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/126518
-"...'. ' ~ « CLeft) The ~ from S.W. Simona. Inc. 8dorna...". ~'. LOP Suzuki. CRlght) SpecIal triple cl8mpa . . UMd to hold eech maaIve lIIbout IOmmlleg. Turning the ""orld 01 Iront suspension eplsdn UNlOP By Merk Keriye LiJ&e the worltl of designer jeans, motocross suspension for the past couple of years seems to Mwfocwed on the hind end. YamaM started tlte present one·shock baU rolling with therr Monocross suspension and the I4st two years MW seen the public unveiling of the Uni· Tra/c, Pro·LinJI and FuU·Floater systems. Several European marques, ofcourse, are currently developing their own single·shock rear suspension designs. At the other end of the motorcycle, fork design seemingly sttJgntIted. Other thtm increasing trawl and the di4meter of the fork legs themselws, they didn't really seem to cMnge much. Granted, there was that strange contraption hooud to the front ofROIer DeCosters worlcs Suzuki l4te in '79, but where is it now' Enter S. W. Simons, Inc., or Steve Simons to be precise. His Simons fMIcs were, and. are, worltlrenowned fM being worlcs bilu·/ilce in therr action. However, as he began to see where current fork development 'UIGS headed, Simons began looking fM what he ktWl&/ 1uJd to be a better anstller. The goals he 1uJd in mind as he set the mental getlrs spinning were: 1) reducing the CIWf'fIll weight ofthe fMIcs to aid steering and Mnd./ing, 2) reducing unsprung weight to improve sus~. sUm CMracteristiCS, J) reducing 'ction to a minimum both at rest and under . h side loads, 4) ueping fMk tnlert:ng (the portion of the fork tMt MngS below t e rule) to a minimum to reduce berm and rut drag, ,) increasingfork tube owrl4p to increase rigidity and reduce susceptibility to high side loads, 6) increasing rigidity to make steering more precise, 7) incMporating low, medium and high speed damping that woultl be independently adjustable under both compression and rebOUnd phases. lndiviiJ.uaUy, any of the goals woultl be fairly etJS'j to achieve. CoUectiwly, how· ever, they presented seemingly conflicting targets, especi4Uy when attempting to 20 I sa- the fint quatioD w-W be how aad when did you C*De up with thiI idea? Wen, I luned thinking about it in 1977. It'. not a totally unique idea; there're other vehiclel around with a similar type of Itrut, airpJanei and mopeda are similar and there have been other motorcyclel built like this. It occurred to me that we could get apply them to current fMk design. Clearly, a completely different design and rethinJc IIlIIS necessary in MtUr to meet aU the goals. What Simons ft-lly came up with made ib public debut tit the Florid4 WinterAMA Series inJanuary on Chuck Sun s Honda - upside down fMIcs. At least, tlte, looIced upside down compared to "regular" forlcs. Set inside specitJl triple clamps were huge "sliders" sans any provisionfM rule mounting. Fork tubes, WMt you'd nomudly upect to see .fi:Jeed inside the triple cl4mps, hung below the sliders with the front ruk.fi:Jeed below that. Simons cf4ims that there is better utilization of materi4ls with this design, meaning the strongest piece of materi41 is wed wAere there is the highest load. In tuldition, less material is needed due to the design as botlt tlte upper and ""'tubes are 100% functional. Therr entire lengths are wed either fM tnIer-l4p M trawl whereas in a conventional design, there are up to 12 inches ofsteelfMk tube on eaclt leg bet_en and above the triple cl4mps which go unwed in the shod absorption prouss. According to Simons, rigidity is more than doubled and weight is cut by approximately four pounds when comparing his new fMIcs to those of conwntionGl design. Fork tnlerMng is completely el'imiruiied, too, which he feels is a substtmtitJl benefit. Owrl4p is increased 1'-20% tnIer stand4rd fMIcs to help increase rigidity and. reduce friction under high side loading. Use of low friction seals and Mrd chrome to Teflon bearing surfaces also keep friction to a minimum. Damping in the fMIcs is controfud by a si%-'UlGy adjustable, wlocity sensitive damping unit tMt Simons SG'JS is e4S11y tuned and serviced. WMt it boils down to, basicaUy, is tMt aU of Simons' goals MW apparently been met in bringing uotic wrwlcs bike qualityforlcs to the consumer. a better rigidity-to-weight ratio uaing the larger diameter up at the triple clamps. I never wrote anything down. but I thought about it a lot, before 1977. Actually. I was penuaded by Cliff White (a factory Honda mechanic) to think about it some more. And then one night, an idea suddenly came to me. I drew a fork up. made a mock·up model, tealed it on a Suzuki and It