GS-Riders International

David, sad Klaus is not doing Wilbers anymore. But I am sure that Wilbers will find a solution soon. I regret Klaus may not be part of this solution, since he has done a great job for Wilbers USA. Her has also provided very good service to me.


There are more options than Wilbers and Ohlins. Some are not available in the USA, some others may be available. Anyway, here are the summary results of a suspension test done by the German magazine PS, edition 08/2006. The translated information comes from Dirk at Wilbers. Their 642 has won the test.










The Ohlins suspension did not come out as best in this test, at least not to their taste. They may be good for sport oriented riders.

The White Power suspension setup was found somewhere at the opposite to the Ohlins. Comfortable and sensible, with some compromises on aggressive riding to be accepted. I have the White Power 4014 Emulsion for the front.

Wilbers seems right in the middle in between Ohlins and White Power.

I did chose the Wilbers 642 for my rear. I did not chose Wilbers for the front, as it limits the total front suspension travel to about 155 mm. Mr. Wilbers send me a personal mail explaining to me this their philosophy and done for the benefit of the fronts steering precision. The test seems to confirm his philosophy. I still decided in favour of the White Power for the front, because their sensible set-up sounded like what I want.

Klaus is working with the company Hyperpro, another company known for quality suspension parts. From the test I understand their front and rear set-up are somewhat a mismatch with the front comfortable, and the rear like a race shock. I am impressed however by the supplied free protective cover. Every shock should come with one! May be under Klaus influence they would look into perfecting the setup issues?

Initially I tried to purchase suspension from Kenny Hendricks. When that didn't work, I started the decision process over.

Ohlins is not a custom configuration but at a similar price as custom stuff. Ohlins provides a single shock for the front and a different one for the rear of the R1200GS. There are a few spring configurations but other than that, only the clickers are adjusted and all installations use the same shocks. I've also read but not confirmed that Ohlins seals require replacement more often than some others, usually about every 18 months. The good news is that almost any quality suspension shop can and will work on Ohlins. Lots of folks on multiple forums are happy with Ohlins.

Wilbers seemed a good choice. Ted Porter's www.beemershop.com was responsive and well priced. Ted Porter called me personally to discuss my needs. In the end, I decided against Wilbers even though I had previous good experience with their products on a Suzuki DL1000. Wilbers doesn't provide any way to adjust compression dampening on the front shock and I decided since I was buying custom stuff to obtain the ability to adjust my shock, I would buy elsewhere.

Elka was a real joy to work with. They have a wonderful website: http://www.elkasuspension.com and were very responsive with I called them. They delivered when they said they would and the products were everything I expected. Fit and finish is wonderful. Everything lines up where it should and the documentation is the best. Since I am rather short, I requested suspension that lowered my bike by about 25mm and Elka took care of that without any issues.

Prices on all suspension I considered were basically equal. Lots of good choices, that's what makes the purchase decision difficult.

Elka is an unkown brand for us in Europe and Asia. Certainly their website and products do look first rate. I'd love to see some pics, and also read your experience with them.

I am not sure how useful compression damping is for the front. But I never had it on the front, so may be I am a mountain turtle. Also I wonder, they are using a dual rate spring for the front. Why?