Lots of Aprilia bikes with Ohlins R & T forks suffered similar cracks. Aprilia reduced the torque setting for the bolts in the manual because it was discovered that overtightening was the cause. Most of the failures came from tyre fitters just cranking them right up when refitting wheels etc. The fork itself was fine unless those bolts were too tight. The tightening torque is very low about 8nm on the Aprilia i think.
Has anyone mentioned doing wheelies? Up, up, away in my beautiful.......(insert Mutley type here). Red ones are lighter/faster. Just checked my Sport T Mutley. No fault lines showing (yet).
Just as a precaution I removed the bolts yesterday then re-torqued them, 15nm, 1-2-1 fashion. Peace of mind is priceless IMHO.
I think a good number of us would appreciate it if you took your pathetic bile and f*cked off elsewhere. Cheers.
Ah come on...he's just trying to convert all of us poor souls suffering under the burden of a substandard bike, and trying to show us the true path of GS-mounted sanctimonious smugness. Repent sinners, and ye shall be saved. :biggrin:
The problem is that while I've got a realistic chance of getting my grubby little hands on titanium, Inconel is a bit more difficult. There's always a chance though and I do sometimes work in a place where Inconel is in frequent use.
Yes. I do think it's too easy to break these Ohlins forks, causing total failure of the clamp, in a way where you'd not normally detect it. If the designer thought at 11.5mm thick casting was correct on the n/s leg why is the o/s under 1/2 that. Or to put it another way. Why has the designer added so much extra weight to the n/s, when 5.5mm is clearly (sic) strong enough for the o/s. Note I think this is a failing of Ohlins, not Ducati. Yes...I'm a very bad engineer for not having my laptop and workshop manual disk to hand when changing the front wheel. No..I'm not trying to get anyone else to pay for this mistake. Our Britool torque wrench starts at 10Nm (70Nm max) and i'm sure we didn't even go to 10Nm; having played with this for a while. I have to accept that not doing them up 1-2-1-2 etc must have a massive effect. Please check yours each time your torque them and I've added this to my pre-ride check...yes I'm a sad ROSPA trained rider.
If it's you that's cracked it and I think that's still a big IF, it's probably the 1-2-1-2 thing and not the torque that's the problem, as doing one side up tight and then the other will put a much greater load through the casting. I'd write to Ohlins, tell them what's happened.
I worded my last thread poser hoping you would question your own words after reading, but I failed miserably..
Get bone of these Norbar 13262 Torque Wrench 1/4" Ratchet Adjustable Dual Scale 1-20 N.m/10-180 lbf.in
When using torque wrenches, it's better to use one, with the torque you require near the middle of the wrenches range. Using a 10-100Nm etc wrench, won't give an accurate application of torque at 15Nm. Also, the screws need to be tightened 1-2-1. Never keep clicking the wrench on, once the screw is tightened.
and as said in a recent thread - use of a Torque wrench even when correctly calibrated is not idiot proof.
just trying to help here Jerry - although better than nothing and arguably irreplaceable for much higher figures, you can experience a fixing tightening situation (e.g. with low-friction surfaces and/or lubrication) where it's way too 'slidey' for a Torque wrench to work properly and if the operator doesn't sense this then damage of one kind or another is inevitable. This is a real headbanger for me.
I have too many delicate bicycle parts that break if you look at them wrong. My smallest torque 'wrench' goes up to 10nm, but, to echo Andy, I don't use it over 8 (my biggest does the torque on a 998 rear wheel - it's four feet long : ) ) As with anything delicate, it is really important to spread the load when tightening up. Personally, I'd say that the final torque figure is probably less important than tightening gradually, spreading the load. These are, after all called 'pinch bolts'. The main spindle bolt holds everything together; the pinch bolts just stop the spindle moving while it's being tightened up. Adding to your toolbox of righty-tighty, lefty-loosey: can I propose left, right, left, right?
