Installing An Air Ride System - Filter Hose Attached

12 >The filter hose was attached to the breather port on the frame side of the SAS unit. Then the filter housing was slipped into the other end of the hose and the filter was routed up and out of the way. The breather hose is how the compressor in the SAS gets its air, so it'simportant to make sure the hose isn't pinched or kinked. The filter helps keep the inside of the SAS unit contaminate-free. Since the hose only draws air in, the system won't leak if the hose is nicked or cut-it'll just take longer to air up.

13 >Here's a shot of the buttons installed; a perfect location to reach them easily when sitting on the bike.

14 >In less than an hour we had the system completely installed; a fraction of the time compared to most air ride systems. With the air completely dumped out of the system we set it up so that even if the SAS was to unexpectedly fail somehow, the fender wouldn't hit the tire and the bike would still be rideable. It measured approximately 9-1/4 inches from the top of the axle bolt to the bottom of the fender strut. With the system completely filled with air it measured about 11-1/2 inches, giving us a ballpark of about 2-1/4 inches of travel to adjust the ride height.

15 >We jumped on the bike and aired the rear to the desired height, then hit the road. The ride was smooth and very comfortable and like...well... riding on air. Actually, it was a little too much like riding on air, and was too soft. But we just rode back to the shop and threw a wrench under the bike and adjusted the damping. This was actually the only downfall we saw to this system-not being able to adjust damping from the controls as with most other systems. We will say this, though; we let the bike sit for a couple days, continually measuring to see if it lost any pressure, and it never dropped a bit. After three weeks of no noticeable pressure loss (unheard of from some systems we've seen) we gave up because we wanted to ride.