How much air in forks?

How much air do you put into the forks of an 86 500? i personally have no clue but I'm sure that it has a rough limit as too how much to put in. Are there any standard forks that can be swaped into the trees to take the place of the stockers without too much mod(ie 929 forks in the later gens.)?

the sticker on mine says 3-5 psi, so not very much.

not sure about the mods.

superfunkomatic, Mar 7 2006, 05:06 PMthe sticker on mine says 3-5 psi, so not very much.

not sure about the mods.

Pedro at C&C told me 4, but that was on my 86

I was going to post a link to my 'Fork-Air' thread but it seems to have been erased from the site sad.gif ...
On the upside, to summarize that thread: I found that on my '87 700, the manual suggests 0-6 psi under normal riding conditions (although it also says to shift from 5th to 6th gear at 37 mph under 'normal riding conditions'). And there is a warning: DO NOT FILL TO MORE THAN 42 PSI. So I think you should start low and go up as needed but do not overfill them.
Also, check out this thread:
http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.p...ndpost&p=223088

hawglet, Mar 7 2006, 10:46 PM
How much air do you put into the forks of an 86 500?  i personally have no clue but I'm sure that it has a rough limit as too how much to put in. Are there any standard forks that can be swaped into the trees to take the place of the stockers without too much mod(ie 929 forks in the later gens.)?

NONE!
When you add any air to the forks, you are making the fork seals push against the fork tubes. The creates much more "stiction" and it makes the forks much more harsh.
(like they aren't already too harsh with the 80's damping rod front end)

Try it out, and see....

-Frank.

Franko!, Apr 13 2006, 01:36 PMNONE!
When you add any air to the forks, you are making the fork seals push against the fork tubes. The creates much more "stiction" and it makes the forks much more harsh.
(like they aren't already too harsh with the 80's damping rod front end)

Try it out, and see....

-Frank.

Without air in them it's nearly impssible to corner in town and through nice rollers and bottoms out very very easy.

hawglet, Apr 13 2006, 10:16 PMWithout air in them it's nearly impssible to corner in town and through nice rollers and bottoms out very very easy.

If that is the case, then you need new springs. With my factory springs, the front suspension would bottom out under hard braking and hitting a small bump.

Then I installed a pair of 1.0 Kg/mm springs, and there is very little dive under hard braking.

(1.0 are a little too stiff on the street, but nice at the track. The factory spring rate is .494 Kg/mm.)

-Frank