Ohlins Rear Shock TTX Mark 2 KA039 Kawasaki ZX6R 2009-2012

[Fossi]

Hi,

Did a trackday recently and saw a few zx6r 2010 using this Ohlins rear shock. Priced them at $1250.00..! are they really that good..? that's a lot of coin.

Any feedback would be good.

Thanks

[fireyrob]

How quick are u going and is it a track only bike?

[born green]

Hi,

Did a trackday recently and saw a few zx6r 2010 using this Ohlins rear shock. Priced them at $1250.00..! are they really that good..? that's a lot of coin.

Any feedback would be good.

Thanks

Yer they are.. but a few things, as firey said, how fast are u going?
On my 10 i ran a very reworked OEM shock, was fine, for my speed at broady and prob a bit quicker.
The offer of a new in the box TTX came up, so i bought it, only because i wanted to play with one.
But then u need to spend half that or more again to get it setup for u, and to work the way it is meant to, the spring it comes with will prob be to soft, prob a 9kg spring. then revalved, and shimed for ur weight and speed ect.... its not cheap... so u need to ask urself... how fast do i want to go, and how often am i really going to go to the track???

But thats prob a ok price, when i first looked into one for my 10 in 07, they were $2,500.

[Jonnymac]

For less than that amount of money, you can get your front and rear revalved, resprung and set up for you.
You'll still have change to have your steering damper sorted as well.

In my opinion unless your within 3% of the track record ,obviously on your equivalent bike prob super stock in your case it's not worth it.

[EDU]

I had the rear shock revalved and etc on my bike and it really is better! I never had a bike with an Ohlins rear shock so I can't compare. But even my re-worked unit required more than a couple of days to get to a setup I'm comfortable with and I still think there's room for improvement.

One thing to consider is longevity. A re-worked OEM shock will not perform as good for as long as the Ohlins shock will and therefore will require more maintenance.

If I had the cash, I would have gotten the Ohlins. Less maintenance and I would know that I had the best I could get... I didn't have it, so I'm making do with I what I have but that is not saying it's bad. But it could be better.

Front end on these bikes are pretty good stock if you're within the right weight for its springs... Mine are untouched and other than some freaky chatter I had for ONE weekend (which happened to be a race weekend... ) I never had any trouble. By far the best front end on any bike I've ever tried.

[Jonnymac]

I'm surprised you say that, it's good but their biggest mistake was the weight of the top out springs (I think that is the ones I'm talking about) where you have actually used about a third of your travel before you've even sat on the bike.
Braking hard for corners I had no travel left and washed out the front end over bumps...... Once changed I had a remarkable difference.
I ran a set of real Ntecs uk made last day which rip up notoriously if you don't have an "ohlins" rear and my revalved original shock worked perfectly on them.

Why would an original revalved require more maintenance than an ohlins?

[Blurr]

I'm surprised you say that, it's good but their biggest mistake was the weight of the top out springs (I think that is the ones I'm talking about) where you have actually used about a third of your travel before you've even sat on the bike.
Braking hard for corners I had no travel left and washed out the front end over bumps...... Once changed I had a remarkable difference.
I ran a set of real Ntecs uk made last day which rip up notoriously if you don't have an "ohlins" rear and my revalved original shock worked perfectly on them.

Why would an original revalved require more maintenance than an ohlins?

The poor oem cases and construction means that they leak, loose pressure and degrade a lot quicker than the premium ohlins units.

From what I have been told there is no real way to fix it either

[Nelso]

Hi,

Did a trackday recently and saw a few zx6r 2010 using this Ohlins rear shock. Priced them at $1250.00..! are they really that good..? that's a lot of coin.

Any feedback would be good.

Thanks

Yes they are really that good, but if you have to ask, you're probably not fast enough to need one. Once you can out-ride the OEM stuff, then you can worry about the cost of blingy suspenders.

In all honesty, the cost of the shock would be better spent on rider training than go fast bits.

[Jonnymac]

Ok fair enough, what kind of time frame does this happen in?
I would've assumed it would have to be at least 6-10 years surely.....¿
Just thinking lots of bikes are 10 plus years old and still have the original shock in good working order. I know that a race shock could potentially have a harder life but in saying that, roads aren't as smooth as race tracks.

[Blurr]

I think you'll find that a lot of road bikes are not in great shape if you pull them apart and drain the oil out.

Every 6-12'months seems to be the a average if you talk to all the suspension guru's.

On a road bike I have heard the figures of 20-30kms for stock gear toted around a bit.

Not saying that I would be doing it though.

[born green]

as blurr said, they say about every 12 months, but who does that on a road bike??? i sure dont.

But as for the ohlins, they say 10 hrs of track/race use, then a service, so thats not really a lot of Ks or time, mine's now a tad over that...

[EDU]

I'm surprised you say that, it's good but their biggest mistake was the weight of the top out springs (I think that is the ones I'm talking about) where you have actually used about a third of your travel before you've even sat on the bike.
Braking hard for corners I had no travel left and washed out the front end over bumps...... Once changed I had a remarkable difference.
I ran a set of real Ntecs uk made last day which rip up notoriously if you don't have an "ohlins" rear and my revalved original shock worked perfectly on them.

Why would an original revalved require more maintenance than an ohlins?

Never had a problem under brakes... In fact, that's what I love the most about this bike. More so than the engine. Being able to trail brake all the way to knee down on stock parts every time without a problem!!

Well, like I said, I did experience some serious chatter (and by serious I mean, front wheel hopping hard enough to change my line considerably) but that only lasted one weekend and I had changed heaps of stuff on the bike at the same time. The next weekend I was back on the track and it was all gone... weird. I'm no expert but I'm guessing it was either the new set of D211s or the new brake pads that hadn't bedded in properly. Then again, it could have been something else...

And yes, the reasons and maintenance intervals are as Blurr said. The suspension tech I used told me it would require maintenance after 12 months even if DIDN'T use the bike. Something about the seals not being good on the OEM setup and gas/oil mixing etc...

When I got the revalved shock I promised myself that if I hit 42's (EC, GP Circuit) I'd invest on an Ohlins shock. They changed the layout when I was at 46s so now I'll need a new target!

[born green]

The guy who did my bike 4 years ago, reckoned that the oem stuff redone was good for 1.40s at the island, then anything lower, u would prob neen some well setup ohlins goodness.... im a long way from flat 1.40s, but do love the ohlins, now ive started to understand it, making just one click here and there is a big difference, was getting some pitch mid turn at broady turn 12, came in, one more click of rebound, went back out, better, back in, one more click rebound, problem gone. took a while to understand and a few calls to steve, but it behaves so much better than the reworked oem did, and that was and still is a good shock, as the new owner loves it..he was starting to get tear at QR, i made a few adjustments and the tyre recovered well.

[Jonno]

Yes they are really that good, but if you have to ask, you're probably not fast enough to need one. Once you can out-ride the OEM stuff, then you can worry about the cost of blingy suspenders.

In all honesty, the cost of the shock would be better spent on rider training than go fast bits.

Agree

I really thought long and hard about this with the 2011 10R tracky and ended up going racetech internals front and rear which made a massive difference, at least to me.
What really made my mind up was talking to the right people and based on that advice decided to wait and see if I can out ride the ractech/oem stuff which is unlikely.

I realised i was caught up in "ohlins" gold fever and really had to talk myself out of it at the end of the day, right decision in hindsight.

Mind you i put an Ohlins shock with remote in the 12R, main reason was for easy adjustment when touring and the added bonus of gold drippin' Ohlins yuminess.
Seriously, it gives me better options on control but i could have put up with the oem resprung & revalved. Forks again are racetech/oem and the difference is stark

[Fossi]

Thanks for the feedback