Mis-tuning Air Forks for Street PerformanceWhich has less mass, steel or air? On most planets, an air bladder is much lighter than a steel spring. There are other performance parameters, but air springs are light. A suspended air fork for a bicycle can often be almost the same weight as a dead rigid steel fork. Another great advantage of the air suspension system is easy adjustability. Varying the air pressure in the positive, or positive and negative chambers can tune a proper ride for differences in rider weight, terrain conditions, or riding style. Currently, suspension forks are designed for off-road. If I were to design a new air fork for street riding, it would be rather different. But for today, using currently available forks, a rider can tune the pressures in the chambers to gain performance for the street.
Performance in speed and handling, especially cornering can be improved by mis-tuning the forks contrary to the off-road recommendations. The tuning objective is to reduce the resistance to being pushed in, and to get the forks to push out quickly, like my Yamaha FZR. Street impacts are small; variations in pavement level more often go down. I want my fork to absorb the small bumps, and I want that tire pushed out onto the ground when the road drops away from me. Like I say, this is really beneficial while cornering. For dual chambered air forks, such as the Rock Shox SIDs I like to use, the fundamental is to make the negative chamber slightly higher pressure than the positive. Around 5 to 8 percent higher. An additional advantage is this allows the bicycle to ride lower, also improving handling. The baseline pressure, whether 100 psi or 140 psi will be determined by rider weight and preference. Then to improve street performance, keep that negative chamber 5% - 8% higher. Alright. Tear it up. Make some noise, troublemaker!
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