Ohlins
 

Anyone running them here. I've been thinking about them, there are only a few people that have them, and wanted more feedback before I took the plunge.

the shitty part about expensive suspension is getting replacements and revalving. I was ready to buy tein but I quickly realized that if I screwed one up or needed revalving, that I was screwed. If you're going to spend big money on dampers, I'd go above and beyond with like moton, and ground control perches. That way if you need them services or you put one into a curve, you're only out for one unit, and not all 4...because I had a total of 7 H&R coilovers when I had the VW, when I blew one. Nothing like paying $1700 for one shock.

Hustler,with Ohilins suspension you can go to any Ohlins dealer and get parts and have them service it,so basically any motorcycle perfomance parts dealer can do it.

What spike says is completely true and its not as expensive as you think. Recommended every 20k miles also. I've got the Ohlins DFV's and wrote a review on them posted here:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread...ght=ohlins+DFV

They are well worth the money. Doppleganger and Virus also have them here.

Thanks for the link. It was a pretty good read. Did you notice any dings in DFV version after running them for a while?

I've been down this road, and good luck with that. I've tried this before and its not as easy as it sounds. They have to order parts which aren't cheap, then charge you $200 in labor.

i see dampers as a wear item, and I'm not rich. I blew up a shock a few months ago from a pot-hole.

How do these Ohlins compare to Bilsteins or the cheaper KYBs?

Nobody on here is rich,that's why we all drive miatas and not Ferrari's.

If parts+$200 labour is what it costs to repair a high end coilover,then that's what it costs,there's no way around it.If the high cost of repair/maintaning them is too much,then I suggest a more economic route to suspension.

No, there haven't been any dings on them and have been daily driven on rough roads since installed.

As for coparing them to the KYB's and Bilsteins:

KYB's (my previous shocks) cheap, last around 3-5 years or 30k miles on mild springs around 300lbs. Wouldn't go higher. Ride rough.

Bilsteins, praised by the old generation, last damn near forever 100k betwen rebuilds. Can be revalved for whatever spring rates you want, but also ride rough

Ohlins, pricey, can be rebuilt at any motorcycle performance shop, can be revalved to any spring rate desired, superior damping to the bilsteins, and ride more comfortable on the streets than any setup I have driven on same tires Falken RT-615's (for consistency)
Also most sexy of them all.

I'm a cheap fuck, but don't forget that a budget set-up like mine with corner weighting will crush just about anything you can buy. I've had the accelerometer in the car to prove it.

bilsteins + FCM mounts + fcm bumpstops + GC/FCM sleeves = best bang for the buck available.

I plan to get bilsteins and GC/FCM sleeves with "moderate spring rates" until my budgest allows for the mounts, revalve, and much stiffer springs. Two stage install.

:hustler::giggle: You setup may perform pretty good, but you can't say its the best. Have you even driven a car w/ Teins, JIC's, or Ohlins?

what kind of crack are you smoking? if you screw up one of the motons, youre more fucked than if you blew a tein shock. tein will overhaul shocks for a hundred bucks a piece where as i dont even want to know how much Moton charges to overhaul their stuff. as for the comment about moton and ground control perches? dude, moton shocks give you the option of having a threaded body. you dont need GC perches.. haha :noob:

Wat! :fawk: Nice first post w/o an introduction even..... Not that I'm not with ya, I would much rather rebuild my Teins as well. Their revalve price direct from Tein was the whole reason for my purchase.

I'm smoking the crack you're mother gave me after feeding her my 12" cock of death. I've seen two sets of motons with non-moton perches. One was a tube framed c5, the other was an evo. I never claimed to be the suspension god, only commented from experience though a few billion track days.


I've driven a miata with teins, and I didn't need charmin, probably because it wasn't corner weighted. I'm not going to put suspension that expensive on a car that sees the street, because I'm not going to buy another set to get 1 shock when the inevitable happens.

I know my budget set-up is shit, but I've never wished I had something else on the track, and the accelerometer doesn't lie.

where did I say they were the best? fuckface

[QUOTE=hustler;287131]

I'm not going to put suspension that expensive on a car that sees the street, because I'm not going to buy another set to get 1 shock when the inevitable happens.
QUOTE]

I got ya.... I thought you were stating that we would have to purchase new vs. rebuilding. But, yes, if I destroy one.....then to replace may mean purchasing a new set. Luckily, I kept my old SPAX adjustables just in case, to hold me over if need be. Besides, I'm a cheap bastard too, and I picked mine up from John. No way would I have paid full price for the Flexes at the moment.......

Fuck that.

Total - $735.30* shipped to your door

+ 200 for shortening, etc, blah blah.

And you are at least 1500$ in for a shock that isn't even damping adjustable.

If you are EVER planning to revalve, buying the bilstein setup does NOT make sense, go straight to Flex.

So saying that, isn't saying its the best? :jerkit:

For having all that "experience", you say a lot of stupid shit, Hustler. My RACEs will perform better on track, handle higher spring rates, and ride smoother on the street than your Bilsteins ever will. They're also revalvable at a cost of around $125 a shock. And even if you do totally fuck one by throwing your car into a curb and bending the shit out of it, you can buy them in pairs, not in sets of 4.

Your e-thugging is a nice comic relief to the forum, but perhaps you should stay away from the technical advice?

how many people actually corner the car?

I suppose they will, if you properly set them up. When I cornered my car, it transformed into something unreal. The only real technical data is what I have from a day at the track with some instruments, with my set-up and a guy with spec miata suspension. I'd love to actually get together with some people and see what what kinds of #'s can be generated with the high dollar suspensions, and where it compares to my trailer trash set-up. I'm also weary of my suspension's ability to handle 225 r-comps. I fear a revalve may be in my future, with higher spring rates. I don't think 450/375 will be able to handle that much tire.

Around here, most people just buy $2k suspension, bolt them on the car, and clown on poor people who don't have green shocks.

Not clownin here. I've been wanting to get my Ohlins corner weighted since I installed them. I just barely found a Spec Miata guy here that has scales. Corner weighting isn't big out here in vegas.

I guess if I made more money, I'd spend more on suspension...but I'd really like to see how many more lat-g's the high dollar shit will hold over my budget set-up.

And I guess if I made more money, I'd have an engine setup like yours. :)
It's just priorities at that level. ;)
Edit* Waits patiently for Hustler's daily delt smash *

Lateral Gs aren't king, bud. A car that pushes like a motherfucker will return stupid-high skidpad figures. You need to look at overall laptimes, steering feel, response, ride quality, etc.

so the car should be drivable when comparing performance? Holy shit!!!!

does this help? I like my FLEX better than the Advance Designs I had before. Overall at least. I do miss the firmness of the monotubes though.

hustle errr, why not get some of the FM AFCOs and be all set?
http://www.flyinmiata.com/index.php?...6200++STANDARD

you could probably rebuild them yourself.

I had Flex for a while, and didn't like them, because at least the rears were simply too short. They worked on track after I put about 30-35mm preload on the rears. But they sucked on the highway.

The Koni race shocks seem too short as well, according to what I've heard. I haven't gotten a chance to get up close and personal with them.

The best setup I've seen so far is custom-valved Koni sports (damping similar to race) with custom NB-based upper mounts that pull the shock shaft way up and hold it in a spherical bearing. Kinda similar to FM's rears. Tons of travel and great damping. Combined with 550/350 springs (GC-style perches and I think hypercoil springs).

-Mike

yes, the flex are limited for rear stroke. I think that's one reason the FM AFCO setup is very good. They dont limit rear travel by including adjustable shock length. Adjustable shock length is unnecessary if you consider that the car can be lowered to tires rubbing fenders and have 7 inches of droop travel without using shorter shocks.

yeah, I have no shame in admitting I have a stiffy for those. They're simple enough that I could set them up too. I doubt they'd sell me just one if I needed it though, and I'd like to know how much a revalve runs. I might consider them if I could get $600 for my current set-up.

dude, you call up AFCO and tell THEM you need one. I'm sure they'd hook you up. Hell, call them now and ask if they'd do that.

I'm not trying to buy suspension right now though.

The problem with Ohlins DFV is that the rear shock shaft travel is even shorter than Tein's. PCV's shorter still.

The problem with AFCO's is that they are twin tube with more hysteresis (non ideal behaviour, transient loss of damping) than Tein, though this is not such a huge deal. They also cannnot achieve what I consider proper levels of bump damping ... because they are twin tube.

The 2way adjustability of AFCOs are nice, but the damping curves of FCM are better than AFCO IMO - look at the reviews that stated the FCM's rode better - it's a neat thing that when a shock rides better on bumps than another with similar spring rates, the traction's better too.

Matt, the "firmness of the monotube" of your AD's that you miss is not from its being a monotube, it's from the low speed damping. It's a bit of a paradox that firm low speed damping makes the initial part of turn-in feel sharper, but it also has detrimental effects... it's all a compromise. Tein's soft low speed damping is why it feels like it's "gliding" over small undulations, and why it has quick "snick snick" settling.

Hey Savington, will you tell them about the time you tried to follow me on Stage Rd with your R tires and uberstiff suspension, and me on my street tires and 330/280 springs? ;)

Wheres your proof:jerkit:. The Ohlins shock travel, especailly in the rear, is good.

Did you take an actual ruler or caliper to it? ;)

There was a post in MF with actual DFV measurements. I think it was emilio who did it, and it was less than the Teins.

On the PCV, I had a set in my hands and I was shocked with the actual measurements. Even Keith @FM commented on the effect of the short travel on the PCV's.

I have DFV's on my 99 10AE and love them.
Thats all...

I was airborne half the time, but that road has potholes I could trip into. On a flat, smooth autocross course, given the same tires, I bet my car would stomp yours. ;) Hell, I even got Bob to agree with me last week that my car's transitional response cannot be matched by a softer setup.

And I'll bet my setup will lose less speed in autox than your setup will lose on roads like Stage. ;)

I'll gladly sacrifice performance on roads I wouldn't want to drive down in a Rolls Royce to gain performance on the other 99.9% of roads I drive on, including smooth racetracks and concrete runways. :)

Ohlins DFV
F 96mm
R 76mm

PCV
F 84mm
R 84mm

Tein Flex
F 93mm
R 89mm

Tein Monoflex
F 98mm
R 81mm

JIC A2
F 85mm
R 93mm

Koni Race
F 85mm
R 72mm !

and just for laughs..

Stance GR+ and GR+ AL
F 104mm
R 76mm

http://depletedcranium.com/pwned111za6.jpg
:giggle:

anyone here have info on running higher than standerd 8/6 rates ?

Ohlins are well worth the extra money. Even if you have the money for Tein, wait till you can afford Ohlins. Its the damper that makes a car. I've experienced enough Japanese dampers that are more marketing than R&D. They will pretty much save precious time off those lap times and be more comfortable for daily. Way more responsive to road conditions (ohlin pcv= sub valve for faster reactions on compression / ohlin= DFV has sub valves on bump/rebound)
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back to class i pay attention
ron

that m3 is bad ass.


Nice to have some educated suspension crew here.

I'm on the fence between an FCM setup and the Ohlins. FWIW the guys at Performance Shock are steering me away from Ohlins. The lighter seals in the Ohlins means better performance on track, but are much more delicate and definitely not ideal for a DD. These are definitely not like Bilstiens that can go 100k mi without a rebuild. He quoted me $95+parts/shock for the yearly maintenance (basically an oil change) and $180+parts/shock for a rebuild. Add that to the cost of realigning and cornerweighting, it adds up quick.

OTOH they are much lighter and oooh soo sexy...

Depends on your perspective on a rebuild. If you daily your vehicle, they all put wear and tear on your damper. Its not to be associated with dampers being blown. You have to remember that Dampers are a wear and tear item so they will slowly degrade in performance. Top manufactures Ohlins, Penske, Bilstein, Koni recommend getting them reconditioned to maintain them in spec condition.

Interesting that Bruce would steer you away from the Ohlins

this is why I have bilstein/GC. I don't really want to drop money on TEIN revalves every couple years.

shock travel is for pussies :hustler:

Spoken like a former karter. We don't stinkin 'spenshn

All I have to say is that if you want comfort, stay away from the Koni Races...if you want something that is easy to drive fast on the track, look at koni races...Oh and relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things...

can you order single shocks from tein?

Building a fleet of track miatas to go play with cali hpde guys!
ordered the last sets of ohlin pcv's


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Red miata cost me $800 =) ; black one $2000 for 1.8
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Some assembly required
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coming together
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Working on the engine next. Got a couple of CA18det from early nissan 180sx's. Trying to adapt Miata tranny's it.
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Nice there Ron. Hope you enjoy your Ohlins as much as I do.

go flex instead

Why...:jerkit: