Sc
ooter Air Suspension
I figured you guys were getting bored reading about drive mods and other stuff you already know about and I really like taking apart scooters so.. This article is from the way back machine. We did it for a customer in 2006.
What you’re looking at is the making of something cool. It was a Honda Silverwing before I had a little quality time with it.
This article is all about getting low so we’ll be learning about installing one of the most ludicrous scooter mods ever, air ride suspension! A slammed scooter is so cool looking but it’s always a bad idea because it makes it unusable. Air ride gives it the looks but doesn’t limit you to an 80 degree lean angle. Read on, don’t cheat and look at the finished scoot. Use scrap paper to shield your eyes from seeing what’s to come.
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This picture shows the heart of the rear suspension. The shocks have collars that make it possible to change how high and low it will go. They also have top and bottom air chambers so the ride doesn’t feel like an old Cadillac. The bottom chamber fills to raise the scooter and the top presses down to give a dampening effect. This system has a hard and soft setting which adjusts the pressure in the two chambers for a more sporty ride. It actually works really well. At this point I must mention the one of the other ludicrous things we did on this scooter. No ridiculous scooter is complete unless it’s running on a car tire. Nope, it handles just fine.
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Here you can see the air line routing for the rear shocks and main compressed air line in place. One of the most scary things about air ride is that with no air in the system the suspension will collapse just like it does when you lower it. It is very important that the air lines are routed so there is no chafing when the suspension cycles. This “danger factor” is a good reason to only do it for show scooters.
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Moving along to the front you can see the air lines going into the fork caps. We removed the springs that held the Silverwing up in it’s stodgy position to convert the front end from spring to air. The front is not as trick as the rear, on this end we only have air filling the fork bodies to adjust ride height. Since you don’t have too much load in the front this works OK. Making sure the air lines don’t get caught, kinked or cut is super important on the front and can be a little tricky to pull off. You have a lot of movement in the lines when you turn the bars. Taking your time to test how the lines move through the full range of motion is time well spent. Remember you also want plenty of clearance between the air line fittings and things they can come into contact with as well. We mounted the union for the fork lines to the fork yoke to help keep the lines under control and also to prevent the lines from being pulled out of the fork cap fittings.
The nerve center of the system is the solenoid valves. The solenoids are mounted on a manifold that distributes the air to all the different lines and exhaust ports. When you hit the switch to lower the front, the corresponding solenoid opens to “dump” the air out the exhaust port in the manifold. To raise the ride height the solenoid opens and the air from the air tank rushes in the fill the chamber. The same solenoids and manifolds are used for manufacturing and equipment the world round. To say it’s a tried and true method would be an understatement.
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Mounted in the trunk we have the air tank (big chrome thing) and the air compressor mounted right behind it. You can also see the regulator in the upper right corner of the trunk. The regulator controls the line pressure, not like you need it. It’s so much fun the raise and lower the scoot that the system is always trying to keep up. Future plans for this scoot include a much larger tank and compressor to keep the smiles going until the cows come home.
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The compressor requires use of an intake filter (the medium grey disc with the black line running into it). We mounted it in a nice cool dry place so the pump lasts longer. Since it’s mounted up under the plastic we don’t have to worry about it getting knocked off or messing up the clean look of the install.
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Since the scooter will park so low we had to fabricate a shorter side stand. We could have made the center stand shorter also to but we figured it was better to leave it long so the scoot could be parked up high for easier servicing.
How you design the side stand has a major effect on how the scooter looks when parked. I prefer the leaned over look, like it’s leaned so far the scoot is going to fall over. The problem with this one is that it’s so short it’s already hard to put down. I feel we made a good compromise between style and practicality.
It’s a little hard to see but right below the handle bar mount we have the control switches. From left to right we have the on/off, front up/down, rear up/down and both hard (red) and soft (black) buttons. The up/down switches are momentary so you can tailor the ride height or make the scoot do the herky-jerky. The hard and soft buttons are also the momentary type but the adjustment is fast so the solenoids just do their job and that’s it.
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Well here it is, it’s a thing of beauty. The truth is that you need to see it in person to get the full effect. Actually the best way is to ride it. It rides better than stock. Bumps don’t effect it as much as they used to. The only drawback is the fact it’s so adjustable. The rider has too much control. Unlike the stock setup you can top out the shocks and forks by raising it all the way. It feels like the forks are going to bounce into two pieces if the settings aren’t right. Smooth roads can lull you into raising the suspension too much. Then when the road gets rough the scoot starts topping out the suspension and the smooth ride goes bad.
The best ride is about in the middle. It doesn’t top out at all and while all the other vehicles are bouncing all over the road you are floating on a cushion of air. Surprisingly you can also ride with it about a one half inch from the fully lowered position. This gives it a nice ride but it’s easy to forget your cruising so low. It’s really not too much of a problem on the freeway but I did manage to drag the exhaust header on one of the sharper turns coming down from San Francisco on HWY101.
The air ride has another bonus that makes it worth a million bucks. People go nuts when they see it work. When you pull into a gas station and hit the switches to dump it people flip out. If you like getting attention this is a must have. You can demand people take notice when you drop that baby at a stoplight or when you park. The only people that won’t be enthralled and amused are corpses.
UPDATE-
Safety. Since this article we started using 5/32" lines and fittings so if the air pressure did escape suddenly the scoot would be easier to control. Most OEs use smaller lines in automobiles and motorcycles for this reason. The dump isn't as fast but people still go crazy when they see you hit the switches. If the system should fail in a corner, you will know it before you crash so you can take evasive action.
Abe