Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126045
predictably aereated (o r foamed) fluid. Damping o rifice design then is based on the viscosity of this medium and, in this respect at least, it is similar to the gas Girl in g. On co mpression, a free-floating wave washer is bl own off the face o f the pist on expo sing the st andard damping hole s in th e p ist on . Rebound damping, however, is co n tro lled throu gh a replaceab le . varied or ifice je t (much like a ca rbur etor jet) wh ich meters th e ra te of foamed flu id p assa ge, he n ce re bound speed and smoothness. The jet size ca n be changed by dis assembling the shock. Fox Sh ox we te st ed used a very firm 11:0 . 78 je t and were surrounded by 83{ 195 split springs. Compression dam p ing is in tention ally minimal with the springs working to ab so rb bump. Sh ox are rebuildable after Fox depressurization through the external valve. One of them weighed 4.6 lbs. with springs and two of them cost $1 18.95 in the sam e condition. Biggest compla int about Fox Sh ox was t he behavior over small bumps at low speed . Rear wheel hung in the air too long. are full y rebuildable with parts available fro m the works and any bearing supply ho us e. It is essentially a cus tom sh o ck, usu ally built for a specific individual base d on the type of bike, type o f riding, and weight of rider. They are, of co urse , like the previous two available in standard lengt hs for all producti on racers. They wei gh 4. 4 lbs, an d co st $ 114.50 wi th springs . Fox Sh o x utilize single tu be co nstruc tio n . The shock body is filled with fluid which is th en p res surized through an external valve to cre ate a The Curnutt shock remains so mewhat of a mystery be cause Chuc k Curnutt asked us to keep his late st creation that way. He would say that they will work fo r any rider regardless of weigh t which is a departure of so me kind fro m his lo ng-tim e practice of customi zing every set of shocks he sold. The Curn utt is still a custo m shock wh ich yo u o rder according to a set of criteria that help them build two for y o u. Visibly, the shocks have a m ild 60{90 progressive spring coiled around them with the ti ght coils occupying very little of the total spring len gth and aluminum cooling fins slipped over the exterior of the body, as a spacer. We were told they were designed to be run with the shock bodies up. It is our belief th at the new Curnutts feature staged valving for damping co n tro l. They are no t air pressurized but are internally spru ng . If we 're wron g, Chuck can laugh knowingly . (Later conversa tions revealed that we were wrong.) If n ot ... well, we didn't take 'e m apart lik e we sai d we wouldn 't . However, in o peration with the spring removed the rod tends to slowly return int o the shock body after being pulled out to full extension a few times. This is co n t rary to the gas-pressurize d shocks wherein the rod tends to slowly return to full ex tensio n from co mp ression . Curnutt's approaches are usually differen t. BOLT -UP OPERATIONS (Just like it always says in the ads ) We're always suspici ous of any thin g that is supposed to' "bolt righ t on" and with go o d reason . Too many " b olt-up" accesso ries we've ha d the misfortune to be exp osed to act ually require a well -equipped machine shop to ins tall. It's a pleasure to report that all the shoc ks we received fo r the RM really did bolt right on, with the following provisions. S&W: These da mpers have an eye co mp osed o f a co mplete metal strap circle wel ded to the shock body and end of the rod. Co nstruction was reasonably strong. Welds were m ade all around the contact surface of the eyes. The rubber supporting the standard size bushing distorted rather bad ly on the S&Ws, gett ing squished nearly metal to metal o n o ne side. The eye requires a b ush in~ to size it do wn to RM bolt size (8 mm ) an d two washer s pe r eye to space the shock correctly in the mou nting bracket. Necessary bits of hardware are include d with the shock. It becomes ap parent th at manufacturing dollars have been saved by usin g standardized co mpo n en ts on the freon ba g dampers. Fox Shox : The shock eye is heavy gauge steel bent into a full circle which is welded to the shock body on two sides. The rubber bushing in the Fox eye seemed to be a harder co mpou nd and held up better than th e S&W. Frankly, the welds are just fair to poor. Fox Shox co m e wi th accompan ying me tal bushings to sleeve down the eye to fit . No sp acer washers are required th ough they 're provided in the acco mp an y ing package . 00 .....- 29