Does anyone run the BDM Air Ride shock without the compressor? And just adjust at home?
If so how's that working out?
How leaky, if at all is the air ride? (new rebuilds)
Thinking of adding it to my K-9
I have only run the stock air ride for the life of my K9, about 55,000.
I don't run it without the compressor and I don't think I ever would.
Sometimes it holds air for weeks and then sometimes I have to air it up everyday.
I broke a couple of shock bolts due to the overly stiff shock, well that and the fact that I weighed 300+ for a good portion of those miles, they put on with the Air shock so I switched to one of the softer MID-USA Chrome narrow body shocks we carry and no more broken shock bolts so far. Bike has been on it's side a couple of times because the air ride bled out and the bike stood to upright on the stock stand so I switched to the hidden spring stand we carry to prevent that in the future as it let's the bike lean over more. If you have your ride loaded down and the air system bleeds out while your riding, it would have to be fairly quickly, the bump stops will not save you as prodiver has explained. I had a couple of leak downs while riding and while I caught them it wasn't before the swing arm had a chance to contact the fender and put a ding in the powder coat.
We finally got everything squared away with Fournales and we are currently awaiting the first two sets of Euro Pan Air shocks.
We also now have a supplier for the correct rate spring that came in the BD OEM Works shocks so we will be installing them in the MID-USA chrome narrow body shocks as a replacement for the OEM BD Works shocks since Works is no longer in business. We are now working with a local performance shock manufacturer to customize the shocks for better handling etc. We already have the ability in house, and have made the service available, to rebuild the shocks and to make changes in the damping and preload of the OEM BD shocks. We have done a few local customers as well as some for distant customers and they are really happy with the changes. We have found though that the front forks generally need some adjustment as well to keep everything equal and working correctly.