[crazymadbastard]

Originally Posted by InvisiBill

I cleaned that up with "²" to make it a little less confusing... You're also reusing X for different things, but that's a little more work to straighten out.

You might want to double-check your math on 2² + 4² = 18.




I wasn't referring to compression of the fork oil, but of the whole fork unit. As your math shows, there's more force involved with compressing one fork than with the other. Even if the overall force to compress the whole front end is the same, the two sides are reacting differently to the input force. Due to the clearances needed for the parts to actually slide, plus manufacturing tolerances, there is a little bit of room for things to get cockeyed. I'm not sure if the assembly is rigid enough to maintain its alignment under these circumstances.

To make an exaggerated example, take the front wheel off your bike and flip it upside down. Now compress the forks by hitting the middle of the axle with a big hammer. The force should be evenly distributed to both forks. Now repeat this, but hit the end of one side's fork leg instead of the middle of the axle. Both forks are "solidly" connected via the axle, but I'm guessing they wouldn't compress exactly evenly, due to real-world imperfections vs. a perfect theoretical world.

Again, I'm no expert, I'm just trying to logic my way through this. Even if you can use different oil weights, I'm having a hard time figuring out any reason you'd want to. For everything I can think of, it seems like you're making two incorrect settings that average out to the correct setting, when you could just set both of them to the correct setting in the first place.

Ok take the same bike, apply lean angle and have pressure applied more so to the inner turn edge of the tire, my point being that most of the time force is not applied equally but the fork still is forced to move as a unit and averages out.