HP2 Ohlins cartridge from Fast Bike Industries

[JohnTz]

They look great. I am VERY interested how the install goes and your ride report. I will be next to get a set if these work out well for you. Thanks for sharing.

[configurationspace]

Finally got back from travelling and am taking this installation more seriously. I've never done anything like this... so I'm being fairly cautious. Where to begin?

First off these new internals are not Ohlins. They're made by Andreani, as you can see by the inside of the box. Earlier I thought they were made by Ohlins and that confusion seems to have propagated this far into the thread.



Next, put suspend the bike so there's no load on the front wheel. Remove wheel.



Rather than let the front brake hang, we'll tie it off.



At this stage the front forks unbolt and slide off...



Then take them inside, lay them on your carpet, clean them and stare at them...



It's around this time I notice what everyone else has noticed. The right fork leg acts like a proper shock. The left fork leg has a spring in it, but no damping.

Also noticed the front brake caliper was put on with blue loctite. That scared me a little when taking it off. My previous bike (1150GS) never had loctite on the caliper bolts.

[configurationspace]

For a little while the steps go like in the Marzocchi manual:



You unscrew the top, push the spring down and then you can completely unscrew the top and remove it. If you don't know what you're doing (like me!) and have the fork leg too far extended or if it's not in its vertical orientation, you'll spill oil all over the place at this step. Keep the fork leg compressed and keep it upright.

Then I get to this bolt on the bottom of the left fork leg. How do you get it off? This will ultimately be replaced by the new damping unit... but it's not clear how I can get it off. I keep on turning it CCW, and it rotates in place.



My impression is once this is off, the main fork leg and slider will separate.

[NSFW]

interested to see the outcome.

thanks and hoping everything goes well

[hillbillypolack]

Andreani????

Is that a concern? I thought these were supposed to be Ohlins. Inquiring minds would like to know why these weren't made in Sweden.

[configurationspace]

Figured out why that bolt wasn't coming out. I've been reading the Marzocchi manual when I should have been reading the BMW manual. The bolt is connected to the damper tube. Looking down the tube you can see a big hex end. Here's a picture of it:



BMW has a special tool to grasp that bit. So far everything has been easy-peasy in terms of torque so I figure I only need a little leverage to hold that bit in place... Letsee what I can do.

Originally Posted by hillbillypolack

Andreani????

Is that a concern? I thought these were supposed to be Ohlins. Inquiring minds would like to know why these weren't made in Sweden.

I've never met a Swede name Andreani. No concerns here. I'd just like to get this done before tomorrow night!

[configurationspace]

Heh! CS defeats the BMW special tool.

All the torques so far have been pretty mild, so I went on a hunch and shoved a fat zip tie down the tube. That was enough to hold the hex part in place.

Voila.



Once the hex bit is undone, the internals slide out and you have a hollow tube:

[configurationspace]

The right fork is similar, except this is the one with the damper unit on the bottom, a "proper" fork. We will re-use the damper from this fork with the new internals.

In short, first unscrew the top cap:



Push the spring down, attach the two wrenches and unscrew the top cap completely.



Then apply the same zip-tie trick and unbolt the damper.



On the right is the old damper, on the left is the new replacement damper. The old damper needs to have its washers adjusted to match the new one. That's what the little pile of washers on the left is for.

[configurationspace]

New units in the foreground (sans springs), old units in the background, with springs. From this perspective it sure looks like Adreani is the original fork manufacturer for the HP2. Anyone know if that's true? Or is Adreani just another name for Marzocchi?

And here are the two units with springs, side by side.



If I was to guess I'd say the FastBike internals modify the BMW HP2 "light" version of the "Marzocchi Shivers" to *actual* Marzocchi Shivers. I'll ask David if that's what's going on.

Oh, and the springs are on the wrong side of the cartridges in those photos...

[GSMarc]

Originally Posted by configurationspace

If I was to guess I'd say the FastBike internals modify the BMW HP2 "light" version of the "Marzocchi Shivers" to *actual* Marzocchi Shivers.

I think it's right, see post #23 here

http://www.quellidellelica.com/vbfor...d.php?t=349123

seems that the upgrade is not famous, see post # 36, last sentence

Some installs Ohlins TTX material but you must also buy the springs:

Cartridge Kit FGHO 1094 shall be used together with
Öhlins Front Fork Springs part no. 08775-xx.
For rate recommendations, see Owner’s Manual/ General Mounting Instructions.

http://www.andreanigroup.com/it/shop...9&reparto=moto

[configurationspace]

FYI, the springs David at Fastbike Industries provided are a 5.0kg/mm linear response rate spring. He offers a range of options and I went with a fairly typical setup.

The stock springs BMW provides are about a 4.5kg/mm spring although I don't know if they're linear response.

[configurationspace]

Next step, reconfigure the old damper for the new set-up. This amounts to unbolting the top, and replacing the shim stack. The OEM damper has six shims on it, and David's shim stack seems to be intended as just a replacement of that stack rather than an adding-on-to.



This is just after sliding the new shim stack on the old damper. You can see the top of the damper (end of the threads) is a little chipped and deformed. It looks to me like this might have been overtorqued at some point? I should probably replace that unit the next time I change the oil on the shocks.

Now the two units are essentially the same.

[JohnTz]

Originally Posted by hillbillypolack

Andreani????

Is that a concern? I thought these were supposed to be Ohlins. Inquiring minds would like to know why these weren't made in Sweden.

The fact that they are not Ohlins explains the price difference. Those Ohlins cartridges are sweet but expensive buggers.

[configurationspace]

Putting them back together is much like taking them apart. The Marzocchi torque specs are a little tricky to read as they use different terminology for the objects when torquing them from the names used in the figures or elsewhere in the manual... and torquing appropriately without the proper locking tools is further akward, primarily the base valve. I'll wait to torque the top caps properly until the forks are mounted on the bike and I'll double-check the torque on the base valve later once the bike is operational again -- use the trick of tying-down the bike, compressing the forks to create the needed lock.

Clean the hole, and place the valve in...



You then slide the internals in the tube. In my case, I had a little trouble. You can see in the photo below, the holes at the top of the tube have a little "lip" on them -- some kind of manufacturing process left-over. This wouldn't let the cartridge slide in. So I rounded off the lip.



Here's what it looks like stuck:



Fill with oil. I used little paper strips to check the oil level. They want the oil level to be 9cm from the top of the tube.

Torque appropriately...



And pop the top on.

[configurationspace]

Woot! Everything is torqued appropriately and back on the bike... I have no surprising spare parts, and I took about 8 times as long as a professional.



But I feel good.



I've got all the preload settings 15 below max. Time for a test ride, finally.