Ohlins 50mm monoshock

I finally built a 50mm piston equipped Monoshock. The capacity and strength of this unit are increased in just about every way. The piston grows from 46mm to 50mm, note the larger body. The larger piston can create more force with less effort/work. The reservoir grows is diameter from 49mm to a nice fat 58mm. The piston rod grows from 16mm to 18mm... this of course requires a redesigned seal head. The new seal head has a new design, larger bushing, etc. All increase durability and service life. It received a nice test ride yesterday, and I'm very happy with the initial results... Unfortunately, yesterday was pretty much the last ride of the season, the trails are getting bare in sections, so ideally, more testing will be required early next season before I'll build any of these for resale. More info to come.

Nice work! Keep us posted on more testing results.

After 10000km with the stock monoshock, I'm considering upgrading. Is this shock only a replacement for the electric? Or is there an option for the standard Mono II setup? How much would this setup cost?

This shock can be set up with a manual compression valve in place of the electronics. I also have a couple of brand new stand alone Ohlins controllers, so should someone want the electronic option on a sled not equipped to accept, it can be done. I have a 128" Mono II in my Nytro, my brother in law has a 136" Attack GT which will get one of these 50mm next year.

Price varies widely depending on options and whether the customer supplies the shock. A new full boat 50mm/PDS/dual spring/manual valve could run towards $2k. Expensive, yes... which is also the answer to is it the best? The 46mm PDS is the best bang for the dollar, I can do those for about $500 - $600 on a supplied shock... been working hard to find ways to bring the price down, it use to cost over $1k.

Looks like the new shock only has 1/2 to 1/3 the stroke of the OE shock before it bottoms. If so does that translate to less total suspension travel?

Mono in a Nytro? That would be sweet. How do you like the mono in your Nytro?

While it looks much shorter, the picture is deceiving, it has only lost 1" of travel. The Monoshock damper normally has about 6" of shaft travel, but uses less than 5" when stroking in the machine. All the extra shaft space houses the super large bump stop that is required to help slow things down before ultimately bottoming on the rubber skid blocks. With the PDS shock (the longer body length houses this feature), the extra bump stop is not required. The extra stop on the 46mm shock is hiding down behind the spring retainer.

The mono works great in the Nytro, it does everything well.

Bjowett
Im a big fan of the mono skid
I think it is one of the best trail skids out there, it just cant handle the big bumps. For me it has serious durability issues.
What i mean by this is every year at the end of the season i find broken parts. Either rails or suspension arms are cracked.
I have the welterreace beef up kit and suspension arms are now cracking in other areas where he did not install additional bracing
Can you explain in detail what the pds does.
I believe a lot of my issues are related to bottoming out the skid.
Does the pds eliminate bottoming or just slow it down so to speak

How hard is it to mount a mono in a Nytro? I would assume it doesn't just bolt in.

I think superman had a build thread on installing a mono in a nitro. I do know he loved how it rode on the January ty ride"

Superman said:

maim said:

I think superman had a build thread on installing a mono in a nitro. I do know he loved how it rode on the January ty ride"

Click to expand...

I'm going to do another Mono-shock Nytro this summer.

Click to expand...

Sweet! I bet a mono in a Nytro is awesome. I think the mono is the most under rated suspension in the biz.

The PDS comprises a secondary piston that mounts in front of the main piston, along with an additional cylinder/cup that mounts in the cylinder head of the damper body. The second piston runs out in front of the main piston, and engages the cup during last 1" or 2" of shock travel. The length and amount of damping can be adjusted or tuned depending on how much the application requires. It is tuned to slow the bottoming, but it can feel bottomless and when it does bottom it is very subtle. This is because the second piston in the damper has soaked up much of that extra energy that the main piston can not deal with... at least, not with a valve stack that rides well. FWIW, the PDS could be tuned to eliminate bottoming, but then one won't be using all their suspension travel, which would be a waste.

I agree, many of the issues with the Mono are directly related to bottoming...and/or a stiff valve stack that overloads things during small - medium hits. I feel the PDS helps with it quite a lot. The arms and rails will last longer, but perhaps further strengthening and fatigue reducing measures may need to be taken to get things to where they need to be. The rails are full of stress raisers, it's no surprise they crack. Radius every edge and I bet they'll go quite a bit longer.

The Mono does not bolt it, but it one of the easier skid swaps I've done.