Review: Penske 8987 triple adjustable

[jrandom]

I'm... a high ranked Martial arts Sensei in more than a few stlyes

Hey, I wonder if your Kung Fu Pies are made at the same factory as my Racing Pies?

[Shaun]

Hey, I wonder if your Kung Fu Pies are made at the same factory as my Racing Pies?

Doubt it man, your pies look clean and un damaged, you should see one of his PIE eating hands that he has been practising with YUK

[Robert Taylor]

the penske version works

In fact so do the Ohlins and WP versions of external high speed adjustment. More correctly the Penske adjuster is a mid speed adjuster. I have extensive dyno graphs of the response range of the Penske and Ohlins versions if you want clarification. That will help a little because as you say you havent ridden on both. So the best you have ridden is the best you know....
The TTX36 deletes external high speed compression damping because the twin tube technology means that it damps much more instantly with less hysterisis and actually is far less aggressive in its total damping force through the range because it is not playing ''catch up'' all the time. That then means ( allied with its piston design ) that there is no overly aggressive damping further up the range that requires what is most commonly an externally adjustable dump valve. The Penske high speed adjuster works in a different way but broadly achieves a similiar effect. In dyno graph terminology it is not a ''slope adjuster''

The problem ( or one of them ) with conventional shaft displacement single tube shocks ( practically everything except TTX36 / TTX40 ) is that the low speed adjuster does not adjust the very lowest shock shaft speeds, EXACTLY where you ideally want it to do so! As the adjuster is arranged in the shock reservoir it is working on shaft displacement only which is approximately only 13 ~ 15% of the total damping force. It starts to become effective broadly only after the main piston shim stack starts to lift at lower ~mid velocities up. The very first part of low low speed movement ( what you feel most especially if its choppy! ) is actually controlled by a replacable ( in different sizes ) bleed jet in the end of the main shaft ( Ohlins, WP ) or by holes drilled in the piston ( Penske ) If those holes are too big its another piston.

In the TTX ALL the compression flow is controlled by the compression adjuster and body , bypass assembly. That means the response on that adjuster is instant from the moment the shock moves. So if it is too harsh a couple of clicks on that adjuster will yield a noticable change. The stuff clearly works on road and on track, TTX cleaned up bigtime at Daytona this year.

I am not belittling the Penske as there is some very good engineering in them but it is all too easy to get carried away with marketing euphoria and personally I am always a sceptic if Ohlins let the marketing morons get too carried away with their claims. We have to see for ourselves!

Either way ALL shocks be they Penske, WP or Ohlins, works Showa ( really the only ones in the same league at the top of the tree ) have to be pulled apart to optimise to the nth degree. Anyone that says a shock is fully adjustable and doesnt need revalving is in serious denial. Actually the worse lie is the time honoured phrase used at the release of a new Japanese sportsbike..."race bred suspension'' and people believe it.

Sorry for being a technical nerd.

[White trash]

Actually the worse lie is the time honoured phrase used at the release of a new Japanese sportsbike..."race bred suspension'' and people believe it.

"Race bred suspension" simply means that all the manufacturers have a race team that uses suspension sourced from someone other than their production bike suspension supplier.