L.E.N. said:Snorton74 wrote:
I've got a Heckler and a Nomad. I haven't rode much since I broke my scapula downhilling at a local ski area a couple of years ago. Need to get back to that.
Sorry to hear about the broken scapula. That sounds difficult to mend well. I've also had some bicycle injuries including two broken thumbs, concussions, and a broken pelvis and the odd lot of assorted stitches and not from the same incidents. I think that bicycles are sometimes more dangerous than motorcycles for me and I don't even do "downhilling" or park riding except very seldom at North Star at Tahoe, or Snow summit at Big Bear. So far I've only had road rash or dirt rash from my motor bikes (knock on wood).
I know this is a thread on damping cartrides and related subjects. This relates because of the Notes about the Fox forks and shocks. These are good, great bicycle untis using air springs and oil damping. I saw a recent Supercross where Ryan Dungee had done very poorly in the heats and barely made it out of the LCQ into the main. He won the main and during the interview he said that they switched back to the regular forks from the new air spring models. He wasn't bad mouthing the new units but said they had a way to go with them to make them competitive. I'm sure that somethings that work well on a bicycle may not work as well under the more rigorous testing that the weight ,powe,r speed, and punishment of a moto.
Air springs do have some reasonably big compromises such as sticktion and the very non linear spring rate, although this can be designed out with negative air chambers etc. Even with MTB suspension a coil fork or shock (of equivalent spec) will be more compliant over small bumps. Some frames are specifically designed for air shocks and a falling rate linkage through the mid travel to minimise or even reverse the rate increase from the shock, I think the Nomad is one such frame.