blackhawkxx Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 What does changing the fork oil height do? Yes, I know that you are changing the air gap but will adding more oil act like a stiffer spring or what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helvet Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 What does changing the fork oil height do? Yes, I know that you are changing the air gap but will adding more oil act like a stiffer spring or what? No, more oil will act like a stronger damper, not a stronger spring.... The difference is hard to explain, but you will notice the bike will become more jumpy on bumps. The problem with the standard suspension of the BB is that the damping is too hard, and the spring is too soft. If you add oil you will only make things worse.... If you want to improve the suspension without paying a lot of money you can buy better springs (front and rear) like Öhlins, Hyperpro, WP, Racetech etc... If you don't have any money at all, you can replace the rod on top of the spring for a new one, and make this about 0.5 up to 1 Inch longer. However, you will be decreasing the maximum travel of the suspension, therefore bottoming it out earlier..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 I was under the impression that since air is the only thing in the system that changes volume with pressure, the less air you have in the system, the more "progressive" the forks become... Like if you are bottoming out the stockers and don't have money for new springs, (worth EVERY PENNY of the $100 too!) you can add some oil height to make the front end not bottom out as badly, or if you have the right rate spring for you, but you aren't using up all of your suspension travel on hard braking, you can take some oil out so that the front end is less progressive, and you use more of your suspension travel under hard braking, but your static sag is still approximately the same... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HERBXX Posted October 12, 2005 Share Posted October 12, 2005 The oil height has no effect on damping as long as you have a enough oil in there to cover the cartridge. As already stated the air is compressed as the fork compresses so it acts like a bit of spring. Increasing the height a little helps control bottoming. The oil height has the most effect when the forks are almost fully compressed. If your bored fill the fork legs right up to the top and the front end will be solid, nothing will move because oil effectively doesn't compress. ( i know it does from a engineerng point of view) but not enought to matter in this application. Herb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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