It's important to reiterate that these are not shocks that you just bolt on and go riding. Howard sets them up based on your bike and your weight, but the final adjustments are done by you.

Also remember that you have to set up the sag on these shocks, which means that your 13" shock is actually 12" when you're sitting on the bike.

 

Did a thousand miles this weekend out to Ohio. Rode the Triple Nickel and the Ohio Hydra. The wife and I loved the ride, but noticed that it wasn't so good at the end of the weekend.

Did the 30k this afternoon, and re-set the sag on the shocks. They definitely do "break-in" after about a thousand miles. We re-did our settings and went for a test ride. Huge improvement. If you haven't set your sag for both solo and 2-up riding you have no idea what you're missing.

 

Train,

Did you do the initial adjustment at 500 miles like Howard suggests? If so, did you notice a big difference from the initial setting?

 

I did it today at about 1,200 miles. Big, big difference. My wife and I spent the better part of an hour redoing our solo and 2-up settings. Anyone who thinks that their solo setting is fine for 2-up is nuts.

 

Really, you've had your shocks for all of 10 days and you think you got it all figured out well enough to claim that someone else's set up is wrong. If a 250 lb rider prefers a firm ride with a 105 lb passenger, do you think that the diference will be the same for a 180 lb rider that prefers a soft ride with a 160 lb passenger; point is too many variables to claim you know best for someone else, set yours up to suit yourself, and enjoy.

 

14 days and 1,500 miles with these shocks, 32 years of riding, 5 years of racing cars. Yes, I think I've got a handle on it.

If you think that your sag is going to be the same solo and 2-up, you're mistaken. You set sag at 1/3 of travel for a reason, and if you add a passenger or cargo to your bike, you're not at 1/3 sag. That means that you're losing piston stroke in compression. This has nothing to do with preferring a firm ride.

I don't care what you or your passenger weigh, if you're not set up properly, you're not getting your money's worth out of your shocks. This is why Howard has posted incredibly detailed installation instructions on his website, and why he offers to walk people through the process on the phone.

 

Oh, and for the record, I didn't call anyone's setup wrong. I said they're nuts for giving away suspension travel they paid for. The #3-3 and #3-4 shocks have a 77mm stroke. Rider sag is ideally 1/3 of stroke, or 25mm (we'll round for simplicity). At my solo setting, adding my 140 pound wife increased the sag from 25mm to 43mm. That's 18mm, or 23.4% of the available stroke, or a 35% reduction in the ideal stroke. That's huge. That also reduces your ground clearance. It makes no sense to me that someone would spend the money on premium shocks like these and not take the two minutes it requires to adjust them properly based on the load.

 

Another set of Howard's #3-3s here, just back home from a 2,750 mile trip to Hungary and Slovenia. I must revisit sag, so thanks for that tip!

As for buying Ohlins with or without the damping adjustment, the two versions are not the same. The #3 with adjusters have superior damping control compared with the #2s without. Don't buy #2s because you don't want to adjust damping, buy #3s to get better damping!

 

Just put #3-4 shocks on my Road King and even the initial run shows big improvement. Howard is great to work with and a freaking hoot.

 

First real ride today since I reset the sag. With the added preload and ride height, I was able to relax the sweep valve to smooth the ride out. Very nice being able to stiffen things up when I want to play, and smooth things out when I'm cruising. Still getting used to the bike sitting so high, but there are no negative effects of having the back end raised up. The bike corners like it's on a rail.