cannondale? ohlins

[paulos]

I'm reading different things on the net about these 46mm ohlins that were sold via cannondale. Does anyone here have any experience with them and know whether they were a good thing or not? Would they be an improvement over 2005 45mm marzochi forks?

Cheers

[Moto7man]

I have a friend who is semi retired Yamaha Kawasaki tech and he just showed me his kx500 race bike. He had installed a set of these online cannodale fork on this bike. He said they were the same quality forks and that during the cannondale sell off that there had been huge bins of these forks that were brand new being sold off cheap so he bought several sets.

[webmaster]

Cannondale was starting to offer a lower cost model with marzocchi 45mm forks towards the end of their production. So when they liquidated parts - both the marzocchi and the ohlins were sold off by the liquidator on e-bay. Then people bought them thinking they would bolt right up to a honda CR - and they didn't - so the price went even lower as these were sold off on e-bay.

I bought several sets of these to attach to XR250R trail bikes. Les @ LT-Racing has experience as a machinist as well as doing suspension tuning. He is my best friend - so he built one for me and one for himself. Details here :

http://www.lt-racing.com/html/xr250r_s.html

Specifically, Les says the following :

"We have both Marzocchi Shiver 45 mm forks or Ohlins 46 mm forks for the 2004 bikes, using this clamp set will also allow you to use the CR/CRF 47 mm Showa fork with the complete Honda front wheel etc. Which fork is better regarding the Ohlins or Marzocchi? Set up correctly, there actually is no real difference. There is no “magic” to an Ohlins fork at all, its all in the set up and that is the determining factor. The quality is pretty close to identical as well. But, the Ohlins does offer a lot of BLING."

So I have run both forks on the same bike - both revalved by Les. There is nothing in the design of the ohlins that will make them perform better than the marzocchi. Properly valved - the marzocchi open chamber fork works very, very well for off road riding.

jeff

[shang]

Very cool!

What's the purpose of the plastic strap running from the fork guard to the rear of the front fender?

[webmaster]

It is a guide for the speedo cable. Came up with that setup in the late 80s when we were running WP upside down forks on the bikes. Keeps the cable from getting caught by a branch and pulled out...

jeff

[bluespark]

Originally Posted by .

I bought several sets of these to attach to XR250R trail bikes. Les @ LT-Racing has experience as a machinist as well as doing suspension tuning. He is my best friend - so he built one for me and one for himself. Details here :

[URL

http://www.lt-racing.com/html/xr250r_s.html[/URL]



jeff

Great looking XR's. Can you tell me anything about the black tool bag bolted to the front fender of the 2004 XR?

[paulos]

Thanks for the info Jeff, much appreciated

[webmaster]

Originally Posted by bluespark

Great looking XR's. Can you tell me anything about the black tool bag bolted to the front fender of the 2004 XR?

You can find them advertised as a bag for carrying a tube on the front fender... That one is on Les' bike. He might have gotten it from pit posse in the U.S. I will ask him the next time we chat.

jeff

[bluespark]

Originally Posted by webmaster

You can find them advertised as a bag for carrying a tube on the front fender... That one is on Les' bike. He might have gotten it from pit posse in the U.S. I will ask him the next time we chat.

jeff

Ok, thanks. I didn't see anything on pit posse's website that bolts on like that, only the usual strap on style.