I bought a Bomber CR for my short travel aggressive trail bike to see if I prefer coil over air which I do. The Bomber doesn’t quiet have the right tune for my bike and I want to buy a nicer shock to go with my Pike Ultimate RC2.

I have been looking at the Ohlins TTX22, how are people’s experience with performance and reliability? How does it compare to other coil shocks like the DB Coil CS, DHX2, MRP Hazzard, Super Deluxe Coil etc in terms of descending performance? My bike is 130mm rear and has good levels of anti squat so even the Bomber CR with no climb switch pedals fine, so I’m not too bothered about a lockout switch, but technical climbing is important too.

The Bomber doesn’t quiet have the right tune for my bike and I want to buy a nicer shock to go with my Pike Ultimate RC2.

Send it away for a custom tune, better option than going for something else with a generic tune imo

Depends on what your bike is and how progressive/linear the suspension is, best bet is usually to look at what the manufacturer recommends, then look at getting something similar, if it’s progressive then you may need a progressive spring rather than the normal that the TTX comes with, before shelling out for it you may want to look at your options, best bet for you would be a call to TFTuned, they sell the TTX and can custom shim it and spring it for your setup and bike, give them a call to see., as they also sell and support the zocchi cr as wel.

Had a TTX22 just over a year now. Can’t really fault it, nothing gone wrong in the year I’ve been using it. It’s just on it’s way now to J-Tech for a full service. I’m having a damper re-tune while it’s in just because I felt it was a little bit too firm while riding tamer trails, totally fine when hitting gnarlier stuff though but even then I seemed to be running the compression fully open all the time. I put a softer spring on it for a while which did make it more sensitive on the tamer stuff but was blowing through travel on the harsher stuff so went back to the correct spring.

@argee I thought the progressive springs were to suit bikes with a more linear suspension curve. i.e. to make them more progressive. A bike with a progresive curve should be more suited to a standard spring.

Bomber CR is a rebadged Fox Van init?

Maybe see if TF still offer the Push tune? That used to be a great improvement, though not quite as silky smooth as a CCDB coil.

Only had a brief go on a TTX myself but it felt at least as good as the CCDB.

I did call TF Tuned and asked them about custom tuning my Bomber Vs other coils. They said the TTX was a level above and that’s what they would recommend (they don’t have any push tuning for the bomber left). I’ve never had any Ohlins stuff so I was keen to get some riders experiences of it.

I have a liner spring (that would fit the TTX) as my bike is progressive so that’s not an issue.

I had a Bomber for a short time, changed to an ohlins. The damping control is noticeably better, it just seems to cope better with a wider range of terrain. I now want an ohlins coil fork.

My 2020 DHX2 has blown up repeatedly – there’s a reason they completely redesigned them for 2021. TF recommended me a TTX22m – but I went with an EXT Storia in the end. Anyway, the TTX and the Storia all have better sealing, bushing overlap and can utilise spherical bearings to improve shock reliability.

I am hugely impressed with my Storia so far, the DHX2 isn’t even in the same ball park in terms of build quality. The Storias are designed to run a softer spring and rely on the excellent damping and HBO circuit to control big hits – that attitude comes from their strong WRC experience. Haven’t had a tonne of time on it but the DHX2 felt underdamped and like it had to rely on the spring for control.

Out of those that you mentioned, I’d go with the Ohlins.

Jordan
Free Member

@argee I thought the progressive springs were to suit bikes with a more linear suspension curve. i.e. to make them more progressive. A bike with a progresive curve should be more suited to a standard spring.

Yeah, i had it the wrong way around, luckily enough i didn’t do that when i got my new spring!

I’ve had a couple of TTX’s on bikes & always been a fan of them. They do tend to be on the ‘racier’ end of tunes, so a bit more compression damping.

I have a V3 Storia on another bike which is a very different feel – much more supple, but still supportive & with the HBO it works a lot better in less progressive frames. A good chunk more money however if new. I’d like one for my other bike, but not sure the V3 will fit with the piggyback, so may be back on an Ohlins again there.

I had a Bomber for a short time, changed to an ohlins. The damping control is noticeably better, it just seems to cope better with a wider range of terrain. I now want an ohlins coil fork.

That’s good to know, it’s hard to find feedback from people who have run several different shocks.

All the reviews of the EXT Storia are very positive, but I can’t justify spending almost 1k on a shock. It does sound amazing and it has all the characteristics you would want in a shock.

I am running a TTX coil on my stumpy, and a CCDB coil on my enduro.

It’s quite hard to rate then, as the stumpy is 135mm and the enduro 180mm.

They’ve both been very reliable (3 and 4 years) and perform well.

If they were the same ish price, I’d get the CCDB mainly for the independent adjustment of all 4 damping circuits.

As a buffer, this is quite useful to have.

The Storias are designed to run a softer spring and rely on the excellent damping and HBO circuit to control big hits

That is a crock of poo – the damper and the coil are just as important as each other and work together.

That is a crock of poo – the damper and the coil are just as important as each other and work together

http://wrcbehindthestages.blogspot.com/2012/02/springs-co.html?m=1

“An interesting note I’d like to point out is that back in the late 80’s and early 90’s the popular concept was to let the spring do the work. The damper was merely there to keep it under control, discreetly, if you see what I mean. The philosophy later changed completely. The shock absorber became king. Thanks to advances in technology, dampers became so “bullet proof” and effective that, in a way, springs became secondary. To exagerate a bit you could say that, nowadays, they just hold the car up… here is a little anecdote to illustrate my point about the suspension revolution”

And

“In the mid to late 90’s, the works Toyotas were running very hard springs, in the range of 50-80N/mm on the front for gravel and as much as 90-100N/mm on tarmac, if I remember correctly. Things changed drastically with the involvement of top Nordic drivers and Toyota Team Sweden (TTS) who went, together with some evolutions of the Öhlins dampers, way down to values around 45N/mm on the front. In those days, this was a revolution”

And

“By the time I had joined Ford they were using 30N/mm on the front generally, for gravel, and around 50N/mm for tarmac (not so sure anymore on the tarmac rates, although I do remember we had a rain setup where the rates went down by 5N/mm all around). On gravel the standard setting was 30N/mm front and 25N/mm rear.”

I’d be careful about claiming someone’s full of shit without knowing what you’re talking about. Those are the words of a former WRC driver. It’s not a huge difference anyway, the support of the Storia allows me to run about 25lb less of spring force in comparison to what I could get away with running on my DHX2. You can physically feel just how much more damping force it generates even when fully open in comparison to a useable setting on the DHX2 simply by pulling the spring off and cycling it by hand off the bike.

Yeah, I’d echo @oakleymeppets comments.

The spring has to hold up the weight of the object to resist hard bottoming, but effectively use all the travel. The HBO circuit allows a ‘softer’ spring rate in the first 80% of the travel, as the last 20% ish is protected with HBO ramp up.

I’m running a softer spring in my lyric with a Smashpot, as I can get more traction and compliance that way, running more in the middle of the travel, without harsh bottoming from the fork.

Works a treat.
Won’t make me an Enduro or DH star, but notable difference when I’m lazily smashing rocks or landings.

Hi. I’ve got a TTX on the back of my 2018 spec enduro carbon and it’s a good shock. Has proved durable and works very well. Compared to the debonair turd that was on there which failed 2 times in short order it is a revelation. Supportive yet supple enough.

I’ve no experience of Ohlins stuff but I run a Bomber on my AM9 and had it custom tuned by TFT, as I wanted a couple of minor issues ironed out, and they did a great job. Very pleased with the end result.

I have two custom-tuned Ohlins TTX22’s from J-Tech. Firstly, I have been using J-Tech for a number of years. His service and knowledge is excellent. I don’t go anywhere else now.

The reliability of my first Ohlins has been fantastic, the second one is only 5 months old – but not had any issues yet. The performance of them is fantastic – better than any other shock I have tried. I would love to try a Push ElevenSix or a Storia, just out of curiosity – but I have no hesitation in recommending the Ohlins.

Thanks for all the responses, I have gone ahead with the Ohlins. Excited to try something new and tuned to my bike, weight and type of riding.

I am sure you will enjoy them!

Got Ohlins forks and shock on my Enduro. Like most things I’ve found pluses and minuses.

in the plus side: they’ve been faultless robust and reliable. Both seems well made and easy to do a lower leg service and so on. The adjustment is quite  bewildering at first, (on the shock there’s LSC HSC and rebound) but as they all have an effect, bracketing really works well here. They are heavily “race” damped. And certainly in the enduro (and light-ish rider on a large frame, I run everything very lightly damped.

on the minus side, they are very heavily damped, and the jump between springs in the shock is annoying. The fork legs are easily marked (like all forks I guess) and I’ll never get full travel out of it, which feels like I’m being short changed…

Plenty of coil options out there that will fit the ohlins in 25lb increments. SAR, Race only Springs, Nukeproof etc etc

The fork legs are easily marked (like all forks I guess) and I’ll never get full travel out of it, which feels like I’m being short changed…

The only air fork I’ve ever had that has been willing to use most of it’s travel but reserves just enough for the most extreme, over the bar, lawn darting hits is my current Fox 38. Most air forks offer too little midstroke support which means you end up with quite a lot of bottom out force to get that mid stroke support – coil with position sensitive secondary dampers like the smashpot (or air bumbers in the ACS3) or very large air chambers solve this issue.

My Lyriks and Pikes always left me with a good 50mm of unused travel….very occasionally I’d use all but 25mm in certain normal riding conditions, to get the support I want. I can set my 38’s up to feel supportive whilst regularly using all but the last 25mm. They give me just as much grip, support and comfort as my coiled 36 RC2’s did – if not more – maybe it’s because they bind less but they feel a bit more comfortable in rock gardens.

Anyway, my point is – I suspect it isn’t the damper that’s the issue with the Ohlins – it’ll be the spring for sure.

They are heavily “race” damped. And certainly in the enduro (and light-ish rider on a large frame, I run everything very lightly damped.

on the minus side, they are very heavily damped, and the jump between springs in the shock is annoying. The fork legs are easily marked (like all forks I guess) and I’ll never get full travel out of it, which feels like I’m being short changed

If it’s stock stuff that came on the older model Enduro’s they were riddled with issues anyway. The forks had weird damping tunes & they had serious bushing bind problems. Basically they wern’t very good, at all. They improved things with the Evo version, and IIRC at one point they were offering free upgrades to Evo spec to improve the performance of them.

The current M.2 stuff is totally different. I can set that fork up to be however I want really. Right now it’s very supple to deal with the slower speeds of winter & reduced grip – feels comparable to my old BOS Deville which is still one the best forks i’ve used (reliability aside). When it warms up & speeds pick up again I can set it up to be a lot firmer & supportive, get still get good grip. Been really impressed with it to be fair.

on the minus side, they are very heavily damped, and the jump between springs in the shock is annoying. The fork legs are easily marked (like all forks I guess) and I’ll never get full travel out of it, which feels like I’m being short changed…

25lb increments between the springs is standard now, gone are the days of the comical 50lb jumps.

TTX coil for the enduro comes with a C40 tune as standard, IMO, this is very much on the stiff side. At 90kg I was running a 525lb spring and the C20 tune (14% less stiff damping). Going to the lighter tune meant I could go up to 550 to get the ride height, without the harshness.

Think I got all but 5mm out of the coil forks, but that was a pretty heavy landing on a drop.

I prefer my cane creek dB coil over my tx22 but both are on different bikes. I may try ohlins tx22 air though since I sorted out my rear end issue 😁

The forks had weird damping tunes & they had serious bushing bind problems

Haven’t got any of those issues (thank goodness) but you have to hit the thing really hard to get anywhere near full travel IME. (like SirHC above) I think I’ve hit the stops maybe once…and that was a big hit. On the plus side, I don’t ever get hand/arm pump as it’s so responsive.

This thread has been really useful and nearly pushed me towards an Ohlins for my new Evil when it comes, I want a coil shock and the only standard option with the Evil is an 11-6 and I can’t quite stretch to it. However one other option is to get a RS Super Deluxe Ultimate with a Vorsprung Tractive Tune. This would be a slightly cheaper option but not sure how much I’d be giving up versus the Ohlins?