Wilbers USA now HYPERPRO

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beeroux

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From another list, I am copying below a letter from Klaus Huenecke of Wilbers USA:

----------------------------------------------------

Wilbers USA

April 16, 2007

Ref.: Wilbers line of products, manufactured in Germany

Dear Customer:

I am sorry to say that as of 4-16-07 we will not be offering the Wilbers products out of Germany. Orders for Wilbers shocks or springs out of Germany, that have been placed with us after March 1 – 07 up to April 13 - 07, can not be delivered, because the manufacturer decided not to ship our orders, despite acknowledging them in writing.

What has happened???

I decided some time ago to expand my business by adding a line of high quality, but more economically priced twin-shocks for the vintage market, the YSS product. Please understand that I started marketing the Wilbers products back in 2001 without an exclusive contract from the manufacturer, and still do not have one today.

Mr. Wilbers came to know about my interest in the YSS products a few weeks ago, and as a reprimand, told me that I am not part of their “preferred” vendor group any longer. As such, the delivery commitment of 14 working days would not apply to Wilbers USA any longer. I would have to wait for the product to be delivered when they are ready to ship it. I swallowed, waited, and told my customers that there is a delivery crunch due to high order volume in Germany, hoping that Germany would ship the pending orders a bit later. Asking for the delivery time again after about 10 days, I was told that as long as I would invest money with a competitor, I would not be supplied outstanding orders. I asked him to discuss the issue so we could arrive at a solution that would be satisfactory to both of us. He declined, demanding that I would state and commit in writing to be an exclusive Wilbers supplier, not carrying any competitive product, without offering me an exclusive contract. I declined respectfully and again expressed my interest in continuing with Wilbers, but the need to discuss the issue. I suggested to continue the supply of product to the US market and not to “penalize” the customer base because of our differences. I offered to turn the business over to a successor if we would not arrive at an agreeable solution, but to continue serving the market until that point of time. Mr. Wilbers strongly declined, telling me that I would not understand the seriousness of the situation and told me that my orders – all of which had been confirmed – would not be shipped to us.

I am sorry that it came to this, but my business ethics do not allow me to continue dealing with a person or business under those threats. Disagreements happen every day, and can be resolved by discussing them, but they should not be carried out on the back of the people we both need most – our customers.

I have contacted another supplier of High Quality shocks in the Netherlands – HYPERPRO, explained the situation and asked if they would work with me. I am glad to say that they agreed, and as of today April 17, I am proud to offer the HYPERPRO line of shock absorbers. All current orders will be contacted over the next few days, informed of the situation, and asked whether they want to accept the Hyperpro product, or cancel the order and receive a refund of their down-payment.

We continue doing business under the registered name of Wilbers USA. We continue serving the Wilbers products we sold in the past with warranty claims, regular service, modifications etc. We will honor the 5 year warranty extended to you at time of purchase to the fullest.

I know it will be difficult in the next few months promoting a new product, and basically starting from scratch, but I am committed to do so. Please contact us with your suspension questions and needs, and say hello when you see us at the next rally, show or meeting. It is a long explanation, but I felt you needed to get the full story to understand the situation. Thank you for your time in reading this letter. I am looking forward doing business with you in the future.

Sincerely

Klaus Huenecke

 
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Cool.

HyperPro group buy??

shocks41.gif


TYPE 41/ Remote Reservoir
Our GP Rear Shocks has fully adjustable high and low speed compression and rebound dampening. Designed as a full grand prix racing Shock, it has all the advantages of low stiction, CNC machined 7075 aircraft alloy body and infinite spring preload. This Shock type is available with the remote reservoir connected with a fully turn able connectors at the end of the hose. Reservoir is attached with special high pressure hose for application where space is limited or accessibility to reservoir is enhanced. Our GP Shock is one of the highest specification production bike Shocks available in the world today.

Some Specifications:

* Nitrogen reservoir

* High and low speed adjustable compression damping each with 30 clicks

* 50 clicks on rebound adjustment

* Lightweight 7075 aircraft alloy CNC machined Body

* Integrated heat compensation

* Infinite spring preload adjuster

* Exclusive rising rate spring standard, linear option available
 
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That's sucky. It's like watching sausage being made and not very pretty. Hopefully, rebuild parts aren't proprietary.....and I don't think they are as Progressive Suspensions was able to fix mine up from what I think are commodity parts.

......P.S. I tweaked your text copy Beeroux for readability.

 
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After hearing of some failures and now this, I think its time to start saving my money for an Ohlins. <_<

 
In future all my funds for supension tuning will be directed straight to Traxxion Dynamics for the Penske (rear)/AK20 cartridge (front) setup. This company has thier shit together when it comes to motorcycle suspension, and even in the busy part of the season can still turn product around in a very reasonable amount of time.

I was in on the Wilbers deal, and IMO Klaus made a huge error in not supplying folks with the correct setup for their needs, hence I believe is the reason for several failures popping up. It seems their under sprung and in turn, over worked. For instance, all you guys who are running with the weak ass .95 kg/mm spring rate are actually running a rate that is around 100 lb's below the stock spring setup. Someone please let me know why anyone would require this on the FJR as it makes no sense at all to me? I don't think the correct sag numbers can be reached with this spring? I sure couldn't reach them.

This also raises the question as to the valving that was also added to all these shocks. If the spring is way off, I can only assume the internals are as well. I am in the process of pulling my shock and sending it to Traxxion for a full diagnosis of what is really in there, as I don't have confidence in Klaus to do this correctly. They will be correctly addressing the spring weight (which I increased after the fact, against the advice of Klaus) and all internals to insure that it will be finally setup for my needs.

 
You may have some really good points there Skyway. After talking to you about the problems you had with your rear shock, I specifically asked Klause for the same size spring you got. I forget what the rate was, but it was 3-4 levels higher than what he recommended. I personally don't regret that decision and feel that my bike handles quite well.

My rear shock now has 25-30k miles on it, and if its not due for a rebuild yet, it probably will be at the end of this year. I'm definately NOT sending it back to Wilburs (not due to Klaus's situation) and am debating punting the entire shock for one I know will not only be around in the US for a while, but that has a reputation for quality.

Perhaps you have the right idea in finding out if the shock is OK or salvageable by a company such as Traxxion. Do me a favor and keep me up to date on this.

 
For those that may not be aware.... the Wilbers and the HyperPro are essentially the same shock.

Back in the Day, it used to be only one company, HyperPro... then several years ago, a splinter group within HyperPro split off to form Wilbers in Germany, and thought they had a legit rights to the shock design.

It seems that this was disputed by HyperPro... and still is to this day.

In any event, take a close, close look at the HyperPro pictured above. If you study it long enough, you will see it is a Wilbers #641 with remote pre-load. Same shock body. Same collars. Same remote reservoir. Other than the spring and a few hardware bits that are anodized a different color, it's pretty much the same product.

Re: Wilbers USA.... I have a lot of mixed feelings here. We did the first Group buy with them in the early spring of 2005. I was pretty happy with them at first, but the increasing number of "issues" we starting seeing in the late summer of '05 were kinda disturbing. Shocks shipped from Germany with spring rates lower than required was (and is) a pretty big issue. Still, for the majority of folks, most seemed fairly happy with the Wilbers as far as bang for the buck. So, we did a second Group Buy with them in early Spring 2006. This round seemed to go a lot better than the initial round; Klaus apparently had worked out better communications with the German factory.

Yet by Fall of 2006, after hearing more issues with the Wilbers, I started feel uneasy about using them in any future Group Buys. Then the final straw occurred: late September, in the middle of a 1200-mile road trip on the Blackbird, my Wilbers #641 shock blew a seal and completely failed. I bottomed the bike at speed, and tore up the rear fender so bad, I ended up having to replace it.

It's back to Penske or Ohlins for me.... :glare:

 
After hearing of some failures and now this, I think its time to start saving my money for an Ohlins. <_<
:poster_stupid: I'm not to happy with the Wilber shock anyways. At first it was fine, but it seems like I'm constantly cranking up the preload. I think the spring is softening up! Need to send it back for a rebuild and then sell it and get an Ohlins!

 
In future all my funds for supension tuning will be directed straight to Traxxion Dynamics for the Penske (rear)/AK20 cartridge (front) setup. This company has thier shit together when it comes to motorcycle suspension, and even in the busy part of the season can still turn product around in a very reasonable amount of time.
I was in on the Wilbers deal, and IMO Klaus made a huge error in not supplying folks with the correct setup for their needs, hence I believe is the reason for several failures popping up. It seems their under sprung and in turn, over worked. For instance, all you guys who are running with the weak ass .95 kg/mm spring rate are actually running a rate that is around 100 lb's below the stock spring setup. Someone please let me know why anyone would require this on the FJR as it makes no sense at all to me? I don't think the correct sag numbers can be reached with this spring? I sure couldn't reach them.

This also raises the question as to the valving that was also added to all these shocks. If the spring is way off, I can only assume the internals are as well. I am in the process of pulling my shock and sending it to Traxxion for a full diagnosis of what is really in there, as I don't have confidence in Klaus to do this correctly. They will be correctly addressing the spring weight (which I increased after the fact, against the advice of Klaus) and all internals to insure that it will be finally setup for my needs.
+1

Similar concerns for me -- Wilbers GB ('06) for the FJR, I'm going to need to put a stiffer spring on it and I also wondered about the valving changes necessary to make that right. Especially two up, I need more spring and more compression damping -- particularly in teh rear. Bottoming the suspension even occasionally in corners is not acceptable.

Only a month or so after installling the GB Wilbers, I got the Traxxion AK-20 and Penske 8981 (no.?) for my '03 Blackbird on a GB. Considerably more expensive than the Wilbers, but absolutely dialed in. The Wilbers was a great improvement over OEM on the FJR for an excellent price, but when $$ is taken out of the question, the Traxxion/Penske combo eats it for lunch. Suffice it to say that the Traxxion customer support and communication was right in line with the quality of their product and setup, too. Spendy, but they do have their shit together AND their products are what will be the suspension setups on all my bikes in the future.

 
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So far my low buck Willy is doin fine. Being the psychic I am, when I ordered mine, I calculated all of the weights, then added 50lbs as an error factor. Turned out to be about perfect. Guess I'm one of those who are happy with what I got, especially as at the time, there didn't appear to be a whole lot of options available, unless funds were unlimited, which in a way still appears to be the case. $2000 suspension systems just aren't in the cards for a lot of guys, me included. Tis a shame, really.

 
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$2000 suspension systems just aren't in the cards for a lot of guys, me included. Tis a shame, really.
You are right that addressing front and rear, especially when adding the AK20 cartriges will run up a fair tab. But with only the rear shock and all the bells and whistles, the pricing of both is very comperable. They also have an FJR test mule on site that was used for the development of their suspension components.

Also of note is that Traxxion has developed a custom straight rate spring kit just for the FJR. Also available are some additional parts to ensure that the spring never rubs any of the fork internals. No more of the awful metal on metal rubbing noises that can occur when the forks are being pumped with certain aftermarket springs. Spring kit pricing is also in line with other manufacturers $$.

The decision to go with this company came quickly for me during a lengthy phone conversation with Lee (sportryder here) at their headquarters. This guy's head is screwed on the right way, and make no mistake about it, he's very knowledgeable about the FJR platform and suspension tuning in general. That's where the additional cost/value comes into play for me, there's no price that can be put on this type of experience.

So far my low buck Willy is doin fine.
The wilbers system IMO is a great product, it just needs to be setup correctly.

 
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