Long Term Follow up
Well this story went on for a few weeks. :ohmy:
I have to say MXTech will go the extra mile for their customers.
You hear bad storys about a suspension shop from time to time and I now see how this can happen. Patience (lack of)and communication is the cause.
John did our Ohlins for Junior who was still riding GNCC's on the 100 and locally winning the B offroad classes locally in 2003. We talked alot and our suspension was never serviced but they did have pre load set by a dealer. New Years week off they went to MXTech. Our first race was Feb 8 so we had time. Well my first post summed up the first race on the suspension :| . We clicked some as suggested and off to New Jersey to practice for florida GNCC. They bike was still soft but we clicked everything very stiff and got it better. Junior went off on a High speed loop and hung with a few AA riders with a smile on his face, after about a half hour there is no Junior. Oh here he comes laughing. Dad you have to call John..... the forks were collapsed. Junior was a good sport and no one got hurt. Well I tore them down and the springs got stuck by the pre load shims. John said there was funky PVC shims in there that had the forks goofed up before. He used other shims but one set was a tad large in diameter and stuck. Well we got another set and I put them in, reset the oil and off to florida.
We rode a full day of practice tweeking and got them fair. Junior was not real happy. We raced that Florida mud fest and finished. We skipped Georgia. I called John and said they are like a marshmellow. By then we had 15 hours or so on them. We added some oil and reset them plus we went from stock 40 springs to 44s. Off to the same local course from February. Still over plush but turned better but bottomed alot. MX style course and very fast.
Called John Monday and said they are boxed up plus the rear shock has lost the rebound adjustment. The UPS man was now beginning to smirk and see $$$. John had our forks Tuesday afternoon.
My phone rang. Hey Mike just tore them down. WOW. The fluid is toast, 17 hours or so um... Junior must be hammering this thing. Yep he tried. The shock seal let go, why, no clue, crap happens IMO. Those suspect spring shims had frayed in the beginning and slivers of metal and plastic got hung up in the base valve. Can we say too much bleed. John and I talked, he discussed this with his peers and called back. I also did research on the Ohlins and found 20 hours is the max they want between fork services and the Euro set up is negative preload up front as shipped.
John did his home work and we discussed notes. He said yep those shims got you once and now me. I found springs that are 10mm longer and add the 6mm preload we need without shims. :) John added, Since Junior is very agreesive and has given such excellant feedback to us. I made alot of adjustments to the front mid valave and overall valving front and rear.
Got them back Friday and threw them on and it was off to the NC GNCC. We did not test. Well Junior was cautious in running. He got settled and started to get moving. He clipped a root in the whoops and got crossed up. Well that took the wind from the sails. We still had concerns. Monday came and I rechecked every thing to find I never verified the front clickers being in a big hurry. We ended up being way stiff and to fast up front. That root just deflected the front.
John again was very good on the phone. He said he and I were both lucky to be working with a rider that can give us good info. He said I tweeked everything back into the proper direction. This past weekend we spent it just practicing and having fun. Junior said the bike is now better than last year, 100% better than in February and 90%+ to where he wants it.
Thanks John for your time and professionalism.
Our Smiles are back :thumb:
This post is very long but most guys would have bashed the tuner and moved on.
Mike Soudas
Mikey Soudas aka Junior