the Telelever replaces the traditional fork with a sort of semi-automotive “A-arm” setup that uses a single, centrally located coil-over shock. This makes changing the spring and damping rates (or installing a higher-quality unit) as easy as changing a single shock or strut on one corner of your dad’s Buick.
Cursed because you can change both the stock front and rear shock on your bike, rather than just the rear as on most bikes, and this can be expensive. Especially if you go upmarket into the high-quality world of Öhlins shocks. These babies are not cheap: At $697 each-rgo, $1394 for the pair-they cost as much as a perfectly nice used motorcycle. Is the change worth it?
To find out, CW sent Editor-atLarge Peter Egan a shiny new set for his 1995 R1100RS, bought used last summer. The bike had 17,000 miles on the odo, and the stock units, though still working reasonably well and not leaking, were beginning to feel a bit tired.
The new shocks come from the
Swedish factory with spring preload and damping already dialed-in to the setting Öhlins recommends for a rider of average weight carrying light baggage or a passenger. The BMW shocks are of the 46ER/DR type, which means they are designed to fit bikes where space is too limited for installation of an external reservoir, so the nitrogen gas and damping oil are mixed, rather than separated by a gas-pressurized piston. There is an easyto-reach rebound adjuster at the bottom of each shock, but no compression adjustment. This, Öhlins says in the manual, has been preset after extensive testing on your particular model.
Installation on a BMW is relatively easy, especially at the rear, where you have only to remove the seat, one seat mount-
ing bracket, loosen the muffler and remove the rear wheel to slide the old shock out of the way after unbolting the top and bottom through-bolts with a couple of box-end wrenches.
The front is only slightly more complicated because the body sidepanels must be removed and the gas tank unbolted and slid back several inches to reach the top shock mount. The bottom mount is readily accessible. New mounting bolts are provided, though no torque specs are given. Total installation time was about two hours for both shocks.
DETAILS
Thor Motorsports 2040 Gillespie Wy. El Cajon, CA 92020 800/369-1000 www.ohlins.com Price........ $1394
A Beautiful craftsmanship Dialed-in as delivered A Accurate installation instructions
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As adjusted from the factory, the shocks (with 10mm of preload, rebound click 18) feel excellent, whether riding solo or with a passenger, though both adjusters are easy to reach if you want to make a change. What you notice immediately is a superb fluidity of compliance over big dips and waves in the road as well as small, harsh bumps (bad railroad crossings never felt so good), but with an instantaneous resumption of composure and control. The same applies to bumpy corners, where the sense of uninterrupted traction and steady flow of throttle application are doubly appreciated.
Öhlins uses carefully calibrated shim stacks to control the “blow-off” phase of oil movement on big or harsh bumps and seems to have dialed in both its shim count and initial, low-speed valve jetting with great accuracy.
Overall, they feel perfect. It’s a lot of money for a shock upgrade, but the marked improvement in suspension control just might be worth the cost, especially if it’s time to replace those old shocks anyway.
