What gauge to use to check air in shock

[shotgunone]

You are not suppose to use a tire gauge to check air in shock, so what kind of gauge do you guys use? Where do you get one?

 

[Victor Salisbury]

Using a regular air gauge can allow quite a bit of pressure to release while checking the pressure, hence the reason to not use one if ppossible

Two methods I've used,
set the regulator on an air compressor to xx pressure. Only works on regulator equipped air compressors and not highly accurate.
Secondl, I purchased a Hurricane Aftershock bike pump for mountain bike suspensions. Bleed valve built in, no leak head, lot more reliable than the trusting a regulator of an air compressor (which in my experience tend to read low)

The Hurricane brand pump is pricey when I got mine many years back. There are probably other options, less expensive, I just haven't researched.

HTH

 

[norm9688]

I snagged one of these at Harbor Freight. Works great and checked it at work and its accurate, a quick burst on the trigger and the shock is full with no air loss.

http://tinyurl.com/4xznm9n

 

[S Smith]

Progressive make a suspension pump with built in gauge.

 

[markmarcie2]

I use an old honda dial gauge that used to come with Honda's back in the 80's.  They also had a nice 10/12mm box end combo offset wrench... before all the tools became cheap junk ones I won't touch my vehicles with.

I have used a pencil type too (the one that looks like a pen and the center shaft is the reading gauge) I take a reading, observe it, then take another.  Now I know how much it loses, and I can then read on til I know I'm at where I want.  Most of them only take about 3psi from it per reading, so it isn't much.

Mark

 

[markmarcie2]

Shotgun, don't use a compressed air source to add air!  A bicycle hand or foot pump prevents blowing a seal, rending the shock useless.

Mark

 

[willyp]

I have one of these:

BikeMaster Digital Tire Gauge :: MotorcycleGear.com

 

[centex]

Progressive make a suspension pump with built in gauge.

The Progressive badged pump (avoid the version that goes to 300psi)

The more expensive Harley version available at all HD dealers if you're in a hurry

Both of these work great, have a bleed-down button, don't lose any air during connect / disconnect and are small for carry.

 

[mrpepsi]

The more expensive Harley version available at all HD dealers if you're in a hurry

This is the one I bought for my C10, and I use to to bleed the tires on the C14.
This is a very nice pump and worked fantastic on the C-10 shock.

 

[Paulie]

A regular ole stick gauge'll work fine. It'll jest lose ~2 psi every time ya hit the shock. NBD.

 

[SteveJ]

A regular ole stick gauge'll work fine. It'll jest lose ~2 psi every time ya hit the shock. NBD.

10/4

^-^ Paulie!

 

[surfin_phil]

Here's the Hurricane pump.  Even on sale.
http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/CatalogSearchResultView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10551&langId=-1&pageSize=16&beginIndex=0&sortBy=Dollar+Rank%2F%2F1&searchType=resultSet&cn1=&gast=shock+pump&searchTerm=shock+pump

 

[John_Atkinson]

The more expensive Harley version available at all HD dealers if you're in a hurry

This is the one I bought for my C10, and I use to to bleed the tires on the C14.
This is a very nice pump and worked fantastic on the C-10 shock.

+1 on the H-D pump. IIRC, not any more expensive than the Progressive unit. Very nice indeed.
:13:

 

[Pat and Sher in Ma]

I've got the Harley version of the progressive. It was in stock and the same price as
ordering the Progressive on line. If you get either of these make sure you get the 0 - 60 psi
model and not the higher versions.

just my .02 on the issue.