2007 Ohlins fork EC250 valving

[Leon_gasgas]

Hi!

I just broke in my new 07 EC250 with Ohlins front and back after my previous 07 was stolen. Has anybody tried to revalve the Ohlins fork (48 EXF) to work better in the tight woods and rocks? Right now (only 4 hours on it) it is punishing me on the rocks. Soon I will change the oil and at the same time I will try the first revalving. I had good results revalving myself (with great help from KTM-Lew) an Ohlins 46. I just wanted to ask first here if somebody has experience with this newer fork so I could save time from testing.

Thank you!

Leon

[SpeedyManiac]

I'd send it to Les if you want a revalve. Personally, I added stiffer fork springs (I think they're .43s, shock spring is a 5.6), left the valving stock and am extremely happy with the suspension.

[barkeater]

I agree. LTR is the solution. Send him the forks, riding terrain and your weight (don't lie) and he'll send back forks made in heaven.

[GMP]

Only problem is he is in Sweden.

[barkeater]

[Leon_gasgas]

Thank you for the replies! Actualy I live in Finland so Les is a bit faraway. I'll give it a try myself as it is very easy to check the valves. I just hoped if somebody has a baseline with it.

Should I go with bleed shims as per Marzocchi which is magic for the woods and rocks I am driving in, or with smaller pivot shim and larger taper stack (1 stage) as per KTM-Lew for the 46 which worked great as well?

The shock is nice and soft (I am trying to follow the recomendations from the other post about preload... Thanks!) and I haven't noticed any disadvantage compared to the Sachs even though it's missing the high speed adjustability. I haven't touched it yet and it seems ok for my weight and ability.

Best Regards,

Leon

[rippn450]

Leon I'd check things like fork oil level in both legs and that the shims match on each side. More than one has come from the factory that weren't assemble properly.

would you mind posting or pm'ing me on how you shimmed your 46's. I have a set that are good in the slow stuff but tend to be a little too soft at race pace. I'm not sure if I should change the mid valve or put more high speed dampening in the base valve.

Thanks

[Leon_gasgas]

Thank you for your replies!

From your answer and Les (through pm) it seems that the oil height might be incorrect. Actually the fork behaves like my old 46 when by mistake I put too much oil in it (something like 5 cm air gap in one and 7 in the other). I will try the minimum (130mm) air gap and let you know.

The 46 had at the beggining:

3 * 20mm - 0.1
14 - 0.1
18 - 0.1
16
14
12 - 0.2

and finally I was very happy with:

3 * 20 - 0.1
18 - 0.1
16 - 0.1
13 - 0.1
10 - 0.2.

air gap 110mm. I didn't touch anything else. Only the base valve.

Leon

[rippn450]

Thanks, if it feels to harsh at 130mm raise it 5mm at a time until it feels better. If that doen't work then valving will be in order.

[Leon_gasgas]

Hi!

Waiting for the Ohlins tools (fork cap and base valve...) so I took the bike to the local MX track which was frozen at 0 C. Full of small hard ruts, small bumbs, very hard medium size braking whoops, etc. Idea was to see if extra time on the forks (only 4 hrs on them before this practice) with some intensional bottoming would help them break in faster and get looser. I think it helped a lot this 1 hr + practice. They bottomed smoothly on flat landings and it felt that they were using almost full travel on the braking bumbs.

Compression was at 16 out (Ohlins manual recommends 14) and rebound at 14 (as in the manual). I hope they still get softer because in the technical woods, with heavier and harder spiked tires (for this session I put back the oem michelins. I had trelleborg winter tires which make suspension set up really hard work), it is much different. Taking it easy for the first 5-10 minutes I didn't get arm pump during the whole practice even though I was holding too tight from the bars because of the strange surface. I think the forks will be OK soon. Only for winter tires it seems that I will have to make them softer.

I will let you know how it goes!

Thank you,

Leon