Air in front forks

[steptoe]

Hi Lou, for starters 11psi is way to much,, from memory  5 or 6 was the going rate,,  if your going to stay on that path,  you can get pressure gauges that read up to 10 psi,,

I had the same set up on my GSX 1100 in the might 80, s also with the balance pipe, they leaked  and never held air for long as Pg said

Tim was actually talking about this at the rally at one point,, it cost him  $1.60 in 20, s to fix his problem,, kept shimming until it felt good,

They are supposed to drop when you hop on so when you hit a bump you  have an up  and down cushioned  flow,, with all that  air they slam up to hard putting untold stress on the damper rod and the bolt  at the bottom

 thats My 5 cents worth  mate

[pgnz]

Air forks might sound classy but were pretty much a fail ,  needing compressed air to stiffen the forks means plain and simple that the spring rate is too weak for the combined weight of bike and rider.  Or else the fork oil level is waay low....  Air forks on roadbikes are ancient history, bit of a flash-in-the-pan gimmick from the early 80's,  came and went but were ditched from the scene,  not a success,  the high pressure clings the seals to the tubes as tight as a scotsmans purse-strings,  causes stiction/friction,  the air soon enough leaks out,  by the time you cover a few miles the forks are out-of-whack and all over the show again,  gas-station airguns are unsuitable as hell,    end of the day if the fork spring-rate and damping isn't matched to the rider,  pumping in compressed air to compensate is a bodge fix,  emulators and short stiff straight-rate aftermarket springs are the legit way to improve the front end feel

[Eveready1100]

There were, many years ago, aftermarket air fork caps to fit the Standard forks. haven't seen anything like that for years. Mind you, I haven't really been looking either. Tricky part is that the spring preload adjustment is lost with these caps, though with a little experimentation, you could shim the spring for the desired (no air assistance) baseline preload tension.

Another option would be to fit one of these under the lower clamp.



Original kit off a GPZ750. They do require a tiny hole being drilled in the forktube to allow the air to get into them, but do balance the pressures between them, unlike the aforementioned air caps that had to have a balance kit bought separately to keep the pressures balanced between the forks. 

[excess.11]

Anyone ever attempted/succeded in retro fitting air valves to the front forks of a Standard?
Aside from an adaptor /reducer for differing thead sizes to fit the unit with appropriate sealant ....and possible seating to the internal spring.....internal dampening ......... or fork seal issues....what are the other pitfalls if any are there percieved  in fitament and results ? .

[beemeerr11]

Gotta say the the initial hit was 45 PSI but I had no say in that

Cheers

[Eveready1100]

Just another thing for the guys to know. Be VERY careful using service station's tyre inflators on the forks as most types normally give an initial shot of air when doing car tyres which usually is just enough (or more) to wreck the fork seals. Much safer using a hand pump as we're only talking about a very small volume to pump low pressure into.

[beemeerr11]

In the 5 years that I've owned the RH I haven't bothered to mess with suspension, besides buying a new set of IKON shocks to go to Bourke before I left.
 
Did a ride today with the local Vintage club 202Kim's , I wanted to do this before going to Bourke, as it turned out some guy with a camper trailer was hogging the air hose and I was meant to be meeting George in one  hour on the outskirts of Canberra, so bugger that I'm out of here.
The whole time I rode to Bourke I was on the lookout for an adjustable tyre inflator, never found one.

Today I put 11psi into both forks, lifted the forks about 2 inches from the drop that happened when I sat On the he bike.

It made sooooooo  much difference I wish I did it before Bourke, the bike just handled so much more "user friendly" It was a
totally different bike.

Just letting you guys on know.

Lou


Not sure that whatever the other model is t"E" that you guys ride have this but just thought I'd let you guy know