Are Air Shocks Really Production Rule Legal?

Johnny Depp
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Johnny Depp
Edited Date/Time 2/25/2021 7:19pm
1st let me state that I am AGAINST the Production rule, and all for bike development, including electric.

Now let's look at the rule book wording, which is weaker than Circus Lemonade.

1.8 Forks and Shocks
a. The manufacturer's original concept of forks and shocks must be maintained.

Well, they do still go up and down..


Change my mind?
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Xeno
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Xeno 2/22/2021 4:52pm
2/22/2021 4:52pm
You can run air forks on a bike that has spring forks OEM.
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T-Fish
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T-Fish 2/22/2021 4:54pm
2/22/2021 4:54pm
Xeno wrote:
You can run air forks on a bike that has spring forks OEM.
Star Yamaha is a prime example.

There are Austrian bikes running spring forks on bikes that came with air forks.
Dirty Points 2/22/2021 5:06pm
2/22/2021 5:06pm Edited Date/Time 2/22/2021 5:13pm
This is an odd one. Until 2019, the wording was this:


When they included forks, they took out the shock-specific language, but we do have a clear expression of the intent of the rule set there.
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Johnny Depp
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Johnny Depp 2/22/2021 5:09pm
2/22/2021 5:09pm
Xeno wrote:
You can run air forks on a bike that has spring forks OEM.
T-Fish wrote:
Star Yamaha is a prime example.

There are Austrian bikes running spring forks on bikes that came with air forks.
Those use OEM or similar tubes and uppers with internals changed. This is different, a completely different shock body, shaft, spring, reservoir etc. There are no aftermarket shocks that compare like Fox Airshox was in the day. Not sure if homologated parts come into play on suspension? This also applies to WP 52mm forks..
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Kyle978
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Kyle978 2/22/2021 5:35pm
2/22/2021 5:35pm
If I saw a twin shock on a factory 450 I would actually shit myself.
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Kennyfreemoney 2/22/2021 7:58pm
2/22/2021 7:58pm
Dirty Points wrote:
This is an odd one. Until 2019, the wording was this: [img]https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/forums/2021/02/22/479964/s1200_Forks.jpg[/img] When they included forks, they took out the shock-specific language, but we do have...
This is an odd one. Until 2019, the wording was this:


When they included forks, they took out the shock-specific language, but we do have a clear expression of the intent of the rule set there.
This is what I thought of too. I didn't realize it had changed
nickm
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nickm 2/22/2021 9:15pm
2/22/2021 9:15pm
Everyone is running full works suspension so I think the whole rulebook is irrelevant on this topic. IMO Its about time we saw some innovation. The backwardness of this sport drives me nuts sometimes considering how much tech its based on ie: 4 strokes suck, inverse cylinder heads suck, coil springs are better than air springs, EFI sucks, twin pipes suck, composite subframe suck etc. etc. I

Back in the 80s we couldn't wait to see what insanity would show up at the starting line every season. Some if it worked, some of it didn't, no matter what tho it was waay cool!
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avidchimp
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avidchimp 2/22/2021 9:23pm
2/22/2021 9:23pm
Run what ya brung in the 450 class as far as suspenders.

Like Manny said, 250? Not so much.
davis224
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davis224 2/23/2021 4:39am
2/23/2021 4:39am
I think it's more that it has to be the same "type" of suspension, as in a shock and a telescoping fork, and not some crazy new design, like a leading link in the front. At least that's how I'm interpreting it.
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