Tractive Suspension

[DRxBMW]

Move over Ohlin, Wilber,Hyper Pro & YSS shocks, there's a new kid in town. 

If I have any  extra money left over from Christmas shopping, the GS would soon be outfitted with a new pogo stick.

Tractive Suspension, a Netherland based manufacturer, has presented a semi active suspension on a BMW F 800 GS demo motorcycle. The front fork and rear shock were equipped with adjustable ride height functionality with more than 45 mm range. For this purpose Tractive Suspension developed a small and powerful electro-hydraulic unit for spring preload adjustment.

http://www.tractivesuspension.com/

For both front fork and rear shock are equipped with a new damping valve. It adjusts compression and rebound simultaneously within only a few milliseconds. Together with the Tractive Integrated Sensing Technology for front and rear suspension the valve can be used in a semi active or adaptive control mode.
Electronic ride height adjustment

Components of the electronic ride height adjustment: rear shock with adjuster module and user interface.

A series of different electronic control functionalities are combined in one ECU. This Tractive Control Unit can control just a single electro hydraulic preload adjuster or up to four different applications. The demo bike at the EICMA in Milan showed the four application version controlling two damping valves for front fork and rear shock and two electro hydraulic preload adjusters simultaneously in a semi active and in an adaptive mode.

The electronic features introduced by Tractive Suspension have been gathering experience at test tracks of various customers. At the EICMA the response was overwhelming from all directions: from end customers to almost all motorbike and suspension brands present.

First step into the market: electronic preload adjuster

This winter Tractive will start the supply of the first module: the Tractive electronic preload adjuster for rear shocks. It will be sold through various channels for a retail price of 695 Euro. The package includes the preload adjuster module, the interface, all necessary cables, fittings and manual. The preload adjuster allows ride height adjustments of up to 45 mm (rate is up to 3 mm per second). Adjustment will be possible even while riding and at full load.

The system shall fit most original or aftermarket rear shock absorbers.

[Snowy]

When my 1200 ESA shocks eventually get tired I will be looking for a replacement that retains the OEM ability to change settings remotely.  Hopefully it will be less than the $3K + pricing now on offer from Ohlins.