Originally Posted by
fredswain
Here's something to think about in terms of big bores. I wanted to know how close the equivalent pack of the standard bore shocks were to the big bores. Basically I looked at the total piston hole area vs the bore area. Logic would dictate that maintaining this same ratio between bore sizes would result in the same equivalent pack since oil speed through the holes would be approximately the same.
AE standard bore shocks:
#3 pistons .84% hole area vs bore
#2 pistons 1.05% hole area vs bore
#1 pistons 1.18% hole area vs bore
AE big bore shocks:
1.5mm 1.16% hole area vs bore
1.6mm 1.31% hole area vs bore
1.7mm 1.49% hole area vs bore
Keep in mind that I can't account for the tolerances between piston and shock body or leakage in this area. Basically what we can gather from this is that the big bore shocks run far less total pack than the standard bore units. They will definitely feel different from the standard bore pieces for this reason alone. I'd love to see how different handling is between them with the same approximate levels of shock pack. Keep in mind the big bores may not require as much total pack as a smaller bore so don't think I am crying foul. Not at all. Just something else to play with!
Hideeho
In the instructions for the big bores AE not setting any preload. That is the way I set them. I used the same springs (I was using losi bb springs on my v2 shocks) & the same weight oil. I used #2 pistons in the v2's (the middle ones) & 1.6 (again middle ones) in my initial setup for the bb's. The pistons for the bb's are thicker than the v2's. The bb's had more of a damping effect on fast piston speeds (landing jumps) but felt like they have the same or less damping for slow speed (cornering). Iirc, when the CSI pistons 1st came out the guys @ CSI recommended 5-10wt less in agama's bb shocks (17mm vs 15-16mm for other brands) because there is more damping effect moving a larger volume of oil (at some point I'll go find that post & link it here). This seems to be what is happening with the AE bb shocks. this also leads to several ideas for pistons with the bb's. Namely, shaving the pistons to make them thinner (& using thicker oil), beveling the piston to get home made taper pistons, custom drilling some pistons to emulate the CSI pistons (1-2 larger holes & 1-2 smaller holes). Hopefully AE will come out with blank bb pistons & regular piston sets for sale separately soon.
P.s. I love having new things to tinker with!