I turned mine into them. Just drilled some holes and put in some air valves and I am now riding on air! And no leaks! 13psi is just right. Using the sorry ass stock springs. A cheap and good trick! The ride is just great! If any one would like to go with air, let me know, and I will give more details. Jay-Impala-man

I cant believe youd have the balls just to drill into the forks! If my wife saw me doing that to my new bike she'd go bananas!

I think I'd prefer to pick up a set of s/h Sport forks.

Well done on the conversion though!

Yeah, I did that with my Husqvarna, too, 31 years ago. Worked okay. At the time, the idea was to replace the fork springs, not augment them, with air. Got many miles out and lost pressure...bummer. Keeping the springs, too, was the eventual way to go. I had mine set up so that both legs were equalized and filled at a single point. Only cost a few bucks worth of Weatherhead fittings, and is easily done. Air, as a spring, is naturally progressive.

Kim

Jay, did you take the fork caps off first before you drilled them?

I'd be concerned about metal shavings in the forks. Never had much luck with air shocks on my dirt bikes, worked okay on my GPz tho.

Bart

Yes, I took off the caps 1st. and took them to a shop who does great machine work. He just drilled and tapped the caps and put in air valves that I got at a parts store for $3.99 ea. I then put on some dice that I got at Auto-Zone for $4.00. I put 13psi into each fork leg. Works great! I did put in 15w Bel-Ray fork oil. The socket to fit the chrome nuts is hard to come by for some reason. But I got one for $10.00. I have been on a toy-run today and 3 Sportster folks ask me about my air forks. I have been told many times that Sportster forks and shocks suck! They do!!! 2004 Sportster 1200R. Jay-Impala-man :tour

I did that with my '74 TS250 Suzuki...Gotta watch not to put too much air in there..Worked great though, now that I remember.

Yes, you keep the springs in there. They are just now getting air now. Jay-Impala-man

Hey Impala man. I am very interested in this mod. Sounds very basic. but very effective. Do you have any pictures

I had air forks on my shadow and there was a warning sticker on there that said not to go over 6 pounds of air pressure

just a thought ....

I remember doing this trick years ago on our dirt bikes. It worked real good even for hard use. I forgot all about it.

Great Idea and real cheap too.

Can't do that on my 1200s forks though. I've got the adjustable spring preload on the top of my forks along with the Rebound adjuster. I don't have a need for this. But if I didn't I'd be heading out to the shed right now!

Hey Impala man. I am very interested in this mod. Sounds very basic. but very effective. Do you have any pictures

I too would like to see that.

To everyone who replyed to the air forks subject that I posted before, Thanks for all the input that everyone gave. And now I will give a up-date on this subject. I first put in 13psi. It took 6 months to leak down to about 4 psi. I now have 15psi in each leg and believe me, they work great. Don't have a way to make pics, but it works and is cheap!!! It looks like they came from the factory! And everyone just thinks how great some air can work so well. It feels great to put on the front brakes hard and not have the front end doing a dive like before. Thanks again for the reply's. Jay-Impala-man

This is a neat mod. You don't have any oil in your forks?

na you leave everything else in there, you just pressurize the airspace above the oil. it doesnt take much air, use a hand pump
but it is hard on the seals if they are not designed for it

jay, im not sure exactly whats going on here. you drilled caps, still have springs and still have oil. what you did is pressurize the air in the forks? there is already a pocket of air in the forks otherwise the forks would be hydrolocked and basically solid. i guess works like preload? did it raise the forks any?

a45 just answered two of my questions. posted at same time

To resurrect an old thread ...

Any new updates Jay-Impala-Man? How is the air fork mod working out for you? Has anyone else done this mod, and how is it working out?

Thanks!

Yes I still am enjoying my air forks. I do lose about 3 or 4 psi every 3 months or so. And it will bring up the front end some. I am running about 9 psi in ea. fork leg right now. Fork seals are not leaking. I did this mod over a year ago. So there you have it good people of Sportster land! And remember, "Jesus is the reason for the season" Jay-Impala-man

I turned mine into them. Just drilled some holes and put in some air valves and I am now riding on air! And no leaks! 13psi is just right. Using the sorry ass stock springs. A cheap and good trick! The ride is just great! If any one would like to go with air, let me know, and I will give more details. Jay-Impala-man

I use about 5 psi in mine with progressive springs, 15wt oil 5.5" from the top...

I did my 1st pair about 30 years ago on a Husky, never looked back :clap

COOL! Another one. It's time to accumulate a few more parts.
Thanks for the replies!

Air is nice, nitrogen is better, too much will blow fork seals, best to keep in the lower range 5-8 PSI.

The new forks I have are air assisted as well. It is used to fine tune the feel of the front end. The reccomendations I got was to start with 3 pounds and see how it feels and go from there. The air preloads the front end and takes up some of the performance slop. A fork with ten psi is hard to compress than a fork at atmosphere. Everything else in the fork stays the same(if you have old fork seals you should probably change them first or they will leak down quicker and maybe not evenly).. For twenty bucks you can try it and see if it improves your ride. If you don't like the new feel of the front end you just let the air out and still have an interesting convesation piece.

Air is nice, nitrogen is better, too much will blow fork seals, best to keep in the lower range 5-8 PSI.

I just added 1" spacers to my custom front end and will get the parts to pressurize this week. Like the nitro idea. Can you get this in a can somewhere??? :geek:geek:geek

I just added 1" spacers to my custom front end and will get the parts to pressurize this week. Like the nitro idea. Can you get this in a can somewhere??? :geek:geek:geek

Nitro is nice cause it's not affected by heat like air, just think of a car tire.

Besides all piggy back shocks use nitro cause of the ill effects of air.

Alot of car stereo shops that sell import hop up and go fast parts sell nitro to put in your tires, just take one of those 20lb air tanks you can buy at W-Mart or auto parts place and tell them to fill it up.:tour

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but converting forks that weren't designed to run air is way bad. This modification causes a condition called "stickshion", which basically binds up the operation of the forks. I also understand that air pressure in forks that weren't designed to run air pressure can cause the forks seals to blow out. They used to sell do-it-yourself kits to convert forks to run air back in the late 70's and early 80's, but I believe this practice went away for these very reasons. 13 lbs is at least double the air pressure maximum that I've ever seen listed for forks that were desigined to run air. Good luck!
DougT

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but converting forks that weren't designed to run air is way bad. This modification causes a condition called "stickshion", which basically binds up the operation of the forks. I also understand that air pressure in forks that weren't designed to run air pressure can cause the forks seals to blow out. They used to sell do-it-yourself kits to convert forks to run air back in the late 70's and early 80's, but I believe this practice went away for these very reasons. 13 lbs is at least double the air pressure maximum that I've ever seen listed for forks that were desigined to run air. Good luck!
DougT

It's called Stiction, Stiction, or static friction, is friction that exists as the fork sliders rub against the stanchion tubes. ...

Stiction is when fork tubes are not aligned together because of wrong fork seals, bad settings or even damaged fork legs.

Guess I'll try the air thing first, before the nitro. I'm anxious to see how much dive this cures, along with the spacers...:geek:geek:geek

Here is a picture of mine I have been using Bel-ray 20 weight and 4-5 lbs of air. I am 170lbs and like a firm front end ( no pun intended ) 9166