Resuspension of Tuono

[kirkmoon]

Just traded in an '02 Mille R on an '03 Tuono a few days ago and put 550 miles on the bike in the past two days. What a great bike!

Question about suspension, though. The stock suspension is quite firm and maybe even a little harsh, even when the compression adjustment is backed off. Seems like more of a race track set up than an ideal street set up. While this makes a lot of sense for a Mille, it seems less than perfect for the Tuono, which strikes me as being a street bike first and foremost.

My favorite kind of road is a twisty one (if you live in the Bay Area, think Stage Road, Mines Rd., Highway 1 from Mill Valley to Stinson, Skaggs Springs, etc.). Although I like high speed smoothies a lot, many of these roads are VERY tight and have bumpy road surfaces, and a stiff suspension doesn't work very well on this type of surface.

I have a BMW R1150GS with Ohlins front and rear and this bike is able to suck up the bumps on these roads like a vacuum cleaner with no muss or fuss. Bike feels very solid and predictable. Unfortunately, the bike weighs 600# and has an 80 horsepower engine, so it isn't the perfect bike by any means.

I would like to create a similar type of suspension on the Tuono. Looking for plush but precise. No wallowing, but able to suck up high speed bumps without transmitting them to the rider. This would be a poor track setup, but seems ideal to me for real world road riding, at least in my neck of the woods.

Question is: has anyone got a Tuono R or swapped out the suspension on their regular Tuono to Ohlins (full swap on the rear, internals or full on the front) and created this kind of a ride? Is it possible, or are the racing suspensions just too firm to work in this application? Is it possible to get plush and maintain precise on a high performance bike? Or does one need to choose?

Thanks in advance.

Kirk

[jeff 289]

my tuono fighter has all the suspension parts from a mille r haga rep. it's smoother over bumps than my other bike but i couldn't really compare it against a stock tuono since i had it built this way. it's smoother than the falco was. the front showa forks have a larger diameter than the ohlins, so the triple clamp won't fit. i had to have one made for me. but you can get the internals done, as you've said.

<img src="http://homepage.mac.com/jeffnee/.Pictures/tuono/tuono3.jpg" style="border:0;"/>

man, i gotta take some better pictures.

[kirkmoon]

Sweet setup. This is more or less exactly what I was thinking of. Do you mind my asking how much it cost to do this?

Kirk

[Kam]

Kirkmoon, I have a tuono R and an 02 mille R. I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for. With the standard tuono you get a great bike...Ohlin's makes it even better. I have an R1100 S with Ohlin's front and rear, and although the telelever design doesn't give great feedback, love the way that bike rides now. If you're big, you may need to upgrade. Problem is it's gonna be more expensive than the beemer which was just 2 shocks. I suspect since you've upgraded the GS you're question is already answered. PS I got mine from mredsmoto.com

[jeff 289]

i don't have a hard cost for it because the dealer built the bike for me and kept all the standard pieces. i think the forks and shock ended up being about $2k-$3k worth of stuff and the triple clamp was done separately. i'm not sure what he'd charge for that, but he already has the program for it since he did my bike and he'd probably be willing to run off a couple more for folks. from what i hear, redoing the internals of the showa is much more cost-efficient, but i also like the color (poser!) factor.

[BigGlen]

Isnt the stock boge shock a decent unit?

Does anyone know who on the east coast does Prilla showa fork rebuilds?

[kirkmoon]

Does anyone know what the outer diameter of the top of the Showa and Ohlins forks are? As I understand it, the internal diameter of the Ohlins is larger by 5 mm, but I believe that the Showa has a larger outer diameter at the top, and thus the need for the different top triple clamp.

Has anyone had a chance to compare the difference between a Showa fork with an Ohlins internal rebuild vs. the full Ohlins Road and Track forks. Does the larger internal diameter translate into better adjustability or ride? The cost differential is pretty huge ($500 vs. around $1500.) But that gold color fork is pretty nice looking (total poser!)

Jeff 286 - Can you tell me who made your custom top triple clamp? I am interested in putting the Ohlins forks up front and would like to find out how much he/she might charge for this special piece. Contact info would be much appreciated. Any chance you might be able to post a pic of the triple clamp?

Thanks very much to all.

Kirk

[motoworks]

the best deal around by far is to revalve the stock showa forks with ohlins superbike internals.

scuderia west in san francisco will replace the stock internals with the kits for around $500 i think.

the stock showa forks are ok but the valving isnt great, its a lot cheaper than buying the ohlins and will work just as well.

out back go for an ohlins or a penske tripple adjuster.

all depends on how much gold you want on the bike, i like the look of a stock bikes that will perform lke the $$$ ohlins, that way you buddies can beleive that you are going so fast on a 'stock' setup.

you can ship your forks to scuderia west and they can be done in about a week.

call don and tell him clarkie sent you!