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:woohoo: Rant warning :woohoo:
I just had another DR650 junkie banging on my door at 1.30pm on a saturday afternoon, trying to fit the DRZ400 shock. I’m trying to build the engine for the truck but i give up. Instead i will rant forth and hopefully be informative along the way.
There are two parts to the Wilbers DR650 story. lets deal with Wilbers first.
Benny Wilber operates his business in what i refer to as the “golden triangle”. It’s an area to the west of Amsterdam, he’s just over the German border so he’s more Dutch than German. In that same area is Hyperpro, Reiger, Technoflex (now gone i think) ,the former mass of WP employees and Yacugar. There is also a LOT of old sublet WP manufactures that make springs, CNC machine shops, foundries.The story goes that the owner of Hyperpro and Benny Wilbers were good mates until they decided to try a spot of wife swapping. This went OK until old mate Hyperpro’s wife decided she liked German sausage more and dumped her husband for Benny. It’s not hard to see Benny is fond of women, a quick look at any of his advertising material shows busty Frauleins in nurses uniforms doing suggestive actions with a Wilbers shock.
What this all means is that any of the shocks from this “golden triangle” have common parts, they are all very close in design and pricing. Unsurprisingly. The Wilbers look the best with black shock bodies, blue springs and red adjusters.
Since Greg at ASR Suspension in Victoria died of cancer last year we have not had a dedicated Wilbers importer. There are state distributors that order shocks for customers. I have the NSW one very close to me, some of the know him. It’s not uncommon for him to walk in my door, explain he’s ordered a factory custom Wilbers shock but the spring rate is wrong or the length is wrong or it just doesn’t fit. It was a Tenere 660 Wilbers last week. Was supposed to be 10mm longer but the factory made it 10mm shorter. How do i know? I print out an Ohlins specification card when he brings the Wilbers in so i can check it.
Now, all this says to me “why the hell would you buy a Wilbers when they can’t get it right most of the time and the Ohlins product is better and the same price” I have no idea. It gobsmacks me. Must be the red knobs, red lipstiock and nurses uniform.
“But” i hear you say, Ohlins has discontinued the DR650 shock so you HAVE to buy a Wilbers. Bullshit.
Ohlins do not assemble the shock any more, however they still make all the parts. I order every part in, about 60 of them, build the shock. I’ve been doing that for a while, about 15 years now. The OZ Ohlins distributor won’t let everyone do it as there has to be warranty and he has to tell the factory in Sweden we are building shocks.
Interestingly i’m not authorized to SERVICE Wilbers shocks, they want me to fly to Germany for a week to be trained to service their shocks. I’ve declined. I still service them and still get in trouble. Wilbers give a 5 year warranty BUT only if you service the shock annually. You have to pay for the service too. :whistle:Now. DR650 shock conversions.
WHY?!
Why do you have to have a rebound adjuster? No one uses the bloody thing anyway. Race Tech make a shaft assembly with a rebound adjuster and a “world famous gold valve” that only costs you $800 installed with a spring, I do a rebound/compression adjustable (piggyback) Ohlins with whatever spring you need in whatever length you want for $1350.
OR you can just get me to revalve the stock 40mm KYB shock with our valving and spring PLUS the forks with springs and Emulators for $750. The DR is a, ahem “LOW COST” trailbike. (Thanks for telling me to stop saying cheap TB)
So, by all means spend $1800 on a Wilbers for your DR650. I will LAUGH when old mate walks in with it and asks me to sort it out before he sends it to you.Rant over. Back to work. Truck engine building halted :sick: have too much other work on. Damn.
