The Ohlins Years

Jayhawk Ken

New member
Which years of the recent EC series had the Ohlins forks? And while I'm it, do most of you think the Ohlins forks are a good thing versus the Zokes?
 
They were available for the first time in 2001. You could buy them as an option to the EC model in Canada - I special ordered one of these and imported it into the u.s.; In the U.S. - the importer at the time, GGNA, bundled the ohlins and other options into a special edition model, "SE".

GasGas Corporate then imported directly into the u.s. without a independent rep as the importer - so from 2003 on - you could either buy ECs or DE (Dealer Edition) with the ohlins fork option.

The ohlins fork option, I believe, adds resale and marketability to the bike. The downside is that they are more difficult to service with a double bushing setup. The fork tube is thicker at the lower clamp and uses a different lower clamp than other models.

The marzocchi is a very good fork. i have a set of surplus cannondale zokes on the front of a xr280 trailbike I have; Les (of LTR suspension) has ohlins forks on his XR and twin chamber 50mm marzocchi's on a husky txc510 we share. For most model years, the zokes tend to be valved a little more harsh out of the box; After a little massaging by a competent suspension tuner, all of these forks work very, very well.

jeff
 
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