Ohlins, OMG!!

Regie · Postby **Regie** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:03 pm

ksharp wrote:Bit the bullet and bought the Ohlins, eagerly awaiting shipment

you won't regret it!. What was the damage shipped to you?

ksharp · Postby **ksharp** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:13 am

Not sure yet, will find out soon.

Since GWR doesn't ship to Aus, I ended up having to use a forwarding company (Shipito) so the Ohlins is currently making its way to Nevada.

The set costs $2.2k w/ free shipping from GWR (no patience for AUD to go up), will see how much shipping is to Aus from Nevada!

Psyched!

Regie · Postby **Regie** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:15 am

ahh nice

Chris at Targa racing is now an agent for GWR. He gets containers of GWR goodies shipped to the central coast now

jassi · Postby **jassi** » Sun Mar 15, 2015 9:17 pm

Bumping an old thread. But some really interesting reading here and I'm thinking of the go big or nothing idea. While I'd love to be doing track days, the reality is my mx5 is at the moment 99% daily driver and I want it to be fun. But instead of spending a 1000$ on say a progress/koni combo, I'm thinking if Ohlins would make a fun car. So does anyone know how much Ohlins cost these days locally given the aud is down. I could pickup from gwr on one of my US trips but unsure on warranty. Also are Ohlins by themselves enough or would I still need front rear sways and better Bumpstops. Also what is the range of heights compared to stock you can get to and how easy is it to change the settings. Don't want to go too low and scrape speed bumps. Lastly are there any good installers in vic and how much would it cost to get these on. Thanks for the guidance

Regie · Postby **Regie** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 12:09 am

A mate is getting some ohlins from the Australian distributer. It was around the $2700 mark for a set.

Sailor · Postby **Sailor** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 8:42 am

Warranty on a self imported set is a problem as they need to be returned to the country of purchase for warranty.
As for adjustment. Mine it's simple. undo one locknut and rotate the whole upper part of the unit then lock up again. Preload is not changed.
Mine are on a daily and while on the highest end of the adjustment with std preload, I'm about 25mm lower than OEM and don't scrape over anything normal..it will go much lower.
Ohlins bumpstops are just fine and you'd be better to try std bars first before you upgrade.
Can't help with an installer but the work to install is pretty basic, plenty of help online..just a little fiddly in the rear.

jassi · Postby **jassi** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 9:04 am

Thanks for the insights Regie & Sailor. The reason I'm thinking from a cost perspective is because progress springs (180usd) + koni (600usd) itself is 780 usd which is around 1000aud. Add some sways for 500aud, Fcm bumptops for 200 aud and adjustable end links for another 300 aud and I'm bordering at 2000aud already. If the Ohlins are available locally for 2700 aud and I can stick to stock sways then I'd rather spend the extra 700 and go down that path! Also I was thinking of buying from Goodwin for 1975usd on one of my US trips, but that translates to roughly 2700aud anyway and I still have to deal with customs and will have warranty trouble. Have emailed Steve Cramer for stock and price! will start saving up

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 10:37 am

Regarding preload and base height adjustment these are very good reads.

Why preloading springs is OK and doesn't change car handling
http://www.mcasuspension.com/infosheets/spring_preload.pdf

Why adjusting ride height via base height adjustment is bad in words
http://www.mcasuspension.com/infosheets/baseheight_words.pdf

Why adjusting ride height via base height is bad in pictures
http://www.mcasuspension.com/infosheets/baseheight_pics.pdf

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 12:41 pm

sailaholic wrote:Why adjusting ride height via base height is bad in pictures
http://www.mcasuspension.com/infosheets/baseheight_pics.pdf

The pics there remind me of a thread of Clubroadster where they were all rubbing themselves over some expensive JDM coilover.

According to them it maintained more travel than OEM, which meant it still felt comfy. (so far not too out there)

Then then said the design meant that even when wound right down to "slammed" height it would still have something like 3inches of travel, and would therefore still be comfy.

When somebody mentioned that having about 80mm of suspension travel on a car that's sitting 30mm from the ground won't help at all the OP told them they were stupid and had no idea how suspension worked.

SO yeah, according to them travel is everything.... even if the the sump has burrowed 2inches underground before you hit the bumpstops.

sailaholic · Postby **sailaholic** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:33 pm

I get what your saying. Travel runs out when something touches something else it shouldn't. Dump to ground, wheel to guard. Shock casing to bump stop.

Having said that. I can't see any snake oil in what they bare saying. Seems to make sense to me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:49 pm

sailaholic wrote:I get what your saying. Travel runs out when something touches something else it shouldn't. Dump to ground, wheel to guard. Shock casing to bump stop.

Having said that. I can't see any snake oil in what they bare saying. Seems to make sense to me.

Basically the bump stops are there for a reason, to limit travel to prevent things like wheels bashing guards, or the sump smashing the ground.

The guys on that thread were saying the travel = comfort (so far fine)
But the refused to actually think about what happens when the car hits something solid and can't actually use the travel (ie: having 2inches of travel left is no use, and won't help comfort, when the floorpan is flat on the ground)

Sailor · Postby **Sailor** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 4:16 pm

The critical word is "too" too far in and too far out.

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:59 pm

hks_kansei wrote:Basically the bump stops are there for a reason, to limit travel to prevent things like wheels bashing guards, or the sump smashing the ground.

Bump stops are part of the damping - you can tune your bump stops, if you plan on using them (as opposed to using them to stop the bottoming). I have just changed the bump stops in the rear of the race car for this reason.

:mrgreen:

Charlie Brown · Postby **Charlie Brown** » Sun Mar 22, 2015 8:53 am

greenMachine wrote:
hks_kansei wrote:Basically the bump stops are there for a reason, to limit travel to prevent things like wheels bashing guards, or the sump smashing the ground.

Bump stops are part of the damping - you can tune your bump stops, if you plan on using them (as opposed to using them to stop the bottoming). I have just changed the bump stops in the rear of the race car for this reason.

Correct.

Bump stops are used for more than just stopping the shock's piston at the end of its travel smashing through the top of the casing. They also act like a mini progressive rate spring.

hks _kansei - To find out more, have a look at the Fat Cat Motorsport site.

OurCognitiveSurplus · Postby **OurCognitiveSurplus** » Mon Apr 13, 2015 10:58 am

Does anyone have any hints about how many kms/years you can run these before they need re-valving? I've only had them in for about 10,000km so far. I'm just wonder whether it's more like a 50k job or a 100k+ job.