I have the option of selecting any of the two. I get Wilbers for a better price, and the factory make it to my order (Weight, riding style...)
WP would deliver a similar setup, but I get the extra quality control as the shop owner happens to be _the_ suspension guru in Norway. I don't know him well enough to get a good price but I know that he would make sure I'm 110% satisfied.

I intend to use the bike for varied riding, including an occational trackday. But I'm not a specialist in suspension setup.

Do I need the model with all the trick parts as external reservoir and hydraulic preload or will I be ok with the less costly model that are basically the same model but with cumbersome adjustments? (Don't know about Wilbers but WP is the same allthough one adjustment are missing (Hi speed rebound i think)

 

I've never had a WP but over the years I've had penske, ohlins, sachs, fox, and now a wilbers.

The hydraulic preload is good if you frequently carry passengers or heavy luggage AND if you will change it accordingly. I've never had to touch the wilbers pre-load as it was set correctly by them.

I greatly prefer the hi-lo adjustability option on my wilbers as all the other shocks listed above only had the low range or rebound only. It really makes a difference in overall ride quality. Low speed is adequate for all around damping but hi-speed deals with very hard bumps like pot holes.

Your suspension guru should be able to tune ANY shock you bring him. The questions are: Will he? And at what costs? I assume he would tune for free any shock he sells so the WP maybe the cheapest in the end.

 

What is the dampening the other way (on the way down) called "bound"? Any way, WP has a unique feature where this adjustment are truly unconnected with the rebound. According to this guy, WP is the only damper with this feature. Others claim they have separate adjustment but the "bound" are to some degree connected to the rebound adjustment. Makes WP way better to adjust.

Anyway, what model of Wilbers are you using?
The way you talk about it I assume you are happy with it?

Edit: Does it have ride hight adjustment?

 

I have the 641 with hi-lo compression and the other is called rebound. The stock unit has rebound and preload only; no compression adjustments.

Yes, I'm happy with mine but the US distributor found it necessary to drop them and go with WP because of a business dispute.

 

Yeah, I read that mail here, not pretty. Just went to Wilbers.de and they have a new supplier in US: www.motorcycle-suspension.com
Btw. I added above another question: Does it have ride height adjustment, and does it work as in 5 - 10mm above stock height?

 

Thanks for the link.

No I didn't get ride height adjuster (more $) as I can shim it with a washer above the mount almost as easy. Most adjusters have at least a 20mm range.

 

I also have the 641 wilbers. Its working good on my bike.
I didn't take the hight and preload adjustment. ($ or in my case €)

I can also recomend The book Motorcycle suspension technology from wilbers. Very much suspension information in there.

 

I'd take into account your desire to avoid 'cumbersome' adjustment. The more option for damping and ride height adjustments are great - but also a lot more opportunity to create an ill-handling bike. If you know yourself, and are not likely to fiddle with the adjustability to optimize for different riding conditions, than simpler might be better and just work with someone to get the basic setup right. As was said ride height adjustment can be done once very easily with a shim - the adjuster is useful if you change tires with different heights to maintain your baseline geometry - may not be an issue for you.

 

Good point. However I just ordered the Wilbers 641 unit with the sparate reservoir and hydraulic preload.
I'm not too conserned. I would do any adjustment step by step and if I mess it up there are plenty of people around to get me on the right track again. Another advantage together with cheap or free tires after being activ in Road Racing.

For the hight adjustment I guess I'll just move my old spacer over to the new unit.