Stupid Question

[rphillips]

How could a fork spring be reciprocating mass ??? Like ringer said about the oil level, slightest humanly perceptible difference. You always want any weight as low as possible on a bike to make it less top heavy. Tighter (heavier) end of coils down should be less top heavy.

[zed1015]

Tighter wound end at the TOP.

[mmattockx]

How could a fork spring be reciprocating mass ???

It's a 2 year old thread, but what the hell...

The correct terms in question are sprung and unsprung mass, not reciprocating weight (as Steve said). The end against the damper rod is 100% unsprung mass, the end against the fork cap is 100% sprung mass. All the coils in between are some combination of unsprung/sprung mass. With a straight rate spring I think the distribution would be linear along the length of the spring, but with a progressive spring it won't be.

From the standpoint of minimizing unsprung mass you want the close coils at the top. I doubt anyone could tell the difference either way on heavy, flexible, softly sprung bikes like our GS's.


Mark