V4 Rosso

Öhlins, Penske, Wilbers, Hyperpro & Elka are the manufacturers that show up when browsing/searching the suspension subforum here on VFRD. Öhlins is renowned for it's quality schocks, and with all that shiny gold anodised bodies they look good too. Elka made the 5th and 6th gen owners here on VFRD an offer you can't refuse. If they had offered a shock for a third gen I sure would have been on the list. Penske is a big name in the US, no idea if there are Penske dealers here in Europe. Wilbers and Hyperpro offer moderately priced shocks and springs. All will likely outperform the stock VFR shocks. But when searching VFRD for WP I didn´t get a single hit (edit: keny just posted a topic that mentions WP). Also I recently posted some pics of a mono arm in another topic, asking if anyone knew what it was. But even after someone found the "hidden" spoilerpic that showed who made it (WP), still no answers to what exactly it was: the TLGS (Troll Linear Guiding System) mono-arm. Seems like WP suspension is not a well known company among Sport & ST riders,at least not on your side of the pond. And that is something that is recognised and apparently also bugs WP Suspension. This year WP celebrated 7 world championships among those of Ten Kate Honda: James Toseland 2007 champion WSB & Kenan Sofuoglu World Champion SuperSport 600, but still they're not as well known as aforementioned manufacturers. In order to change that, they could have opted to spend more on advertising or offer their shocks for bargain prices. But no, WP choose to have some riders over for some coffee and have a strawl around their plant to have a look at what it is exactly you spend your cash on. What better riders to have come visit than VFR riders who appreciate quality, durability, dependability and performance. Well, at least WP thinks that those qualifications apply to their suspension parts, and with 7 World Championships, who can argue with that. At least BWM and KTM think that's true, as they have chosen WP Suspension as their OEM. For those who have watched Long way down those were Öhlins shock that failed. :salesman: Anyway, I was pretty impressed with their plant. It looks well organised and they have some nice machinery too. The main activities of the Malden plant are assembly, quality control and R&D. From there, all parts are shipped to the worldwide distributors. Below you'll find a photo impression of the tour they organised forthe Dutch VFR owners club, I hope you like it. Like I said, WP is OEM for BMW, but they make shocks & springs for almost every street and dirt bike. First bikes you see when entering the lobby. Active suspension: electronically adjustable BMW shock. Race forks and steering dampers are also on their product list. <drool>Shocks, shock- and fork springs everywhere. WP shock springs are mostly white because in the early seventies the only suitable paint was only available in white. Now you can get them in different colors. Maybe you can even get the titanium (yes titanium) springs clear coated, wouldn't that be nice :thumbsup: Our guide for the day has had several VFRs himself. A blue VTEC that he later sold to VFRD member http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.p...4906]BlueVFRank was equiped with a one off race spec suspension. I am not sure of the current whereabouts of this bike, as BlueVFRank traded it for an Aprilia. It may still be up for sale at some dealer. Like most company visits you start of with a presentation showing some of the company facts and hihglights. Never knew WP was involved in F1 too. Oh and as you can see, Wp is not just OEM to KTM but has been a daughter company of KTM for several years now. The parts for the shocks come from varying suppliers. In this day and age it is just not possible to produce all the neccessary parts that go into a shock yourself, machinery is just to expensive. When parts are delivered at the plant, they are first thouroughly cleaned in a pair of industrial washing machines before moving on to the assembly line or quality control. Some components are individualy check wheter they conform to spec, for others only samples of a batch are being checked. Looks quite cluttered from this viewpoint. Ah, that's better :D Detailed instructions at each assembly station, conform ISO9001. Stacking the shims is done by hand. That's quite a tedious job if you ask me, but whowever is responsible for it is said to be extremely fast with the shims, and can tell the excact thickness blindfolded (they come in a large variety of thicknesses). I bet he or she would be a pretty good croupier :lol: This machine fills two shock simultaniously with oil and presurises them in a matter of seconds. Next was quality control. They have some pretty neat machinery to check whether the parts conform to specification and if everything works like it is supposed to when assembled. Besides the indvidual components, every twentieth shock coming off the assembly line is being disassembled and thoroughly checked. I am beginning to understand why thes shock don't come cheap. Of course equipment like this is kept in a conditioned room (temperature & humidity kept at a constant). Time for a short brake. It was a nice day fora ride too, oh well. Off to R&D. Here is where the new models of BMW and KTM get their suspension dialed in and endurance tests are performed. Latest KTM ATV that had just been released to the press: Left: Test rig for forks. Several triangular shaped bumps (like you see laying on the diamond plated platform) are bolted to that steel blue wheel to similute roadbumps. The fork is clamped in the rather sturdy tripples. Right: Rear shocks impact test rig. The swingarm is attached to a heavy steel plate that is dropped from several feet high. Another endurance test rig for fork legs and some other KTM frame getting a new shock: The engineers would have been staring out the windows all day, drooling over all these beautifull bikes parked outside. This it what the cabinet of an R&D engineers looks like, just like it should: Unlike that of a race engineer: Race department: This poor guy (the tall one) was the only one at work that day (apart from our tour guide). He was doing some testing/set-up on a shock for some motocross world champion. I suppose those WCs can be pretty demanding that you have to work overtime :lol: Shocks and forks for champions: Here some parts were made from billet material: Hey a lathe, though BLS was nowhere to be seen. That looks nice doesn't it? That conludes about this visit, not much else to be seen apart from a rather impressive stock of billet materials. Oh and here is that mono-arm I wrote about earlier. Outside our tour guide demonstrated how to set sag on the VFR and we were off for lunch :sleep: Big thanks to WP suspension for having us over. Was very informative and impressive. As an encore, here is a pic of the best looking VFR :P with WP forks. And yes, that is a Hyperpro sticker on the fork lowers :D For some reason Hyperpro springs were installed in the forks :salesman: My shock, with 74K km is likely well worn and due for a replacement. I haven't decided yet what brand or type but I'd rather have an aftermarket shock like a WP or Hyperpro than the original replacement. These aftermarket shocks being serviceable is a big plus. And if you like, you can take the shock with you when you get a new bike. They can swap some parts so it fits the new bike. Not sure if that's worth the hasle though.