Air Assist front forks??

wacko · Posted: November 6, 2007, 9:38 pm Post subject: Air Assist front forks??

Anybody have them on their bike? I have them on the 79 xs special I purchased for my project and am looking for some info on them???

dwyatt · Posted: February 22, 2008, 5:58 pm Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

I have the caps and am going to put them on as soon as I finish replacing the seals and putting in the cartridge imulators. I used them on dirt bikes back in the day and liked them.

thrasher · Posted: May 28, 2009, 4:23 am Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

are the caps all that is required? i have a set of the caps as well but didn't know if they were worth using or not.

dwyatt · Posted: May 28, 2009, 8:35 am Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

Caps and about 12 - 15 psi air should do it if you are keeping the springs and using the air to adjust effective spring rate, a bit more if you ditch the springs. There is very little volume in there, so be careful when you put the air in, doesn't take much at all!

Tomterrific · Posted: May 28, 2009, 9:35 am Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

I have just put air caps on my '77D. I have forks from an '81 with stock progressive springs. The springs are soft for me so my thinking was that I could cut a preload spacer the length of the first adjustment ('81 had a 3 position preload adjuster in the caps) and stiffen the rest of the way with the air pressure. Works, doesn't leak air. I'm using a stiff 14 psi with a very nice progressive suspension pump that has a low pressure gauge built in. The pump and guage are a necessary expense with the air forks.

DON'T USE A COMPRESSER TO FILL THE FORKS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.

Tom Graham

dwyatt · Posted: May 28, 2009, 12:41 pm Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

Life on the edge ...............

xsleo · Posted: May 29, 2009, 2:48 pm Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

Linking the air caps together so they both have the same pressure is a good idea.

yamaman · Posted: May 29, 2009, 3:21 pm Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

Why is it a good idea Leo?

xsleo · Posted: May 29, 2009, 4:17 pm Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

The pressure will be the same in both forks. With seperate forks you will have a harder time getting and keeping the pressure the same. The same thing applies to rear air shocks.
The forks with different pressures will react differently to road conditions. This could possiblely cause a handling problem under these conditions. On the few bikes I have seen With air suspension, as my 650 Seca, the shocks and forks are linked left to right.

yamaman · Posted: May 29, 2009, 4:53 pm Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

Cool, just wanted to hear your reasoning, cheers.

Not sure if there'd be anything wrong with the two forks being set up different!

It used to be common (in 70's racing anyway) to set one fork up for rebound dampning and the other for compression, so they'd be way different from each other!

I've ridden plenty of bikes with blown fork seals, they mostly still handled fine. When I finaly got around to sorting them, find a large difference in oil volumes in each leg............Thats gotta be heaps worse than a couple of psi out here & there!

xsleo · Posted: May 29, 2009, 4:59 pm Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

Well some of the big heavy touring bikes use different forks, a cartridge in one side and a damper rod in the other. So maybe It's not as important as I think. I'll still keep mine the same side to side.

dwyatt · Posted: July 10, 2009, 7:44 am Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

Another advantage is that you've doubled your air volume when you are filling, so easier to get to the right pressure.

blackwidow · Posted: July 23, 2009, 6:59 am Post subject: Re: Air Assist front forks??

this is an old topic but I have them on my 77 as well

What Happened to 650rider.com?

Yamaha xs650