Should I buy air shocks or coil shocks?
We often receive the question, "Should I go with air shocks or coil?" Although this decision ultimately is up to the customer, there are those out there who may be better suited to use one product line or the other based on a variety of factors. Both air ride and coil shocks have their advantages and disadvantages, however, at the end of the day, choosing the right shock (air or coil) is going to ensure you are getting the best ride experience expected from a quality-made suspension product.
To begin, let's discuss Air Ride.
A common misconception is that air ride isn't meant to improve ride quality, and is primarily designed to increase the cosmetic appeal of "Cool Factor". Although with some products out there this is true, we take great pride in offering a product that can achieve both. We designed our air ride with the goal, first and foremost, to handle heavy loads, increase ease of adjustment, and improve the ride quality of our customers' experience. Our air ride still offers, the ability to drop the seat height significantly lower than stock for that lowered look while parked, however, the shocks are designed to be ridden and inflated with air pressure to achieve the stock ride height.
This leads us to the first benefit of Air Ride that can be experienced, which is the ease of adjustment. Our air ride kits come with an onboard compressor/solenoid assembly, along with handlebar-mounted control to allow the rider to make "on-the-fly" air pressure adjustments while riding. This "on-the-fly" adjustability is a great solution for our shorter customers who may need to lower their seat height to make it easier to maneuver their motorcycle while parking, stopping at stop signs, etc. The rider can then air the system back up on the go to achieve a comfortable ride and still have adequate suspension travel.
Another situation where air ride can benefit some customers more than coil is the ease of adjustment offered when changing riding configurations. Customers that are always changing configuration between one-up, two-up, and/or loaded down with baggage, may prefer the air ride to a coil as adjusting preload is as simple as pressing the button on the handlebar control to increase or decrease air pressure to stiffen or soften the shocks to account for the added weight on the bike. This eliminates the need to constantly turn springs on a coil shock to account for different riding configurations.
Now, let's talk about coil suspension.
For most customers, a coil shock ends up being the preferred suspension option due to a generally lower price point, along with the simplicity, and ease of use. Our coil shocks come in a variety of lengths (12", 13", and 14" on select models). The different length options offered, allow our customers to maintain or increase their suspension travel, while greatly improving their ride quality and performance aspects in regard to suspension.
Although the air ride products we offer make it extremely easy to adjust preload for different weight configurations on the bike, our coil shocks are a close second as far as ease of adjustment goes. The coil shocks we offer don't require any spanner wrenches or special tools to turn the coil springs when adjusting preload but can be turned by hand just by grabbing the spring and twisting.
Another great benefit of our coil products is the adjustment options our top-tier coil products offer. With our REVO ARC models, there are additional rebound and compression adjustments in the form of dials with 7 different adjustment settings for each to allow the rider to really fine-tune their ride quality for different riding styles and configurations and enhance the performance of the shocks.