03 Ohlins Forks vs 11 Zokes?

[fire1998]

I picked up a nice 2003 EC 125 for my boy. Bike came with full Ohlins. A thought came to me while washing it, will the Ohlins fit and work better than my 11 OC Zokes? My current Zokes have been revalved and work pretty good other than hard bottoming. If I had the Ohlins revalved, would they work any better. Just a thought.
Later

 

[lankydoug]

I have an 03 EC200DE with Ohlins front and back that have been re-valved by LTR and they are pretty sweet. I also have an 09 WR250 Husky with 50mm open chamber Zokes. All I have done to the Zokes is service them and change the oil from 5w to 10w, lower the oil level to 130mm and play with the clickers. I think the Ohlins are a little better but in fairness the Zokes have not been professionally done and are very close to as good. I'm assuming the Zokes on your Gasser are similar to the 50mm Zokes on my Husky and one of the things I like the best about them is their simplicity. The main problem I corrected when I serviced them was that there was hardened assembly grease packed around the valving that had to be cleaned out. In my case I wouldn't go to the trouble of switching since the difference is so minimal but I have not ridden the open chamber Zokes on the GasGas yet to compare.

 

[Fred1956]

Les at LTR will tell you that once revalved the Zokes are every bit as good as revalved Ohlins. Nothing beats the 'bling' factor of Ohlins though. I believe the ohlins also take some special tools to work on them, GMP would know more about that.

 

[fire1998]

I am familiar with the 50's on a husky. Just sold an 09 wr300. Had forks resprung and valved. The 50's IMO are better than the 45's on the gasser. The 50's had much better bottoming resistance and floated over the uglies. Two different tuners but both well known and highly regarded.