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discussion air vs coil

2K views 64 replies 28 participants last post by  kenbentit 
#1 ·
With all the new dual crown downhill forks mainly using coils/springs, and some of the new air freeride forks being single crown, i wanna hear some discussion on air vs. coil on a freeride bike or downhill bike.. some differences of the 180mm air and say a 180-203mm coil fork,...
I wont be racing, but have ridden a few dual crown bikes, and am looking to get bigger travel bike from my old 5 inch bike
this new foes frame
http://www.foesracing.com/lineup.cfm?view=rs7
even though expensive and out of my budget uses air fork and shock
what do you guys think about air shocks and air forks on a freeride rig, post them up too
 
#2 ·
I have a Nomad with a coil in the rear and a Lyrik air in the front. Works great. Had air in the back and hated it. When I got a Roco TST the bike came alive. I have never been a big fan of air but after riding the Lyrik I am impressed. I may build a more DH type bike soon and my first choice will probably be coil. IMO you just cant get the same feel with air, but like I said I have been impressed with the new stuff so we will see, ride some stuff and see what you like and what works for you,
 
#3 ·
IMO air shocks for DH is a no go full stop, a few people at the local trails had them, they OVER heated lost all rebounds, the seals expnaded and wore out quickly. but for other things like XC then it would be fine as they dont go under the same stresses, but point for DH the shocks became ware to the touch on cold and hot days. however for forks it seems to work quite well, my fiend has a talas 36 on his demo 8 and he likes it but has manged to blow the seals in less then a year, and he does not hit big so i dont know, just no air shocks!
 
#4 ·
bxxer rider said:
IMO air shocks for DH is a no go full stop, a few people at the local trails had them, they OVER heated lost all rebounds, the seals expnaded and wore out quickly. but for other things like XC then it would be fine as they dont go under the same stresses, but point for DH the shocks became ware to the touch on cold and hot days. however for forks it seems to work quite well, my fiend has a talas 36 on his demo 8 and he likes it but has manged to blow the seals in less then a year, and he does not hit big so i dont know, just no air shocks!
I couldn't agree more! I TRIED to tell Hill, Peat, Minnaar, Rennie, Neethling, Barel, Gracia, and all the other pro's that air was crap and they didn't have any rebound damping by the end of a run, but they just kept running them anyway. Idiots :eek:

Seriously overheating? Oil is forced through shims, same as a coil sprung fork. Only difference in the fork would be in the springrate having a slight increase if it gets hot. Feel free to grab one at the bottom of a run and see for yourself its not significantly diffferent then room temp. I suspect your friends are just as dumb as you are and don't know how to set up their suspension.

Also, it seems weird to me that you're trying to say more freeride forks are air and DH forks are coil, when some of the most popular DH forks on the market used for racing are air forks.

This thread is stupid. I regret saying something already. Peace
 
#5 ·
William42 said:
I couldn't agree more! I TRIED to tell Hill, Peat, Minnaar, Rennie, Neethling, Barel, Gracia, and all the other pro's that air was crap and they didn't have any rebound damping by the end of a run, but they just kept running them anyway. Idiots :eek:

Seriously overheating? Oil is forced through shims, same as a coil sprung fork. Only difference in the fork would be in the springrate having a slight increase if it gets hot. Feel free to grab one at the bottom of a run and see for yourself its not significantly diffferent then room temp. I suspect your friends are just as dumb as you are and don't know how to set up their suspension.

Also, it seems weird to me that you're trying to say more freeride forks are air and DH forks are coil, when some of the most popular DH forks on the market used for racing are air forks.

This thread is stupid. I regret saying something already. Peace
yep some good points, you are in contact with the pro racers? all of them? how come?

EDIT: for the difference between forks and shocks at the local is that the trails are very steep so naturally have weight back so the shock does all the work.
 
#6 ·
another thread like that.... rear air shock gonna feel different in a long term ride, but personnaly i didnt like my experience since i ride more on a ''rocky'' place and i can tell you that sometimes i was feeling that i was riding a hardtail more than anything else... for the moment ill stick with a coil rear shock, but give 2 or 3 more years of development and im pretty sure we gonna start seing some air shock on the wc..
 
#8 ·
Bxxer rider, are you in 4th grade? Jeebus, type so that people can understand you.


And yeah, most of the pro racers nowadays are using air in the front and a coil in the back. As far as contacting a pro racer, that point is pretty lame considering that just about every pro racer on the circuit using a Boxxer is using the World Cup model...and if you did a little thing called reading you would learn that the WC is in fact an air fork. The Fox 40's used in racing are largely all air too. Air forks are becoming more advanced to the point where they feel as supple and progressive as a coil fork. The other beauty of them is that they often will weigh considerably less than a coil fork which is something that a pro racer is looking for.
 
#10 ·
ok, i was unaware of the new forks that racers are using are air like the fox40. the bikes that I have ridden mainly consist of dual crown coil forks. i am not to concerned about what the racers are using, sure its the next big thing but i dont have money for that ish, saving up for a $800+ air totem fork from rock shox will take me two paychecks. as for a test ride, i hope to try and ride some bikes with air shocks in the front and back. id love to get my hands on that foes.
 
#12 ·
Wizard4620383 said:
another thread like that.....
could you give me some search topics to find these other threads?? ive mainly been reading about the differences in random new bike threads whre people are reviewing their new rides
 
#15 ·
Air is hell of alot better than it used to be. Works good enough for you why not. You can save some weight.

Heavier riders may not get as good a performance out of a air setup than coil. but can be tweaked to be decent. (smaller air can for rear shock really helps a 200+ rider)

As excellent as even the curnutt is. For some heavier agressive riders, Coil still rules for it performance.

May change someday, just not yet for some.....

Far as short travel air fork. I haven't tried the new float in the dirt but and hear it is pretty incredible. Feels really smooth.

Totem air is good.

Seems like some of the 2 step and adjustable travel kinda jacks the performance of some air forks up.

The 06 talas imho is nothing like coil performance.

That RS7 looks pretty sick.

YMMV
 
#20 ·
I run a DHX5 coil in the rear and a Lyrik Solo Air up front. The Lyrik is my first air fork and I could not be happier with it. I ride the Shore and Whistler all the time on it and have had ZERO problems. I have not been overly kind to the Lyrik, (including things like clearing the landing off the back side of the containers on Freight Train and nailing the Piledriver on Boogeyman) and it has not flinched even one time. I like the adjustability and fine tuning of the air fork, even though I am a bigger guy (approaching 200 in all my gear). I'm sticking with a coil in the back though.
 
#24 ·
Curious to all you scientists out there...I've hard the overheating issue with Air Shocks from multiple sources, so I am going to assume it is true to SOME extent.

My question is this, would a Nitrous charged Air Shock overheat less, thus performing great for DH?
 
#25 ·
I've been running full air for 2 years now with no problems, even after full days at Keystone and Winter Park. The air shocks do get a bit warmer (compressing air does that) but I've never noticed a loss of damping. The Nitrous idea seems reasonable, don't know anyone who's tried it though.
 
#26 ·
Raptordude said:
Curious to all you scientists out there...I've hard the overheating issue with Air Shocks from multiple sources, so I am going to assume it is true to SOME extent.

My question is this, would a Nitrous charged Air Shock overheat less, thus performing great for DH?
I kind of doubt it, earth's atmosphere is something like 80% nitrogen as it is, you wouldn't be changing all that much. I think a higher volume approach to air shocks might be something worth looking into though. I'm no expert though, just speculating.
 
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