I have one of the early ones with the blue bowtie.
DO IT!!!2020.06.24 - UPDATE! - DUMB IDEA.... THAT I'LL PROBABLY DO ANYWAY...
Been thinking about a fun / crazy / dumb idea for the last several weeks now, so I might as well share it with you all.
Every time that the Nitrogen Fill Kit gets hooked up to raise the ORI struts it is a reminder of three things:
1. How cool it is that the ride height can be selected by charging the upper chambers with nitrogen
2. How cool it is that the stiffness of each corner can be adjusted by charging the lower chambers of each strut
3. What a pain it is to hook up the dual-fill hoses to the appropriate pair of Schrader valves to make adjustments.
See where this might be headed, yet?
Instead of attaching hoses at the top and bottom of each strut each time, what about permanently installing a high-quality braided hose PERMANENTLY to each of those fittings? Run those lengths of hose to a central distribution manifold with manual shutoffs for each (and maybe a pressure gauge?) so that a single nitrogen bottle connection could serve to make adjustments for ANY of the 8 chambers (2 per strut) and changing setups (either ride height or stiffness) could become incredibly easy from a single location?
The main challenge seems to be getting the correct quality hoses and valves that are rated for tank pressures so that the system is 100% reliable and leak free. The stainless braided hoses used on the fill kit appear to be 3000psi rated, so the first step would be to source enough sections and custom lengths to consolidate all the hoses to a common place. The shutoffs would have to be rated for high-pressure as well and leak-free so there wouldn't be a constant fight to keep the charge pressures at the preferred settings.
It seems doable... and fun, and maybe not THAT complicated.
Still mulling it over... talk me out of it, or into it.
-G
Well if you put the hoses after the regulator it will be much safer and you won't need 3000 psi stuff for everything, just the hose to the regulator, after that, 500 psi capacity should be sufficient. I don't think you want potentially 3000 psi to your shocks anyway, not very safe.
Then you can mount gauges in place of the ash try and some solenoid valves by the distribution manifold and a few momentary buttons. Then you just hold the buttons down to open the solenoids and raise or lower the pressures at the touch of a button.
Just make sure to carry caps or plugs in case you blow a hose or spring a leak, then you can disconnect and cap off the strut so it doesn't all leak out.
And close the bottle when not in use, if the bottle is not closed all the nitrogen can leak out in one night, trust me. I am just guessing, but half the bottle will last for years, and the other half one night....
If you get real serious you could use a lower rider controller and have automatic control of the ride height, oooooohhhhh
It won't go that far in reality, but I could foresee that adding or removing a couple inches of ride height on a trail run would be nice, as would softening or stiffening the struts (for initial tuning) or for a particular terrain (rocks vs. street use). Being able to make those changes conveniently (in 5 minutes or less) would be awesome.
So you are saying that only now you are thinking about doing this, I thought it was the plan since you chose to put ORIs.2020.06.24 - UPDATE! - DUMB IDEA.... THAT I'LL PROBABLY DO ANYWAY...
Been thinking about a fun / crazy / dumb idea for the last several weeks now, so I might as well share it with you all.
Every time that the Nitrogen Fill Kit gets hooked up to raise the ORI struts it is a reminder of three things:
1. How cool it is that the ride height can be selected by charging the upper chambers with nitrogen
2. How cool it is that the stiffness of each corner can be adjusted by charging the lower chambers of each strut
3. What a pain it is to hook up the dual-fill hoses to the appropriate pair of Schrader valves to make adjustments.
See where this might be headed, yet?
Instead of attaching hoses at the top and bottom of each strut each time, what about permanently installing a high-quality braided hose PERMANENTLY to each of those fittings? Run those lengths of hose to a central distribution manifold with manual shutoffs for each (and maybe a pressure gauge?) so that a single nitrogen bottle connection could serve to make adjustments for ANY of the 8 chambers (2 per strut) and changing setups (either ride height or stiffness) could become incredibly easy from a single location?
The main challenge seems to be getting the correct quality hoses and valves that are rated for tank pressures so that the system is 100% reliable and leak free. The stainless braided hoses used on the fill kit appear to be 3000psi rated, so the first step would be to source enough sections and custom lengths to consolidate all the hoses to a common place. The shutoffs would have to be rated for high-pressure as well and leak-free so there wouldn't be a constant fight to keep the charge pressures at the preferred settings.
It seems doable... and fun, and maybe not THAT complicated.
Still mulling it over... talk me out of it, or into it.
-G
