# Hydraulic vs. Springs/coils



## Complete (Jan 26, 2008)

What is the difference between hydraulics and springs in a fork aside from the weight factor?

I'm looking for:

Durability
Performance
Rebound
Control
how easy it is to completely ground the suspension off a jump
and of course, price.

Please and thankyou


----------



## C S (Sep 26, 2007)

Complete said:


> What is the difference between hydraulics and springs in a fork aside from the weight factor?
> 
> I'm looking for:
> 
> ...


Do you mean between air sprung and coil sprung forks?  Most forks have hydraulic damping in them. Anyway, most of these factors depend on the overall quality of the fork you buy rather than on whether the fork is air sprung or coil sprung.

Air forks are generally more adjustable for rider weight because all you have to do to increase spring rate is add air. On a coil fork, you have to change springs to change the spring rate.

On to your list:
Durability: I can't say that either type of fork has an advantage in this department.

Performance: Define performance...

Rebound: This depends on the damping system, not whether the fork is coil or air.

Control: Do you mean how much flex there is in the fork? This depends on a lot of factors, but whether a fork is air sprung or coil sprung makes little difference.

how easy it is to completely ground the suspension off a jump: See my comment on spring rate above.

Price: You will usually pay more for an air fork than a coil fork if the only difference is what kind of spring it uses. E.g., a coil sprung RS Revelation is cheaper than its air sprung counterpart.


----------



## rzozaya1969 (Nov 28, 2004)

It depends on which models you're comparing.

Overall, air forks are lighter and can be adjusted for different riders weigths just by changing the air pressure in them, while coil are heavier and you probably need to change the coil for different weights.

Coil forks tend to be more linear, and a bit plusher, while air are more progressive, I think.

Rigth now they're trying to make air forks feel more coil, which I think it's a good thing.


----------



## dogonfr (Jan 6, 2005)

What type of riding are you doing & what bike. :thumbsup:


----------



## Complete (Jan 26, 2008)

Yes, I did mean air sprung forks. Thank you for bringing that term up, I'm still new to all the terminology.

By performance I mean how well it functions on trails that are relatively bumpy, some drops, dirt roads/off road.

The kind of riding I will be doing includes dirt jumping, dirt trails that have gaps, rocks, roots, bumps and jumps, dirt jumps, and for those of you who have seen ROAM, some of their stuff in the beginning where the guy builds a wooden bridge. A park if you may.

The bike I want to get is a Kona Stuff and I want to upgrade the fork along with the brakes, F/D, R/D, shifters, gears, seat, grip, pedals, tubing,tires, and the rim. Everything but the fork is already settled for since my friend is willing to give me his old 07' parts that he bought some months back. He is more serious than me so he is constantly in the need of the latest, greatest upgrade which puts me in a lucky position on hand-me-downs.

Thanks again.


----------



## vmajor (Oct 1, 2007)

Complete said:


> The bike I want to get is a Kona Stuff and I want to upgrade the fork along with the brakes, F/D, R/D, shifters, gears, seat, grip, pedals, tubing,tires, and the rim.


So why do you want to buy a Kona Stuff? Get something that you do not think you need to rebuild from scratch and perhaps keep the warranty, and possibly get a fork that you want in the first place. All together, likely costing you less even with the discounted prices you are getting for used parts.

V.


----------



## nagatahawk (Jun 20, 2007)

as far as air forks vrs coil oil, I like the Marzocchi forks that have coil oil assisted with air,
the advantange of air forks is that they are lighter. and depending upon the fork, it can be touchy finding the right air pressue to suit your needs.

I will agree with the previouse post by vmajor, why buy a bike then spend more money upgrading it. unless you love buying things and adding them on yourself
Just buy the bike you want the just ride it!


----------



## C S (Sep 26, 2007)

Complete said:


> Yes, I did mean air sprung forks. Thank you for bringing that term up, I'm still new to all the terminology.
> 
> By performance I mean how well it functions on trails that are relatively bumpy, some drops, dirt roads/off road.
> 
> The kind of riding I will be doing includes dirt jumping, dirt trails that have gaps, rocks, roots, bumps and jumps, dirt jumps, and for those of you who have seen ROAM, some of their stuff in the beginning where the guy builds a wooden bridge. A park if you may.


A fork built for dirt jumping is gonna suck for a lot of other types of riding. From a recent thread on this issue:



snaky69 said:


> A DJ fork is meant to take a single hit(landing), come back to it's original position and then take another.
> 
> On fast stutter bumps a DJ fork will simply pack up and become rigid.


----------



## kapusta (Jan 17, 2004)

I'm not sure that that is entirely true. It is true that the dampening requirement for DJ are pretty basic (as you say, take one big hit), so that a fork that is fine for DJ may be crap on the trail, but many good trail forks can do both. I knew a few complished DJers who were running Pike coils a few years ago. They were perfect because they were burly, yet you could run them at 95mm. The Argyle is made for DJ and has the same dampening as Rock Shox high end trail forks (Pike, Reba)


----------



## taikuodo (Jul 3, 2006)

True, but the argyle is probably around 6 pounds and the pike and reba around 3.5-4 pounds (not sure just guessing).


----------



## kapusta (Jan 17, 2004)

taikuodo said:


> True, but the argyle is probably around 6 pounds and the pike and reba around 3.5-4 pounds (not sure just guessing).


Actually, the weights of the Argyle coils and the Pike coils (which I assume one would be using for DJ) are nearly identical (within 0.2 lb) and the Pike air forks are only 0.2 - 0.7 lbs lighter than the Argyle air.

As far as I know, the Argyle is basically the Pike chassis, but with steel stanchions and a non-u-turn coil.

My point is that you could use one of the Pike coils for DJ and trails. Many do, and it is excellent at both.


----------



## dogonfr (Jan 6, 2005)

Travel reduction. :thumbsup:


----------

