front fork idea

[buzzy613]

i got a little bit of an idea going on in my head for my 250r. I want to get a pair of front shocks off of a quad and make some brackets on the forks so it will use both the original forks and will be able to handle a little bit more of a hit with the dual exterior shocks. its oone of those trial and error ideas and i was wondering if anybody had the same idea or a different design?

[just ben]

or use a heavier weight oil and a couple psi of air.

[dcreel]

Progressive sells stiffer fork springs as well.. They tried this on dirtbikes back in the late 70's early 80's. There is a reason why todays bikes don't have shocks up front.. Think about the weight you'll be slapping on there, raising the center of gravity..

[buzzy613]

you do got a point there, i just though id ask here befor trying it

[audioworks04]

Dont add air, that is not what the valve stem is for, it is so that you can bleed the air out. If you want a stiffer ride, then add pvc spacers. If your spring is too long to add spacers than you can cut your spring then add a spacer of equal length. If you cut your spring, remember that for every 1% you cut off, you make your spring rate 1% stiffer. Most forks you can safely remove 10% of your total spring length before you have to work about coil binding. Also if you shorten springs you need to heat and bend the cut coil flat to match the others, you can also heat and compress coils (like old school lowering a car.) But the right way is with valving, fluid, and springs rates. Your idea is doable, but takes alot of planning and math to make work, but has been done before in a fashion similar to what I think your thinking.

[Red Rider]

Dont add air, that is not what the valve stem is for, it is so that you can bleed the air out.Actually, the valve stem is for adding/removing air, as they are "air-adjustable" forks. A few people have been preaching the wrong info on here, it gets spread around, and now the masses are misinformed.

Even though the forks were designed to be "air-adjustable", there are better ways to tune your forks to your needs, such as stated above:
Changing the oil weight/amount
Progressive springs
Spring weight
Spring spacers

Adding air to the forks was more of a quick, "track-side" adjustability feature. The problem with using air to adjust the forks feel, was that as little as 1 pound made them very stiff, plus it was nearly impossible to get the same amount of air in each fork leg without using an equalizing tube.

[buzzy613]

ill look in to spring spacers and stuff, i want it to be able to take a pretty good hit if i ever catch air, thanks for the info guys