Air Forks

Spring conversion. I had a revalve done and still hate the forks. As my dad always said, “Don’t just do it, do it right”. 

What bike is this? 

I went with a K Tech spring conversion on my last Husky 250. It made me fall in love with the bike. It was the most balanced and easiest bike to turn after. The air forks don't have the feedback or edge grip that you can get with a spring and the K Tech set up is really good

trash can, put KYB catridges in them

1.  And spend time understanding how to set up a bike. No complaints with my 22 mc450f - washed up 32yo a/b rider. I only check the air before the first moto. 

My 22 KTM 350SX stock forks were some of the best forks I've had on my Austrian bikes. I've had KYB conversions, Cone Valve, and Ohlins to compare to. The other set I had that were very good was a Hybrid fork from Coppersmith. If he likes them now, that should tell you something.

I will preface this with: If your son is happy with air, changing to springs could be a step in the wrong direction. I'm not very good and don't have the sensitivity to suspension settings that many others have. 

That being said, a spring conversion and re-valve completely changed my bike. Prior to the work done in my forks, I had zero confidence in corners, felt like I had no lean angle traction, I washed out at least once (if not multiple times) every time I rode my bike, and lastly felt a bit unpredictable on the takeoff/landing of "bigger" jumps. Almost overnight with spring and re-valve 95% of those problems went away. I feel like I can push hard into corners where I 100% would have washed out the front end prior. I can feel my front end exponentially more too, I can feel my front wheel start sliding and correct it when needed. My jumps have gotten 10,000 times more predictable taking off and landing. When I leave the face, I'm going straight and leveled out. Even when I case something pretty hard, my bike bounces so much more predictably. On top of the insane confidence boost, my bike is so much more plush and comfortable. I am able to ride longer and push harder because my upper body is not fighting the bike in the way it was on the stock setup. Placebo or not, my bike and I are working together and I am faster, safer, and more comfortable. 10/10 recommend. 

I had a 22 350. When I talked to PowerBand about them he told me the 350 uses different valving than the rest of the 4 strokes. I swapped my cone valves to the 350 and the air onto my 18 250 2 stroke for my and they were amazing. I think people don't understand how to set them up or realize the rear shock plays a big part in how the forks work and hate them because they don't realize that. For reference 40+ A/B class. 

My kid is on a tm 85 and it has those weird formula 39 mm spring forks.   Open cartridge , basically a kyb copy with less quality internals .

He says he loves the bike - it’s trick, etc 

But that it’s hard to get it into the ruts he wants and just the turn in isn’t that great .

How do you attack this problem ?

We are at 105 mm sag.

Was thinking about going to 95 mm sag and moving the axle up 1/4 inch. 

On 65s he was on the air forks and loved them .

Set sag and find a good psi he likes then fine tune with clickers.  Remember to bleed before you ride.  The air forks are good just have to take the time to set up. Spend the money on tires and gas imo.

Check the book on sag. Little bikes should have less sag since they have less travel to begin with.

Save ur money for fresh tires

If the son of the diddler has rode with air and is ok with it always go revalve first. I don't mind the air forks at all i just prefer the feeling from spring forks overall. Some people don't like the feel of the air fork and thats why they change it up. The air forks have gotten pretty good the last 4-5 years. 

Air can be pretty good once you get it dialed right. It’s all about giving the tuner good feedback, which is always the hardest part when they’re not at the track/trail with you. I’m a washed up B Vet and usually have FC work on my 350. I inquired about the spring conversion recently when I was having my suspension serviced, but I couldn’t justify the cost. I gave them a short list of things the bike was doing and what I wanted to improve… whatever they did this last go around is absolutely mint. The forks finally have a progressive stroke like a spring, and the initial harshness associated with air is totally gone. 

Long story short, if your kid is happy with the air, you can make significant improvements without spending big money on the spring conversion. 

Imo the bigger problem with the WP AERs is the damper side.  I think it's too small and just can't handle the same range of conditions as a good dual setup.  There is nothing intrinsically bad about air forks, it's just the WP air forks that suck.  KYB A Kit air forks as an example are absolutely awesome.  So for the WPs I'd look for solutions that do away with the stock damping setup.