Fork air vent

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Onder

Onder

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Not exactly Norton related but I post it here hoping someone can chime in . The big stanchion nuts on my Rickman 41mm forks have air valves.
Small ball held to seat by light spring. As pressure in the fork builds from the slider rising the air pushes up the ball against the spring and air
leaves via the tiny passage through the nut. Upon descending the vacuum pulls no air into the fork as the ball seats.
Apparently this is not a standard item on the forks so why is it there and why did the previous owner defeat it? Comments welcome!
 

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It might depend on what the fork is doing around full travel with the air gap being compressible.
To high or to low (I can not think of a reason to be bleeding it off continuously)
 
The air being kept inside gives a progressive spring to add to the linear spring, the air valve when working reduces the effect. So depends if you want air assistance or not. If your forks are like Norton's then no valve is needed, they leak a lot without.
 
Those items are standard on Rickman 41mm forks.

PM me for picture of forks, it says it is too large to upload here.
 
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Interesting.
Only know my Yamahaha XS1100 needed once a year fork tubes top valves to get pumped up with air to about 15 lbs. each. This made a big improvement in front suspension afterwards. Enjoy.
 
Betor did similar with a shim stack valve in the stanchion caps.

I put cartridge emulators in my Betor forks and plugging the pressure release holes in the caps is part of the install. Maybe the previous owner of your forks installed cartridge emulators at some point.
 
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