Fournales Suspension

[RockIIIt]

There has been a lot of discussion / confusion around suspension settings and the use of "Harley" progressive suspension.
Have any Rocket owners fitted this suspension ? , please comment on this post so we can all see how they compare.

The following is a burst from an Aussie website:

...............French suspension firm Fournales has developed a shock for the Triumph Rocket III. Here's the blurb on it: Over a number of years Fournales suspension units have built a strong reputation in Australia, supplying replacement shock absorbers for Harley-Davidsons. Now, the French factory has developed a system for the Triumph Rocket III, to meet the special demands of the 2.3 litre cruiser.


Fournales dispense with the usual mechanical spring component and rely on air compression for their suspension quality, eliminating 'bottoming out'. The Fournales Magnum has two interconnected chambers containing oil and air. Under load the oil-air emulsion is pushed through a four way action damping valve progressively absorbing the shock.

Where some spring-type shock absorbers fail to react at all to shock below a certain preload level, the Fournales will soak them up efficiently, when even the tiniest of road shocks and ripples are encountered. Fournales "Magnum" offer a constant ZERO pre-load.

The Fournales are extremely light, as much as 60 percent lighter than conventional spring-type units, thus reducing unsprung weight, an important feature for the Rocket III.

There is virtually no limit to the life of Fournales... they never suffer from spring sag and are 100 percent rebuildable, with every individual component replaceable.

The Fournales come with a four-week 'money back' trial period and carry a two-year guarantee.

Replacement Fournales systems are available for the entire Triumph range, including all monoshock models.

http://www.bikepoint.com.au/portal/a...opDefault.aspx
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[SickNick]

The advertising is incorrect, and in my opinion the product isn't worth getting.

The idea that because a spring is pre-loaded, that it doesn't respond to changes of load or to rad irregularities is codswallop. The pre-loading, spring rate, and progression all affect HOW the shock responds to changes of load and to road irregularities, but they still respond.

Only if the DAMPER is set too stiff will a shock fail to respond to a change in load etc.

If you're going to go air shocks, get something less pricey and more simple - the Fournales units are hell to maintain and expensive to replace.

I can't make particular recommendations, though, since my trike has air shocks designed for custom cars, and an onboard compressor for real-time ride adjustment. A nice setup, and you CAN just squeeze that sort of thing onto a large solo machine, but not with these shocks.

Good luck in your experimenting. Air is great...

[Rocket-tre]

I have them.
I found the original shocks to be very hard, and the Fournales really made an improvement, but on occassion still are to stiff. Especially now since I run with a car tyre in the rear with much preassure. I would have liked to be able adjust them a bit softer.
When I have a passenger on they are just perfect though!