How do you guys check and pump up your air forks?

'81 KZ550A. My tire gauge doesn't register that low, and it seems just putting it on the valve lets all the air out. Do you use a special gauge? A special pump? Any tricks or obvious stuff I'm missing?

(BTW, I figured this was a common subject, but searches here are almost always unsuccessful for me. For instance, I searched for "air" and got 24,000 responses. I tried "air fork" and got over 1k. I love the site, but the search function is useless, unless I'm not doing something right.)

Thanks for any help!

David

I found a small bicycle pump a few years back. About 6 inches long,small hose with screw on tip and a built in gauge.Only can pump about 20 psi but perfect for forks.bj

This might sound like a wisecrack but with great difficulty. Since max pressure is about 7-8Psi and the reservoir is so small they are overpressurized so fast that it can make your head spin. I just set my regulator on my filler gauge to the 8Psi and fill it that way.

I have one of these. Works well to pump small volume of air and has a slow, accurate bleed

cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Fox-Racing-HP-Shock-For...&hash=item3eff48cd6d

I use a low pressure tire gauge I use for my dirt bikes. Works great and very accurate.

www.crfsonly.com/catalog/advanced_search...s=accu-gage&x=29&y=7

David (aka db4570)Hello and welcome to KZR nation,in answer to your question,I have a small 10" Planetbike Shockmate pump with gauge looks a lot like mjg15/Mike's

My bike wouldn't hold air for more than a day and a half even with new fork seals. It got to be such a pain in the butt. I put a 2 inch pvc spacer on top of my fork springs. Works great and I never air them up anymore.

turn the regulator way down to like 5-10 lbs...and use a digital gauge...shoot for 10 lbs and the guage will psssst it down to 7.....works for me....

...Progressive fork springs are REALLY the best way to fix the forks....You'll never need air again.

The stock springs are about 1/2 the spring rate they should be (or at least they were before supporting the bike for the last 30 yrs)

Old thread but it seems to be a never ending discussion on how people are doing this. My personal solution was to get a digital air gauge that reads very low in half pound increments. Then I take a portable air tank (mine is a 9 gallon but smaller will work) and let the air out until I get the tank down to the desired pressure I want the shocks to be at. With 9 gallons of volume in the tank, adjusting the tank pressure is very easy. When the pressure is low you have to hold the valve core in for several seconds just to let off 2 lbs of pressure. It's not sensitive at all. Once you have the pressure set, just push it onto the air stem for a few seconds and it's done.

Go to a bicycle store (sells only bicycle products) and get a shock pump, usually the gauge goes too high. You can buy low pressure gauges cheap at any hydraulics store. Even swapping out the gauge its cheaper than buying a "Harley" shock pump online.
These shock pumps are short stroke hand pumps that won't let any air out when you unscrew the air valve.
Those bicycle stores will also carry a digital air pressure gauge at a reasonable price.

 

Sonic Springs.  Vastly superior to air assist.