Triple clamp ??

[Leon_gasgas]

I changed myself the oil more than 5 times and never had any problem to bleed the cartridge without any tool. Just pulled the rods up and let them go down themselves sometimes. With the 17mm + 13mm hex you can do a compression revalve in 30min. I never touched the rebound valving and still I transformed them to a very good level (with the help of KTM-Lew for an one stage stack). Imagine what can still happen if one who knows and has the additional tools checks the rebound as well. Also, in 220 hours of use they required one seal cleaning. They leaked only when the seals got dirty and never again when I simply cleaned them with a seal mate.

I don't say the other forks are bad. I just got tired of reading about how bad these forks are... and in reality they are great and can be transformed easily to whatever you like.

Glenn, I am not going against you. I just wanted to mention that these forks are actually top quality and they are waiting for just one respringing and revalving.

[GMP]

On most forks, air trapped in the top of the cartridge escapes from the damper rod/bushing clearance. On the Ohlins(my Ohlins) this was much tighter and not the case. I was able to do it but it took a very long time for each fork. Les has a tool for this, as a professional he can't take so much time for a simple operation. I don't think your forks are the norm, if they were the tools would not exist. Maybe that bushing is worn?

[Leon_gasgas]

I don't know if my forks were the norm or if I did 100% correctly the bleeding. I just know that they were already from the 2nd compression revalving much better than the oem magnum 45 of '98 and they were overall better than the 07 oem marzocchi (I tried it for 2 months but I went back to Ohlins) able to be much safer when the speeds passed 30km/hr. Pretty good for a design of 1999, DIY revalving and probably not correct bleeding procedure.

[widebear]

I like my Ohlins as well ,but I'm not crazy about the service interval's on them as compared to a simpler fork like wp43, When my ohlins reach 30 hr's I have them serviced for fear of doing internal damage. If you've seen what the oil looks like after 30 hours you will know where I'm coming from.

[Leon_gasgas]

I was changing the oil every max 25 hours. Sometimes it was very clean, sometimes not so clean. The worst was with Motorex oils. It was cleanest with Öhlins 5W or Motul racing 5w. The worst oil I have seen was from the marzocchi magnum 45 even after 10 hours of use (I remember that the internals of this fork were not anodised causing this kind of contamination to the oil).

I am not writting here to argue with anybody. I just wrote about my personal experience with this cannondale Ohlins fork which made me just buy an EC250 2007 with the Ohlins 48EXF fork. If that fork was bad, believe me, I wouldn't go again with Ohlins.

[widebear]

Leon I'm glad you posted your observations, I guess I have to re think my theory. Ive only used the Ohlins oil in my forks and it allways comes out looking like used diesel motor oil, I thought that maybee the Ohlins oil had more detergent in it? The guy who does my forks has my oil samples on display just to frighten his clients into the , look what happens when you dont scenerio,So maybee it's heat and the type of fork action being used thats causing these results?

[GMP]

My Ohlins oil came out very clean, and the internals appeared to be the highest quality, no argument there. Its just that if you blow a seal before an important ride or race its not as easy a fix. It has happened to me with the Ohlins. Zoke Shivers or WPs can be rebuilt in less than an hour with basic tools, been there as well. I like to do as much of my own work as possible.

widebear,

Could your forks have been misaligned or T-clamps too tight causing friction, wear, and dirty oil?

[widebear]

Glenn . I guess thats possible but doubtfull .Still on original bushings after 3 years and I've had the forks on and off a couple of bikes a few times. We ride alot here and a three hour plus ride is the norm.Condensation maybee? fork oil really hot , ambient temp + duty cycle+ creek crossings, I dont know?

[richo]

hmmmm.... lots of good info - but not sure what to do now...!

I probably need to service mine and play around with them a bit more before I get too serious about doing a conversion I think.

[Loosenut]

I love my Ohlins forks. I don't care if they are more difficult to work on, or that you need special tools. They work so well, that I will over-look the extra work they require. We do it for the difficult to grease linkage. (compared to other brands)

I added the High/Low compression base valve to mine and I can go from a rock set up to slamming desert whoops with minimal tweaking of the suspension adjusters. The people at Ohlins USA are very helpful.

Part of the reason for me keeping my old 2000 EC300 is to have a spare bike.