fork hand pump

[Steve]

Not being sure how my mind was being read, I will leave that alone.... BTW: I am also a fan of Progressive fork springs and have used them in many of my bikes; vintage and otherwise and I weigh a bit more than 160 lbs. They work for me.

Nobody was trying to read your mind. What we were getting from your post that you were frustrated with the lack of ability to "properly" set the air pressure in your forks. There were a couple of suggestions for gauges and/or pumps that might do that for you and a couple of us offered alernatives in the form of better springs.

You say you are a fan of Progressive springs. I thought I was, too, as we have several sets of them here. Two of them in GSes, one in a Yamaha Venture, one in my Wing. Overall, not too bad, but I installed Sonic (straight-rate) springs in my GS and was VERY pleased to find that it is even better than Progressives.

My 'gravitational attraction' is also "a bit more than 160", and I'll bet that my bike weighs a bit more than yours, so I was offering an alternative based on experience.
It's only a suggestion, you can choose to accept it or not, but nobody is ordering you to do anything.

Evidently your mind was already made up when you started this post, sorry we wasted your time.

.

[bobgroger]

I use my air compresser set to 15 lbs or so, and a low pressure tire gauge like this. Pump it up a little high, then work down.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/SLI0/1011A/N0176.oap?ck=Search_tire+gauge_1505278_3731&keyword=tire+gauge

[geol]

Steve, You said:

QUOTE Well, since you started this thread, it's obvious that you are NOT "happy with your suspension", at least not all of it. UNQUOTE

I don't think I ever said I was unhappy about anything... I had previously searched using google to see what threads were available on the subject of suitable hand air pumps. Most all the threads failed to mention any pump that was low pressure and also anti-loss aka anti-leak. I had such a pump at one time. I gave it away (I think) and kept the Progressive Suspension pump I now have.

The Progressive Suspension pump is 300 PSI and while you can read low PSI values from it, suspect that with this large a PSI scale, may not be very accurate. The reason for a new pump though, was lack of anti-leak/loss feature as when you take the schrader valve off, the air leaks right out. I soon found that if you pump the shocks to 30 PSI, it would bleed down to almost exactly 10 PSI; about where I wanted it. It took about 15 minutes of replacing the pump's schrader valve back on and removing several times to be fairly sure of the consistent 10 PSI. I think I still want a pump that I don't have to fiddle with although it only took 15 minutes and now would take about 5 minutes or so I guess. I found that I had a bit less than the recommended 8.something PSI in both forks but they were equal. I had not checked the air pressure as I never noticed that they were air forks and when I did notice, I was concerned that I hadn't checked them.

I don't want or need suspension upgrades although I think this is great information. The next poster had to give me a lecture on air forks wearing out the seals and mine are fine and likely have been fine for the past 36 years although they may been changed at some point. Not sure I follow the logic of air forks ruining fork seals. I have owned several dozen bikes with air forks and have never had much of an issue on any. I think I will stick with them for a bit.

Charlie G. made the suggestion to look at Buzzy's pump but the only ones they sell now are 200 PSI and 300 PSI although they are anti-leak. Best suggestion has been bobgroger's as I never thought about setting my compressor down to 15 PSI and filling as I have quick release air chucks. The low pressure gauge is a great idea.

Thanks to all who replied... interesting advice and probably more than enough for such a simple issue as a hand air pump.