05/03/07

Ok, where to begin, I guess from the start... I intentionally stayed away from other reviews & refrained from asking opinions from others so mine wouldn't be biased

My initial impression of the TTX is that it was not as good as the revalved HO515 (DK revalved Ohlins) overall it seemed harsh for lack of a better word. Tire wear was great & there were no real ill-handling effects to report other than it just didn't seem as planted & together as the HO515. Now this is not anywhere close to being indicative that the new TTX is inferior to the conventional Ohlins shocks. I think in this one particular case it could just be that so much time & effort went into developing the valving on the HO515 that the out of the box TTX just might not be up to the task of matching it, but put the stock TTX heads up against the conventional Ohlins shock for another model bike & it may be in a completely different league, but I digress as I am making assumptions instead of getting answers.

I tested the TTX at my home track of Barber Motorsports Park & basically crashed first thing in the morning (due to no fault of the shock). I put the bike back together with every spare I had in the trailer, 147 cuss words, 2 rolls of duct tape, half a can of zip ties & a pack of bubble gum just to get it back out on the track & after a spirited shake down run which resulted in lap times faster than I had gone prior to the morning agricultural experience I decided I was just not completely happy with the TTX & reinstalled the Ohlins shock I had been using & it immediately was business as usual. Excellent feel & feedback from the rear of the bike.

Now what has been bothering me in the back of my mind is maybe the TTX is TOO GOOD of a shock. I mean what if it needs to be pushed to a higher level than I ride? It may very well be a Pro level caliber of shock right out of the box & I don't want to give it a bad review just because my skill level isn't up to where it should be to be doing a review of such a product. I can ride at 10 seconds off the AMA Superbike lap record at Barber Motorsports Park, but the traffic of a trackday didn't see those kind of lap times on the day I tested the TTX so quite frankly I may not have been pushing the shock hard enough for it to come into its own working range.

Now at the same time I do recognize that the vast majority of trackday riders are also not running at 10 seconds off the Superbike lap record & my review may be just exactly what they need to know as it wouldn't do them much good to purchase a shock that is set-up at a level that is sooo much better than they can ride. The truth about suspension for the average joe rider is that any commonly recognized aftermarket suspension parts you purchase are better than the crap that comes on the bike stock. They instantly offer more compliance & a greater margin of error/safety for any rider regardless of skill level from the street rider on his first bike to the very experienced club racer. The issue is there comes a point as your lap times continue to drop that the suspension isn't just a benefit to the safety & compliance of the bike, but an actual necessity for turning those faster lap times. I rode a factory supersport bike a few years ago that at 20 seconds off the pace it felt like it was riding on wooden 2x4's almost unridable to say the least, but up the pace to just 15 seconds off the pace & it starts to work better & at 10 seconds off the pace it felt perfect & I have a strong feeling it would have continued to get better if I could have just gone faster!

Anywho, I am reinstalling the TTX today so I can try it out at Nashville Super Speedway & then again at Barber in a couple weeks to do a much more thorough testing of it & see if I can get more conclusive evidence of just how good or mismatched this shock maybe for riders like myself.

UPDATE

Nashville is over & I have excellent news to report, but it may not be what everyone wants to hear. This TTX shock is phenomenal when pushed hard & I mean HARD! From my original impression it still feels harsh, but the faster you ride the better it gets & at or very near race pace it comes into its own & works better than anything else I have felt, easily soaking up big bumps or ripples to the point that my Ohlins forks now feel unbalanced & rough in comparison. The downside is if you don't push it hard (which most common trackday riders won't) it feels awkward & the conventional Ohlins shocks seem to fill that requirement much easier. I experienced greatly increased tire wear at slower Novice group paces, but excellent tire wear as the pace increased to A-group levels. All in all though I found my set-up for both the HO515 & the TTX to be similar in that on both I ended up adding some compression & taking out some rebound. The best thing I have to say is that even though I changed the new TTX shock to the same overall length (eye to eye) as the HO515 the TTX rides differently & the geometry of the bike was changed so that I was flicking it through quick transitions like it was a 600. I all the sudden had a level of agility with very little loss of stability that I had not been able to achieve with the previous shocks I have tested.

Next will be another test at Barber where I previously crashed with this set-up, but I am very optimistic that with the new set-up this is going to be an entirely different story this time around. I'll post up my results as soon as I return.

UPDATE 07/09/2010

I am posting this as an addendum because of some confusion about this TTX style of shock. For clarification my reviews above pertain only to the initial run of early TTX style shocks & more to the point the HO606 shock for the 1000RR. While the HO606 shock I tested and still use currently is more suited for aggressive high speed track use, the newer TTX shocks have been continously improved to work in much broader range of riding conditions from street riding to racing.

Since the writing of this review I have had the opportunity to test many other versions of the TTX line and find them to be very compliant and improved over the conventional Ohlins shocks they have replaced.