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1200 Ohlins Semi Active Scu

Discussion in 'Multistrada' started by Beef, Sep 4, 2020.

  1. So following on from the thread hijack in Sales & Wants.......

    I fitted the Semi active SCU after I had fitted stiffer fork springs and shock springs.
    I'm 95kg, my wife is 50 (maybe a bit more in kit..... but you ask her!) We do a fair bit of touring fully loaded (probably more than Duc recommend - we did 5 weeks a couple years ago).
    I ride hard & fast, avoid motorways like scousers do work interviews. I am certainly not the fastest bloke alive & definitely not the smoothest, I can ride smooth.... but it feels a bit boring TBH!
    Hopefully that'll give you an idea of how my bikes ridden.

    We go to the Pyrenees as often as we can, we love the quiet twisty roads. Went last year, and the bike felt very different from normal & varied from absolutely sublime to off puttingly weird/confidence knocking. When it was right, it was amazing, when it was wrong I just lost all confidence. It's very hard to describe as although I know exactly how suspension works, reading what's happening is a bit of a black art that I haven't mastered!

    I did all the settings as per instructed, I never tried anything else, from what I read if you took it off from the setting, the SCU would lose it's active side.

    Taking the active SCU off and going back to the standard one has given me back all the confidence that I ever had. I will point out that I never had the active SCU prior to the spring upgrade.

    On some roads, in a straight line I felt like the bars were pulsing up & down (mm/mm's), I can't really describe how it felt when pushing hard on twisty roads apart from it just wasn't right.

    Perhaps I could've persevered and tried adjusting other things but when you dont get much garage time, I want the bike good to go when I need it.
     
    #1 Beef, Sep 4, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2020
  2. Someone has already said that Ohlins SCU for the early 1200S doesn’t work if you change the spring. Could explain why you didn’t like it. Andy
     
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  3. yeah agreed Andy - I commented on someone looking in Sales & Wants warning them - someone else said they didn't agree with my comment which led to a tangent!:D
     
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  4. I had the Semi-Active SCU on an early 1200S, rear spring upgrade to "Man size" and it worked fine.... loved it.
     
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  5. Hi! I already talked about it in the other thread, will try to explain differently this time:

    Scu is a particular product, it is not so strange that someone could fall in love with it while others may hate it. It does a good job with what it has, just a bunch of sensors (not nearly enough for a semi-active system) and the information coming from the ecu, used in a smart way.

    if I have to make an example, it is like fueling a bike really really well for the sea level, 25C temperature, and you have no air temp and pressure sensor. Everyone will ride the bike there will have a wonderful ride, but if you ride in a different situation? If you go up 500 meters it will probably not be a great problem, but if you go 2500 meters Or ride in the winter?

    in this example the difference in temperature and altitude is the set speed that the Ohlins tech who calibrated the Scu decided to use as a set value (stock spring with a “typical“ rider, it is a bit different in weight if it is Italian or American) And probably with a light pillion (it will deduce it from the torque request/speed ratio, I think). If the suspension speed is different, the scu will behave as before, making the suspension different. Is this necessarily bad? No, but the system is a bit limited and everyone who’s curious about it will need to ride and try it to be sure it will work or not as intended :)
     
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  6. Yup totally get that, I was told the SCU is full of algorithms and selects them on what it thinks is right based on standard suspension........ So sometimes it was spot on with its selection & other times not so.
     
    #6 Beef, Sep 4, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2020
  7. Can someone email Ohlins technical and ask the question?
     
  8. Perhaps my issue was all front end related? :neutral:
     
  9. Someone else who commented on my thread when I said I was having issues said they had tried, Ohlins were not forthcoming!!
     
  10. TBH I was never that convinced I could feel an improvement when I fitted one...
     
  11. Hands up, it was probably me that was guilty of the thread highjack. Sooorrrryyyyyy :yum:blush:
    It would have been handy if the moderators pushed all the off-topic posts out to another thread (or maybe attach them to this one)

    Beef, I'm somewhat heavier than you, probably north of 110kgs due to too many cakes whilst sat at home. We do however ride similar. One of my mates says I'm the only other person he knows who sees a hairpin and continues to accelerate towards it rather than slow down - in my view if you didn't need all of your brakes when you got to the bend, you weren't going fast enough :grinning:
    I said on the other thread I do have the stronger spring, and also more rear preload wound on. I want the bike to deal with whatever I throw it at when fully loaded and at pace (rather than have the centre stand, side stand and pegs on the deck), and accept a compromise that it may be too firm when solo.
    having messed about with the SCU when I first fitted it, now I simply don't bother. It is what it is, and I don't give it a second thought any more.
    What I do know though is the ride on my Enduro is nowhere near as complaint, and it is under-sprung when fully loaded.

    To be honest, road surface and uneven tyre wear give me far more issues than how the bike is damped.

    If you still have the SCU, and can't make up your mind, may I suggest something to try.
    I don't really use enduro mode on my 1200S. I therefore changed all of its settings to match those I had set for Touring before the SCU was fitted. This allowed me to swap between Semi-Active and normal by changing between Touring and Enduro.

    I accept not all riders will like it, just as not all prefer sky hook.

    As for asking Ohlins, when it was introduced a 'white paper' was obtained from somewhere. It used to be on Andy W's site. Don't think it still is as I just looked and can't see it. It described how the Ducati setup worked, and how the SCU differed from this.
    I just took a look, and a lot of the links dont work now, but if your interested go search for 'ohlins mechatronic'.
    https://www.ohlins.com/product/ducati-multistrada-mechatronics/
    The following was posted on ducati.ms, from one of the links on Andy's site.

    [​IMG]
     
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