Inside Öhlins Racing - Swedish Suspension Specialists
Standing in the heart of Öhlins’ production lines on the fringes of Stockholm there is an almost serene calmness, an environment with clinical cleanliness more akin to an operating theater than a suspension manufacturer. It’s hard to imagine all this stemmed from Kenth Öhlin turning the lathes in his father’s workshop some forty years ago in pursuit of personal on-track performance to boost his own racing, dissatisfied at the market’s offerings at the time.
It didn’t take long for friends and other competitors to take interest in Kenth’s shocks. Öhlins Racing was founded in 1976, and just two years later their shock was ridden to World Championship success in the hands of Russian MX star Guennady Moiseev. Take a scan through the ‘Hall of Fame’ on the website and you’ll get a taste of the somewhat bewildering racing success they’ve had, and they can now add two Downhill World Championships to their portfolio… The racetrack is seen as the development area, where new ideas and products can be tested and fettled before being brought to the market, where they have generated prosperity to match their racing accomplishments.
Underneath the global presence of all the commercial and championship success the company still retains its roots with Kenth Öhlin taking back the reigns having repurchased shares sold to Yamaha back in 1986. You’ll also find without too much difficulty, a recurring loyalty from several individuals of varying backgrounds that have devoted their career to Öhlins, be it family ties or in one case having worked in Kenth’s father’s machine shop even before the company came to fruition - still working on some of the same lathes all these years later!
Mountain biking is a pretty small slice of Öhlins’ revenue, around 10%. Even so, it is expanding all the time with their Specialized ‘exclusivity’ agreement and aftermarket sales more than enough to keep their current production lines flat out. The fact that their OEM supply is for the most part to a sole company may seem massively limiting in revenue, but Öhlins believe their close relationship with Specialized has helped fast track their products and learning process, and with a contract for many more years in place don’t expect that to change anytime soon. Using a somewhat different approach and background to their mountain bike competitors it’ll be interesting to see what they bring to the table as they look to expand into things like the XC market, continue to develop their DH fork, get excited about the new technology they can bring to the more spacious metric shocks, and flirt with electronically controlled suspension.
We had the opportunity to head out to Sweden and saunter round the factory floor while shocks were put to work in the dyno and MotoGP forks were prepped for the likes of Valentino Rossi.
The Ohlins HQ is located in Upplands Vasby, north of the Swedish capital.
The company has further subsidiaries in Sweden, Germany, USA, and Thailand.
The first thing you are greeted by upon arrival to the factory is a walk through of the product history, including one of Kenth's early prototypes.
The racing heritage is proudly on display throughout the factory, including Nigel Mansell's CART success.
The newest additions? Miranda Miller and Loic Bruni's World Champ success in Cairns.
The very first Ohlins Racing Team...
...And the very first foray into mountain bike suspension by Ohlins.
This man has been at Ohlins since before it even officially began, having worked in Kenth Ohlin's father's machine shop.
Checking the request and measuring the bar before machining.
As a youngster, Kenth Ohlin received a lathe as gift from his father and it still sits in the factory today.
Preparing forks for another round of testing.
The internal makings of a TTX 22 shock.
The Ohlins team is some 320 employee strong and make use of 200 external suppliers.
Putting a TTX through its paces on the dyno, but the engineers say there is only so much that can be learned through this type of testing - the real learning is done out on the trails.
There are a number of different test rigs lurking around; just because they have an OEM exclusivity with Specialized doesn't mean they are cornered into solely testing their shocks on Specialized bikes.
 | The racetrack for us is the development area. That's where we can test new ideas and where we can fine tune new products. Where we can tune the vehicles together with the customers. Then when we get fantastic new technology we can move into aftermarket and later to OEM, but also we have new ideas that never develop into anything. We see the race track as development ground for us. Then of course when we win world championships people read about it and we make a stronger and stronger brand, then it also becomes a part of our marketing. |
Take from that what you will...
One of the test mules, this Demo has the same custom linkage the Specialized Gravity Team have been using this season.
There are plenty of two-wheeled toys around.
Studded tires prepped for winter, this ATV sees some serious action on the frozen lakes.
Catering to much more than just mountain bikes means there are plenty of other products to snoop and drool over.
The shock off a trophy truck with MTB Team Leader TJ Hansen for scale.
The oil stores before being fed out to the various production lines.
Pre-assembly is all about bringing together all the small pieces of the puzzle to make the main body parts of the shock.
Tubes awaiting the shock heads during the general assembly.
At the HQ in Sweden there are 14 staff members dedicated to mountain biking, along with the productions line staff who work in shifts of 4.
| The mountain bike production line starts off with pre-assembly. Compression adjusters, valve seats, valve holders, putting all the shim packages together before it moves on to the general assembly. Then the heads are put onto the tubes and tightened, before putting the heads on they’ve already put in the bladder, the gas cap, and the compression adjusters. Basically, the head is almost ready before getting tightened in this machine; we can track every single shock that is being built because each and every shock has an individual number, so we can always track it down to see if something was wrong when it was torqued or whatever. That’s a good safety thing to have for quality. Then you’re assembling the shaft, piston holder, end eye, and bump rubbers go on before it’s time to fill the shock. |
Heads being assembled with the compression adjusters, valve holders, valve seats, shim packages, bladder, and gas cap.
Next up the tubes are tightened into the heads, every measurement is tracked and stored to track down any potential problems that may arise further down the line.
| Same thing with the filling, we can track down each and every filling that has been made, keep track of the information and we have stored that since day 1. There’s a lot of information there in our systems. We then weigh the shocks to check they’ve been filled alright, before it goes into the gas station where we put the nitrogen in. Depending on which shock platform it is depends how much pressure goes in but it is usually between 12 and 16 bar. After that it is time for the dyno, so we dyno the shock and it needs to be within certain measurements in terms of compression damping, rebound damping, and gas force. If it passes all of them it gets a laser engraving at the same time, a part number, batch number and an individual number. After that it’s pretty much done on this specific model which is the TTX22 M, if it would have been as STX then it would have been time for the air spring. Once the the TTX shock has passed the dyno it’s put on trolleys, this is an OE shock so they have to sit for 24 hours before being boxed up and shipped out. |
After being filled with oil the shocks are weighed to check they've received the correct amount before the information is entered into the system.
The last step before the shocks gets a work out in the dyno is the nitrogen gas filling which is between 12 and 16 BAR depending on the shock model.
Again, all this data is kept as a current and future parameter.
| Our mountain bike production has two shift rotations, one working 6am until 2:45pm. Then another shift from 2:30pm until 11pm. So there are 15 minutes when they are checking everything. In total, working on the mountain bike production is 8, but they go in shifts of 4 and 4. Later this year, in December, it’s going to be a lot heavier as far as more shocks need to be produced, so we’ll take personnel over from another line and make it 6 and 6. As long as we have a team leader on board that has the responsibility and a lot of experience it’s fairly smooth to make that happen. Out in Taiwan we produce the forks and STX shocks; it’s our own plant, our own factory floor, our own personnel, our engineers, and our own quality control, we have great staff over there. |
The shocks are left to sit for varying periods of time as a final check for things like leaks before being boxed up and shipped out.
Springs patiently awaiting their partner.
With a thirsty demand there isn't a whole lot of stock sitting around gathering dust.
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we have 5 world championships ha ha ha Don´t cry
Tack så mycket.
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cough..... Push 11/6..... cough.....
The rear shock was near perfect.
The coil fork is incomplete.
Damper has no mid support (which can be covered up when you have the progressive air spring).
Fine for trails you know, but not for blind racing because it dives severely when you break hard from overcooking a corner (you know, so you can still make the corner)
Ended up running closed LSC and from full closed to 2 out on HSC - and that much HSC negates any suppleness and traction gained by the coil.
Reached out to Ohlins a few times but they werent helpful. Said it probably just needed to be warrantied - eh,,
When coils have better dampers they’ll be worth it - flat corner traction is amazing.
I had the shop mechanic go back to the rep: ’I REALLY appreciate the offer of a Monarch, but might I pretty please have a shock with a similar $ amount? Could I have a Fox Float X2?’
Yes, they said. Knock Specialized all you want, but they came through on that one for me.
Also, Bikeyoke should help mitigate the side loading concerns and allow you to run some different options.
The ramp up chamber being adjusted via pressure rather than plastic tokens makes a massive difference to the ease of use - Yes MRP do this aftermarket for other shocks before anyone reminds me, damping is out of this world - I would say that BOS dampers are equivalent, but I can get Ohlins to fix things if they ever break (so far one issue with a compression dial on the 34 fork, turned around in 48 hours and the fork came back better than it started!) and even though BOS have some supporters and a great product, personal experience has not been so positive on after sales. Oh, and the Ohlins chassis, especially on a long travel 29er fork is rock solid!
Top work by Swedish magicians! Waki, I'm also a fanboi, hell, I even got the logo as a tattoo!
I'm not actually a dentist, just a regular guy who works hard to pay for his toys!
Pics or it didn't happen.
And for those who have spent many a sleepless night wondering. Yes, Upplands Väsby is also the home of Europe, the 80's hair metal geniuses who blessed our earlobes with The Final Countdown.
It has nothing to do with Öhlins.
Eff those guys. Seriously. First Horst now this? Not that there aren't other options out there, but working with more than one manufacturer would certainly open up other possibilities in function and design. I will never give them a dime.
Any info on the move away from the uni-crown design, they seem to be only available with a traditional 2 part CSU at the moment with the info I received being it was for compatibility reasons? I was really keen on the design with the integrated bearing race and hopefully less chance of creaks developing, had to send them back when it came as a traditional style unit.
Ill stick with my “boring” mainstream brands
The problem is the tune isn't proper for that bike,confirmed for Andreani (Ohlins tech support in Europe). To solve it,you have to spend 200€ and Specialized didn't want to assume responsibility.
Now running a Fox X2 and really happy with it,but think is better on this bike CCDB CS,I tried it too.
Thanks!
Didn’t know that. It was rad on my hot chilli rage bike back in the day
'Kenth Öhlin made a clear decision many years ago, that we would never give any product away free to teams in sponsorship. Not one thing. So, every team that you see winning on Öhlins is doing so through choice, not obligation.'
ohlins dont sponsor, they support, but still, everyone yoiuve seen racing on ohlins (in motorsport, guessing specialized buy them for the team) has had to spend cold hard cash to get it.
I don't think Nico Vink or Lluis Lacondeguy run big Öhlins-logos on their gear because they paid full price for their components.