K-tech vs Ohlins

Who is the Tuner?

 

I'm no expert on racing knowledge but from what I've read, doing mods to your bike will put you in a different class of racers.

 

Can't go wrong with a TTX shock! There's a good reason almost everyone on the international racing level (GP, WSBK, WSP, etc) runs Ohlins...best in the business. You can get the 30mm fork kit and a TTX for about $2200 or so brand new (a friend of mine got that setup this year for his CBR600), or you can find used ones and save some money.

However, with that said, for track days and beginner club racing, how much does all of that really matter? Any well set up aftermarket brand will be an improvement over stock suspension, and the difference between Ohlins and any other brand (K-tech, Nitron, Racetech, etc.) will be negligible for people like us. I know people that could ride my own bike when it was bone stock and be several seconds faster than me on it now after thousands of $ spent on mods to make it better.

I can tell that before this season I spent over $2k on Ohlins suspensions, and some chassis modifications (trail change and ride height change), and switched to slicks and all of that supposedly accounted for 2 seconds at my local track. But I'd be willing to bet that most of that 2 seconds came from gaining some more experience because I started racing earlier this year before I got a chance to test everything out at my local track. I'm pretty sure the Ohlins upgrade made close to 0 difference, it was mostly the progressive skill improvement with racing experience and probably the tires that made the biggest difference.

 

I can't speak first hand about the quality of the suspension. I know Blake Holt has been racing on it and working with Eric though, he has very positive things to say about it. Both of them are really good guys, and that is the point I really wanted to Make.

 

We're running an Ohlins shock with the K-Tech DDS up front, this year. Coming from 100% Ohlins, happy with it so far.

 

4th option. Go racing first and get some ideas of what you really need. Your not out riding your factory suspension.

 

Ohlins stuff is the standard here in the United States. Very easy to adjust and you will find a lot of setup and adjustment information on it. From what I have seen the k tech stuff is just as good. The difference is that you won't find nearly as much setup data and information on them. I had a race tech suspension on a gsxr 1000 and the suspension worked great however when you googled it with my year of bike you found zero information. The resale value of ohlins stuff is much better too.

 

+1 for eric at VC, he does mine too

 

Chalk me up for another Ohlins vote; always a safe choice with great adjust-ability and feedback. Another up-side is Ohlins is also very common in the states so any parts, setup information, or servicing is easier to come by. The 30mm cartridges, if you have the right tools, are very easy to service yourself as well.

 

It's a different beast entirely, but I'm running K-tech up front and ohlins in the rear on my 300 Ninja. The point to make is to not feel like you can't mix brands. No reason anyone has to have all Ohlins or all K-tech.

Eric @ Velocity supplied and installed my K-tech carts and helped me set up. He did a great job.

 

I've heard good things of Velocity Calibrations. A friend of mine sends all his stuff there, and he runs multiple brands on his 3 race bikes (I believe one has K-tech). But it's interesting to note that on their website, they seem to deal mostly with Ohlins and Race Tech. I didn't see anything about K-tech there. Like others said, there is very limited amount of info on K-tech out there. That brand is relatively new, and they just recently started expanding to the US. You see a lot more people running their suspensions in BSB since K-tech is headquartered in the UK.

I tend to agree with Ohio_1199Duc. Especially since you said you dropped 5 seconds in a single day by switching to slicks. That alone tells me your pace is far off from being competitive in the middleweight class (which is called the meat grinder for good reason), so you're definitely not outriding your stock suspensions. You really need to be towards the top of advanced group for suspensions to make a significant difference. If I was you i'd save my money for now and just get the stock ones set up properly (if you haven't already done so). When I had stock ones on my bike before, I had to adjust things like compression/rebound damping, preload, and even switch out springs as I got faster. The settings that worked ok when you were 5 seconds slower may not work well now, and as you get faster you'll have to adjust accordingly. This is true regardless of what brand and type of suspensions you have so long as their adjustable.

 

Agreed. My dad has generally been an Ohlins distributor/tuner, but recently started working with Lenny over at K-Tech. The stuff is quite good so far.

At the time, the Ohlins front kit wasn't available for our R1, so it forced the rider's hand to try something new.

 

You may find that the bike you have now is not the bike you want to take racing and if you spend $XXXX on goodies, you will quickly have $XXXX/2 when you want to set up your next bike.

There is a reason Bart switched to a Kaw 6R ditching his longtime GSXR 600s .

It may be wiser to buy a already prepped bike. I bought my Triumph for slightly more than the retail $ of the suspension goodies that were on it.

 

Josh, there are some valid points and good info so far on this thread, and i think i'm in a unique position as far comparison of these brands. I have rode both the Ohlins and K tech full setups, tuned by the same suspension guru(Eric at Velocity Calibrations), with both setups being "shot" by a frame and geometry calibration machine on the same bike. We did this comparison at the same tracks as well. So as far as a level playing field, i think we eliminated most variables. With that being said, the K tech set up was a clear winner for us. Here is why.
1. The K tech front end was hands down better with braking support and feel right out of the box. We even had Lenny(former race team Ohlins go to guy) do internal modifications to the Ohlins to try to give it back that "edge". It got better, but never as good as the K tech that you get out of the box. In the rear, the K tech shock also offers the advantage of the bypass valve, which is a massive a when it comes to riding in the wet. My drive grip was more predicable(on Pirelli and Dunlop) with K tech, as well as more stable in braking. The Ohlins rear was really good on "on/off" throttle transitions at heavy lean, but in the end we got similar performance out of K tech with a small adjustment. As far as riding was concerned, the K tech just seemed to do most everything with less drama. And that matters to me, because drama when your tired late in a race = expensive lessons.
2. The K tech seems to be much more forgiving in finding the sweet spot. My experience with the Ohlins is doesn't take much more than a turn of pre load, or some rebound to start getting really far off the mark. The K tech seems to operate in a wider sweet spot, giving you a larger window for having a bike that does everything it should comfortably. This alone is a big deal for your weekend racer or track day guy, cause you spend less time chasing your tail.(But you will have Eric, so you wont be doing that anyway
3. Data and support is actually one of the main reasons i choose K tech. Eric gets direct info form the AMA teams(if he isn't there himself tuning with them), as well as overseas. If they are making a change or finding something new on Sunday, I know about it on Monday. If fact, after this last AMA round, the changes they made were done to my shock only days after the last AMA round. There is a TON of QUALITY data with K tech, cause its coming from the top. There is a lot of Ohlins data too, coming from about million different sources, lots of them not affiliated with Ohlins. Amount of data is far less important as quality of data.
4. K tech offers a rather unique upgrade option and path that makes it easy to start with a "base" kit, and upgrade to the high end units as money or skill dictates.

5. And this is purely personal, but from the moment i hit the track with K tech, i went easily faster than i ever gone on Ohlins, and wouldn't have known it if it wasn't for a lap timer. It was easier, so it didnt even feel faster. You know you are on to something when your practice times on Ktech are already faster than race times on Ohlins. You will know how rare that is once you start racing. This isn't really factual, but it matters a sh@T ton to me!!!

In the end, i have access to support and pricing on either of these, and it was clear decision for me. The K tech was just a better solution, and i feel confident to recommend it to others.

 

My question regarding the above point is how much does that really matter for most of us that are nowhere near AMA level?

 

It matters tons. All the technology in your bike was once elite level, now you enjoy it. Lessons learned in racing translate everywhere, trackday, life, marriage, you name it. A proper set up bike is a joy to ride no matter what you skill level. Those magic set ups and numbers can be translated to some effect to anyone.

 

Think about it. Fuel injection, quick shifters, traction control, inverted forks, were all probably thought to be above the average rider at one time. Now most of us have these on our track bikes, if not street bikes. Technology and data translate. We all benefit
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