Air fork Pressure

[Anonymous]

What position should the bike be in when I adjust/fill the air forks? On the side stand, on the center stand, etc?

[gsbill]

I dont think it matters

[Anonymous]

Re: Air fork Pressure

What position should the bike be in when I adjust/fill the air forks? On the side stand, on the center stand, etc?

It doesn't matter at all. Air pressure is air pressure no matter what position it is in. If you had an empty pickup truck and put 30 psi in the tires, or if you put 1,000 pounds in the bed and put 30 psi in the tires, the tires will still take the 30 psi of pressure, not matter how much weight is on them or their position. That's starting with dead flat tires before you put the 30 psi in them. Does that make sense? Bill

[saaz]

Air forks rely on the internal pressure increasing as the forks are compressed, so it does matter if there is weight on them or not for taking measurements. If the pressure remained the same they would not work. I measure mine when the weight is off the front, either sidestand or centre stand. This gives you a consistent baseline to work off and you can avoid exceeding the maximum.

If you just want to add a bit of pressure to what is there the measured pressure does not matter as adding 2 psi is the same regardless of the starting pressure.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

I always check/adjust mine on the centerstand.

[Anonymous]

I always check/adjust mine on the centerstand.

Aha! I've changed my position on this matter and now agree with you guys. See, even an old dog can learn new tricks. Or maybe I've been taking too many pain meds. Adding air to the forks makes more sense to me while it's on the centerstand. Bill

[Anonymous]

I'd double check the reccomended pressure literature. It sometimes will say 30 psi dry load or no load or similar, giving you a hint as to when to measure the psi. The default, I would assume, would be no load so centerstand it and use a hunk o' wood to support it up if need be.

[Dink]

Or go better still, set the fork preload with spacers to provide 30mm sag; compared between unladen and laden weight, and forget about air altogether, all it does is aerate your forkoil and lose your damping effectiveness anyway. air was only ever a "band-aid" solution anyway.
Dink

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Or go better still, set the fork preload with spacers to provide 30mm sag; compared between unladen and laden weight, and forget about air altogether, all it does is aerate your forkoil and lose your damping effectiveness anyway. air was only ever a "band-aid" solution anyway.
Dink

I agree. I have Progressive fork springs and I ended up with 1/2" PVC spacers to give me that pre-load. I still run 8-10 psi, but that's probably not doing much.
The forks feel good and I don't want to mess with the feel, but I should try no air at all. Seals should last longer too.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure that my manuals say to block up the front end to ensure that there is no fork compression going on. I always did so until putting in PS springs - now I run the PS-recommended zero psi (I've got adjustable preload on the fork caps so don't need any preload boost from air).