Just trying to figure out how long the conti air shock on my bike will last. How many miles have people got on these conti air shocks without failure?
Çurrently around 30,000 miles and its still going strong. I feel like ?maybe? The rebound damping is a little weaker than when new but its hard to be sure. I'm also pushing the bike harder than when new so it might just be me.
Mine has rebound damping. In city riding it's clearly noticable -- going over speed bumps, street curbs and such. It's less noticable when going over jumps. My general feeling is that the shock itself has a highly non-linear response since it's an air shock. But the rebound damping is a *very* linear response which only compensates well for low-compression events. As far as I can tell that's the main weirdness with the air shock.
I've owned my HP2 for 40,000 km and for 5-6 yrs since new. 90% offroad on trail, fireroads, logging roads and hydro lines and trackdays with the SM rims averaging about 5 per yr, max 10 per year. A few long trips thrown in as well. No fade, no hiccups, no issues. Some have had issues mind you, but not me. I bought another spare one at a 10th of its factory price.
I have 43,000 miles on mine with no problems. All kinds of riding including real off road riding. I keep air pressure in the shock and I believe that helps. The bike is not too tall for me so I don't need to lower the bike via less air pressure. Richard.......
I'd love to hear how many failures have occurred with the Air Shock. And what are the main causes or circumstances of (any) failures? I'm sure running low pressure invites problems. Please chime in if you have insight. I want to know that I can rely on my shock if I treat it right... Thank you! Kurt
the answer is the answer of that question : "why does this Air shock was only used on G650 Challenge and HP2E and is now abandoned..."
The air shock on the HP2 E wasn't all bad and significantly better then the G650X application for certain. I've yet to simulate the traction I could get with an air shock in slow moving technical riding with any aftermarket shock, but the predictability of a hydro shock in the rear is way better then the air shock when at speed. The biggest problem with the air shock, particularly on the G650X was when people would use it as a ride height adjuster, that's what lead to 90% of the G650X failures I saw and of the HP2 E failures (which was minimal) they were all used in extreme conditions either loaded up or racing and in my opinion outside of the designed parameters. The biggest problem is getting the Conti shock repaired should it ever fail and it is made of rubber and relies on rubber O-rings for it's integrity,...they will wear out.
I changed mine with an Ohlins because when braking, the rear part of the bike was going up too much for me. I don't like that behaviour. I admit that my HP2E has never seen dirt roads more than 0,01% of the time I ride it. Perhaps the air shock is good in dirt type of ride with 21" front wheel, I don't know.
Where the HP2 E air shock accelled in my humble opinion was slow technical hill climbing or dual sporting of flat roads, did phenomenal in those conditions. However if you hit a water break or any kind of a decent bump the front would blow through and the rear would kick up dangerously due to no rebound control,.......the same reason you did not like it on the street. The air shock was super light and if they could have designed it with a tuneable orifice to dial in rebound and compression like they do on mountain bikes they'd be onto something The air shock has A LOT less inertia due to it's much lighter weight and consequently can respond quicker to changes in traction and is progressive by nature (the harder it's compressed the stiffer it gets)
This is my thinking too - no issues in the slower, technical work. But on high speed work over bumps and whoops, the back end of the bike comes up and hits you in the arse. As I'm getting faster, I'm getting more tempted to switch to an Ohlins or Wilburs. I will say that mine has been thoroughly abused, including a heap of 2 up, loaded riding and 30k miles later all seems well. It's also a bunch lighter than a conventional shock.
Forgive if this is against the grain....but didn't FOX prove that airshocks suck back in @1978? The concept is fine and has merit, but the reality has not worked out that I have seen. Even some modern MX bikes {Kaw KXf and Honda CRf} have started using air in 1 fork leg, with some success. It weighs less than a second spring and does add some progressive dampening effect on compression, but all of the magazines like MXA still rate the Yamaha KYB SSS forks by far the best forks on any bike....ever. The SSS is a NO air, 2 spring system. It just works right. MXA changes 2 clicks I think and declared it fully race ready...the rest of the bike, maybe not so much.
we have here also a little factory building air forks. I had contact with them to have an advice for the HP2E but never took the time to go there. http://www.wdsairsuspension.be/index.html
For an OEM fork the KYB SSS forks are good, but far from race ready if you're off a groomed surface, in which case playing with the by-pass spring in the second chamber along with re-valving becomes a necessity for most anyone racing "offroad" I'm on my second pair of KYB SSS fork on my second X-lite Husky and am replacing with Ohlins TTX because I've seen the dark side with those forks on my G450X. Best fork I've ever ridden on is the Ohlins TTX forks....not just the cartridge inserts but the whole fork, phenomenal. Air shocks do have draw backs, particularly if there is a failure you're riding bottomed out and on a chain drive that's surviveable to get you out of the woods but on a bike with a drive shaft and u-joints that's a very stressful proposition for the the u-joints to survive a ride out of the outback.
