Why Inverted Forks?

Just wondering why inverted forks are better. Sorry if this is a newbie/stupid question. Fire away! :)

Basicly when trying to reduce weight it's best to lighten the unsprung weight.
Example... The seat is sprung.... the wheel is unsprung.... the top of the fork is sprung, but the bottom part is unsprung.

No dumb questions....... just some dumb answers.

Add to that the stiffness is more where you want it to be, the stanchions are clamped in the triples making a more rigid structure.

yup, stiffness , weight reduction, and added sprung weight. which is closer to 1/2 the weight of the wheels and swingarm and lower forks and calipers.. i have the math around here someplace.. :comp13:

Aha! Thanks guys!

but the main reason.. the look bitchin! :cool:
:goofy:

[image: View Post]gll429, on 07 December 2010 - 12:52 AM, said:

but the main reason.. the look bitchin! :cool:
:goofy:

Only because they're better ...... Of course I think springers(the old type) are bitchin' and they don't come close to being better..

[image: View Post]gll429, on 07 December 2010 - 12:52 AM, said:

but the main reason.. the look bitchin! :cool:
:goofy:


AHA!!! THE TRUTH COMES OUT!!! :laughing6-hehe:

C

I love the looks of inverted forks. The R1 swap is dead sexy.

There is more clamping diameter cause the fork body is what the triple clamps onto so its stiffer there. The slider bushings are further apart from each other so the telescoping action is less prone to pitching and yawing when the front wheel tries to lever it in a hard bump. The fork body is usually the heaviest part of the fork and its not unsprung wieght ( does not move directly with the front wheel ) . If you get the right damping and spring rate the fork will track better then a traditional fork.

Also notable is that when you lose a fork seal doing something stupid, the oil ends up all over the tire and discs, instead of in your face... not sure which is better, though...

The one major downside to the US forks is that if you don't have the proper tools, they are a mother to service.

That's why I got myself one of these:
[image: Posted Image]

[image: Posted Image]

[image: Posted Image]

Still a bit more involved than regular forks, but sure makes life easier!

I can't believe no one mentioned the two TOP reasons!
Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) and BRAKES!

The rest, IMHO is nice, but hardly worth spending $$$$$$ for if that's your only reason.

The main advantage of the new Inverted forks over the old standard
legs is the degree of fork tube over lap... the old legs were limited
to the amount of over lap by bottom of the triple trees... whereas the
new inverted fork tubes can overlap right pass the lower triple tree
clamp... this double overlap of the fork tubes pass right through the
critical lower triple clamp junction and offers a instant more ridgid
feel to the steering and suspension action... A rider going from the
old standard legs to the new inverted forks is like going from an
analog front end to a digital front end... the difference can be like
night day because standard telescopic forks are poorly supported due
to limited overlap whereas inverted forks are amply supported due to
overlapping fork tubes at the critical triple clamp junction...

Overlap study of a 41mm inverted fork and a 45mm standard fork... the
standard weights 8lb 4oz and has 160mm of overlap whereas the inverted
fork weights 7lb 13oz and has 360mm of overlap... someday the standard
will be inverted forks just as the standard is now disc brakes over
drum...
[image: Posted Image]

Yup, you'd be surprised to see how much regualr RSU forks can flex.
I found out one day when I sighted down the fork leg of my 95 while pulling at the bars to turn the front wheel. There is acutally a sort of delayed action between the bars/triple calmp and the wheel itself, indicating quite a bit of flex.. After adding on a fork brace the flex was substantially reduced and the front end suspension compliance and handling performance was greatly improved on my bike, but I think I still detect a very slight hint of flex left when I do the same test after the brace was added on. I guess.the only way to remove avoid this last bit of flex is to go with upsideown forks. That's why the biggest item on my wishlist for many years with the VFR has been to add in upsidown forks.........like most of the other manufacturers had already done on their bikes for so long already......

Beck
95 VFR

[image: View Post]Stealth, on 07 December 2010 - 05:39 PM, said:

I can't believe no one mentioned the two TOP reasons!
Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) and BRAKES!

The rest, IMHO is nice, but hardly worth spending $$$$$$ for if that's your only reason.

Just for the record....Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) is also available on regular forks, which might be why that wasn't brought in to it.... Just for people that might not know that.....

Overlap study of a 41mm inverted fork and a 45mm standard fork... the
standard weights 8lb 4oz and has 160mm of overlap whereas the inverted
fork weights 7lb 13oz and has 360mm of overlap... someday the standard
will be inverted forks just as the standard is now disc brakes over
drum...

[/quote]


So - as long as we're on stupid questions - why doesn't Honda just make 'em inverted to start with? They seem fine for the RC51 & others . . . They probably just want to make 'em a limited production thing to seem exclusive so they can charge more $ and get us to run around buying parts to do conversions. :dry:

[/quote]


So - as long as we're on stupid questions - why doesn't Honda just make 'em inverted to start with? They seem fine for the RC51 & others . . . They probably just want to make 'em a limited production thing to seem exclusive so they can charge more $ and get us to run around buying parts to do conversions. :dry:
[/quote]

As I noted, other manufacturers hav gone to upsidown forks a long time ago for most of their higher end bikes. I suspect Honda's bean counters have been responsible for the long wait for upsidown forks on the VFR. They finally have it on the 7th gen. but that was just too long a wait for all of us. It should have included way back on the 5th gen already. I guess they wanted to avoid the embarrasment of trying to put in regular forks again on to what Honda considers as their techno flagship with the 7th gen. The bean counters might have finally lost against the engineers at Honda, otherwise we might have still seen regular RSU forks on the 7th, the way things were going. :dry:

Beck
95 VFR

[image: View Post]Monk, on 07 December 2010 - 06:33 PM, said:

[image: View Post]Stealth, on 07 December 2010 - 05:39 PM, said:

I can't believe no one mentioned the two TOP reasons!
Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) and BRAKES!

The rest, IMHO is nice, but hardly worth spending $$$$$$ for if that's your only reason.

Just for the record....Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) is also available on regular forks, which might be why that wasn't brought in to it.... Just for people that might not know that.....

Don't know about you. My stock VFR forks only had preload. :dry: Now my Ohlin forks, shock and Brembo brakes. That's another story. :wub:

[image: View Post]RustyA, on 07 December 2010 - 07:34 PM, said:

[image: View Post]Monk, on 07 December 2010 - 06:33 PM, said:

[image: View Post]Stealth, on 07 December 2010 - 05:39 PM, said:

I can't believe no one mentioned the two TOP reasons!
Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) and BRAKES!

The rest, IMHO is nice, but hardly worth spending $$$$$$ for if that's your only reason.

Just for the record....Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) is also available on regular forks, which might be why that wasn't brought in to it.... Just for people that might not know that.....

Don't know about you. My stock VFR forks only had preload. :dry: Now my Ohlin forks, shock and Brembo brakes. That's another story. :wub:

I think Monk's point was that you do not have to go with upsidown forks to get rebound and damping adjustment features. many RSU forks have those features way before upsidown forks were ever sold to the public.. The VFR only had preload because they wanted to keep costs down.

Beck
95 VFR

[image: View Post]Beck, on 07 December 2010 - 07:41 PM, said:

[image: View Post]RustyA, on 07 December 2010 - 07:34 PM, said:

[image: View Post]Monk, on 07 December 2010 - 06:33 PM, said:

[image: View Post]Stealth, on 07 December 2010 - 05:39 PM, said:

I can't believe no one mentioned the two TOP reasons!
Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) and BRAKES!

The rest, IMHO is nice, but hardly worth spending $$$$$$ for if that's your only reason.

Just for the record....Fully adjustable (preload, compression damping, rebound damping) is also available on regular forks, which might be why that wasn't brought in to it.... Just for people that might not know that.....

Don't know about you. My stock VFR forks only had preload. :dry: Now my Ohlin forks, shock and Brembo brakes. That's another story. :wub:

I think Monk's point was that you do not have to go with upsidown forks to get rebound and damping adjustment features. many RSU forks have those features way before upsidown forks were ever sold to the public.. The VFR only had preload because they wanted to keep costs down.

Beck
95 VFR

Sorry, my sense of humor failed me. :blush: Should have used this instead. :goofy: