Ceriani fork springs

[a14rgs]

Hi all,

Not specifically Laverda, but related....

A mate is rebuilding a round-case Ducati that he's had for many years and is assembling the forks.
His question - "which way up should the fork springs go - smallest pitch (closest coils) at the top, or bottom, or doesn't it matter?"

Anyone able to confirm please?

Cheers,
Alan 

 

[sfcpiet]

Alan,

Closest pitch goes to the end that does the moving, ie, the bottom in this case.

Theory is that as it is the softer end of the spring, it should be able to act on its' own at the beginning of the spring compression and is compressed only by the sprung component and not by the rest of the spring.  If the difference is large enough between the pitches, this will indeed happen.  The coils will bind before the steeper pitch of the spring starts to compress.  In practice, the difference between the pitches is not very large and there will be quite a deal of interaction between the 2 portions of the spring, not that it matters much, though....

Easiest way to get "real" spring progression is using radically different short bits of spring, stacking and matching them to your needs.

piet  

 

[a14rgs]

Excellent response Piet, thank you very much.

It makes sense to me, so hopefully will make sense to my Ducati acquaintance....

Alan