for the price point . Looking at the forks , he says , “ Ohlins Road and Track forks are not the same . Aprilia ’ s spec has cheaper internals . It ’ s not just them , Triumph and the other manufacturers do the same . The Ohlins version has better pistons , lighter rods etc . The accountants basically determine what ’ s inside ; so Triumph ’ s Ohlins are likely to be different inside than Aprilia ’ s .” The Ohlins fork internals in my Aprilia turn out to be kind of mid-range Ohlins . Good in their day compared to most OE suspension at the time , but far superseded today . Dennis and Robert chat about what they used to do back in
the early 2000s to make them work well . Robert continues , “ These have got the big port pistons , which is good , but the compression valving spec is ridiculous - very heavy on the high speed side . And it only has a check valve for the low speed compression , so it blows through the travel on the brakes .” Just as when I was here for the DR650 suspension work a few years ago , Dennis Shaw is put in charge of sorting the Ohlins forks . He ’ s been working on suspension since the 70s and it shows . His work is calm and precise – just what suspension demands . Dennis removes the end
Ohlins forks being tested on the shock dyno
Fork spring being tested to check its true rate
The Ohlins datasheet details the exact spec of the forks
KIWI RIDER 29