F: Frame AVO COIL OVER WANTED HELP PLEASE

[greg brillus]

That is exactly what I did on my twin racer years ago, but only used one on the rear.......using 2 would work fine, but most of the available ones have spring rates that are too high.......I'm guessing you want them to have a spring with around 180 Lb's/inch of travel, which is actually about the same that you would need for one only on the front, if you went that way........great for race bikes perhaps not so for a road bike. Using a single coil over shock on the front removes a huge amount of friction in the front........not standard but works really well........I'll be doing this soon on my next project.

 

[kerry]

UPDATE.
I am half way through fitting a coil over on my just acquired D which I have to lower as explained.
I hope and think it will work and should finish it in the next 2-3 days when I will try and describe and show photo's,
this is using all new parts but is a little ad-hoc.
Kerry

 

[Chris Launders]

If using two on the rear surely the spring rate would be 1/2 of whatever you would fit with a single coil over.
There must be many more adjustable shockers out there compared to even a few years ago, it's just the matter of finding the right ones.

 

[Peter Holmes]

I've contacted Maxton over the last couple of days to see if they would be prepared to produce suitable dampers. Their reply is below.


Thanks for the photos. Unfortunately, these shocks are very different to anything we already manufacture. At the moment we do not have any spare capacity to take on a new design damper.

Apologies

I can see that the front might be a problem and of course the special for the rear with the offset lower mount is unlikely to be available elsewhere.. For the rear I think it might be worth while looking into using standard coil over dampers as used on many bikes. The hole centre to hole centre needs to be about 10"/250mm (Pettiford spring dimensions) and there are plenty that size about. The idea is that two would be used to replace the original spring boxes. The spring rates are probably not a problem but as the damping would now be shared between two dampers that might take some experimenting.

I have two of the extra strong front dampers as are used for heavy weight riders in stock and will sell those to any heavy rider who might want them for the original price.

Tim Lord attends the Far Far North Rallies, he assures me that he commissioned Maxton to manufacture custom made suspension units, both front and rear for the Series C Vincent

 

[timetraveller]

Yes, Dick Sherwin had them make a special for his Black Knight several years ago but at the moment they say that they do not have any spare capacity. Although I have bought 400 to 500 AVOs over the last few years they do not seem to be interested. Perhaps someone who they know might have more luck.

 

[Peter Holmes]

I know it is not a long term solution, but one cannot help but think there must be complete Vincent shocks of various types, on the shelves at AVO behind locked doors, I wonder if the receiver would sell them off, surely that would be better than throwing all the stock into a skip.

 

[oexing]

. . . confirms exactly my thinking why I did not want to enter that endless springs game and damping mess with old type shocks that I could not mod myself for my individual needs. Certainly Fournales would not be a cheap offer but then quality and features would pay for this - if they were willing to do a batch of specials. Well, money might not be the real matter when Vincentists play with their toys these times, not a lot in Vincent currency units I guess.
Godet could be contacted for enquiries at Fournales about chances for Vincent specials - puzzling me they did not put them on their bikes already. All other alternatives I come across here in the forum look very poor indeed as everybody can see from endless discussions about shocks and springs.

Vic

 

[Peter Holmes]

I have no idea whether Vic is correct in his condemnation of traditional oil filled coil over shocks, but I would be very interested to know whether Moto GP, World Superbikes, Formula 1 are using Fournales shocks, surely if they were that superior, in a money no object sport, they would be being used in preference to conventional shocks.

 

[vibrac]

I know it is not a long term solution, but one cannot help but think there must be complete Vincent shocks of various types, on the shelves at AVO behind locked doors, I wonder if the receiver would sell them off, surely that would be better than throwing all the stock into a skip.

From my dealings with AVO (just down the road from me) I get the distinct impresion that they were made to order using mix and match from standard components
I doubt any modern small batch custom manufactures make for stock anymore, I they did they would soon go bust ..... Oh!

 

[greg brillus]

Its a numbers game.......there just simply isn't the numbers to support the manufacture of these things......Look at how long it has taken for the very few Vincent owners out there to implement Norman's modified steering column........The actual number of bikes with this mod must be so low.......every bike you see for sale, not one of them has this mod.......imagine if Norman had 2000 of these made sitting on the shelves hoping that many Vincent owners would take one.......It still blows me away how many very experienced and long time Vincent owners, who still don't have this mod done to their bikes.......I suppose these folk still think the Titanic should not have sunk.......Any one making parts for these bikes now will be seriously thinking if it is actually worth it....... Suspension components is probably the worst, due to the "Blame game" if something does not perform properly.......Like Laney Thornton with his pre sale paperwork.......In general it is getting harder to get things made now, unless the batch numbers are high........Unless more folk like Norman get small batches of these parts made, the situation will not improve.......And owners will have to be prepared to pay the cost, as producing small batches of parts is expensive.