New AVO coil-over for B and C series, plus damper update.

[timetraveller]

Thanks for the advice Greg. The problem that I have is that I have supplied over 300 of the JE steering stems now and most of those have an AVO damper. Whenever I go to a rally and see a bike with this mod I aske the rider how they have set up their damper. It seems to be very personal in that some go for about two or three clicks up from the softest to about half way up to the hardest. I also ask the same question to people who have one of my steering damper kits fitted and once again it varies from two or three clicks up from the softest to about half way up to the hardest. Now of course these are all road bikes, not racing, but some of the riders are very experienced and set the bikes up to how they feel it is best. The same applies to the front spring strength. I know that you like to fit my 45 lbs/inch springs to many bikes but when I did that here people found the front ends much too stiff and went back to 36 lbs/inch (twins in all cases). Of course it could be that the dampers are too stiff but at their lowest setting they seem quite soft when moved by hand. Some of the riders have covered many thousands of miles by now and either they have got used to a poor set up or they are satisfactory. At the moment I do not know what the damping is going to be like on the new dampers. I am told that they might be able to make it stiffer than the AVOs at the stiffer end but whether they can make it softer at the lower end I do not know, but I can ask. I have asked to have graphs showing the resistance of these dampers at various settings compared with the AVOs so that might help.
I am very aware of the unsprung weight problem. The weight of the front wheel, forks, headlamp, mudguard stays, Shadow clock etc is all a bit daunting and I like your coil over damper without spring boxes on the front but I am not sure it would suite a heavily loaded touring twin.

 

[Doug68]

@timetraveller Whoever you're working with hopefully they have a damper dynamometer, with that they should be able to show you direct comparisons between the AVO and theirs at the different settings.

 

[timetraveller]

That is exactly what I have asked for,

 

[timetraveller]

NEW SUSPENSION DAMPERS. Progress is being made but we ran into a snag today, I had sent the company manufacturing the new dampers a new and unused front AVO damper a few months ago when this project was started. Progress is sufficiently advanced that today they started to check the characteristics of the AVO damper on their dynamometer and found that the adjuster screw does not do any adjusting. This damper is one of two that I ordered a few days before AVO stopped trading so whether it was a matter of 'getting rid of stock' or not I do not know. The reason we need to know this is that from feedback from, say Greg, we have a request that for light weight bikes, Comets, we need less resistance. From local experience, Chris Launders, we know that the standard damper is not stiff enough for heavy riders on twins. We are therefore trying to come up with one damper which will cover all these requirements depending upon how the adjustment is set up. This note is therefore a request for help from anyone who has a front AVO damper in good order who would be prepared to lend it for a few days so that it can be tested on a dynamometer. If you can help please contact me by PM on here or by email at enw07@btinternet.com I will ask you to send the damper to an address I will give you and pay your postage costs.
I will also report on rear coil over damper progress. A few weeks ago I was lent the top and bottom fittings for these and found that they would not fit on our bikes. I suggested some alternatives and a week or so ago I got a 3D printed bottom mounting which I could try out on my bike parts. It fitted and so the next step is to machine top and bottom mounts for the new coil overs, The rear AVO coil overs used a spring with a rate of 275lbs/inch as standard but up to 400 lbs/inch springs were needed by the heavier riders on twins. We are trying to design that range into a multi rate coil over. There will be two coil overs, one to replace each spring box. So a little help if possible. Thank you.

 

[Speedtwin]

Norman I have a new one on the shelf will give you a call for the address to send it to.
I to bought dampers rom AVO in the last week or so one of which is leaking.
Al