New Air Forks: Love them or hate them?

Mojavekid18

Mojavekid18

Just saw an article on these and got all excited. I think this is the next big breakthrough for bikes. Now you can set-up your suspension pefectly out of the box. However, i do not know if these will require any specail tools to redo the seals on or how much they up the price tag.
What are your guy's thoughts? Just another unneeded expense? Or do you think they will change the standard for MX bikes?
http://motocross.transworld.net/1000130797/news/a-closer-look-at-the-kyb-pneumatic-spring-fork/
 
cleonard

cleonard

Do they actually work better or are they just less expensive than metal springs? One down side is a blown fork seal means a collapsed front end. Not sure I want them if that is a possibility.
 
bobkyle2

bobkyle2

cleonard:
Do they actually work better or are they just less expensive than metal springs? One down side is a blown fork seal means a collapsed front end. Not sure I want them if that is a possibility.
Click to expand...


On my trikes... A blowed fork seal was the same as a blowed fork seal normally... Never lost air pressure.
 
Mihylo33

Mihylo33

yeah its a different variation of airfork as the old ones had springs and oil. you just added air to stiffen them up a little
 
James

James

Staff member
Like EFI I'm willing to bet that air forks will become the standard. :thumb: Both the CRF450R and KX450F are sporting air forks in the 2013 model. Kind of surprised that the kx250f didn't get it first though, the SFF might have something to do with it.

I personally think that they'll work better and will be much easier to adjust. However the only problem I could see is heat build up changing your spring rate. Filling it with nitrogen should help with that though, providing it truly is an issue.

Cut away of the air forks.

CRF450R air forks cutaway.jpg
 
Mihylo33

Mihylo33

James:
I personally think that they'll work better and will be much easier to adjust. However the only problem I could see is heat build up changing your spring rate.
Click to expand...


which is why they stopped producing them in the 80's and why whitebros was such a popular suspension in the mid 80's.... None of the factory teams ran airforks once the production rules came out...86???? As a matter of fact none of them ran air shocks after the 1st yr I believe... they did run those giant reservoirs though :thinking:
 
1

14D

Fox separated actually if I remember right. That's why there's fox(the poser company) and Fox Shox(the maker of badass suspension set ups from pit bikes to prerunners)
 
1

14D

Oh. :doh: guess I was wrong

themoreyouknow.jpg
 
cleonard

cleonard

It really looks from the diagram that James posted, that the fork seal does seal the air that provides the spring. On a MX track that's not much of an issue. It's different when you are 40 miles from your truck out in the desert. When the seal fails on metal spring bikes you splooge oil everywhere. You might not have a front brake, but at least you can ride. A blown seal on one of these air shock bikes means mostly collapsed front end.

Then thinking about it again, usually seals only fail a little. It might still be ride-able. You might just have to pump some air into it every few minutes to get back.
 
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