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Air in forks - '06 FE550

Joined Sep 2019
9 Posts | 1+
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Hi all, I just bought a 2006 FE550E, it's my first 'Berg so I don't know a lot about them yet.

When I bought it the shock felt nice but the forks were REALLY firm, there was no 'bike sag', barely any rider sag & the bike skipped off anything the front wheel would touch, there wasn't nearly enough compliance for the type of riding I do.

Tonight I started looking at the forks & saw they had air bleed screws in the top caps so I unscrewed them & was really surprised at how much air came out.
I then put the bike up on the lift stand with the front wheel hanging & let air suck back in before locking the screws off.

When I let the bike down off the stand the difference was massive, now there seems to be a bit too much sag & the forks seem fairly softly sprung.

I feel like if there was say, 10 psi in the forks before I bled the air out & there's zero psi now, I'd like to try around 3 psi in to firm them up a bit.

I'm assuming they aren't supposed to have pressure in them so I'll take it for another ride in the bush & see how they feel, if they're too soft I'll pull them out & have a look at altering oil height & weight & possibly replacement springs.

My question to the suspension gurus is, are Husabergs supposed to have positive air pressure in the forks? If so, how do you put air in?

Thanks in advance,
Darren.
 
Hi, the forks will build up air pressure over time, this is normal, and they need to be bled off. I normally do that as part of my 'after every ride' maintenance.

Putting the bike on a center stand to bleed the air off like you did is the correct way to do it. Basically what little pressure builds up when you take the bike off the stand, is the max pressure that should be in there. Excessive air buildup can cause the fork seals to start leaking.

If you want to reduce the static sag in the front, you can add a bit of preload via the adjuster nut on top of the fork, I think its a 22mm wrench. I have made spacers that I put on top of the spring to get the static sag on the forks to about 20-30mm. *Just note that I only add preload to get the static sag right, adding preload to correct rider sag is not the way to go.

The FE 'BerGs are a little softly sprung for me in general, but that's just my opinion and that opinion will vary from one rider to the next.
 
Hi, the forks will build up air pressure over time, this is normal, and they need to be bled off. I normally do that as part of my 'after every ride' maintenance.

Putting the bike on a center stand to bleed the air off like you did is the correct way to do it. Basically what little pressure builds up when you take the bike off the stand, is the max pressure that should be in there. Excessive air buildup can cause the fork seals to start leaking.

If you want to reduce the static sag in the front, you can add a bit of preload via the adjuster nut on top of the fork, I think its a 22mm wrench. I have made spacers that I put on top of the spring to get the static sag on the forks to about 20-30mm. *Just note that I only add preload to get the static sag right, adding preload to correct rider sag is not the way to go.

The FE 'BerGs are a little softly sprung for me in general, but that's just my opinion and that opinion will vary from one rider to the next.
 
Thanks for the reply Wardog, after doing a big day in the bush on it I found the suspension to be extremely good, I will only need to fiddle a bit to get it perfect for me.
 

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