The Main Advantage: Smoothing the Fork Tube Kink
Have you ever seen a rider flat land a jump or some similar hard hit, in slow motion or as a still image? You may be surprised at how much the forks flex! And they're actually always flexing, it's not just from very hard hits, they flex all the time at various levels. The key point here in regards to the split clamps isn't that the forks flex, it's how and where they flex. The fork assembly is free to bend without support (aside from the structural properties of the fork itself) from the axle all the way up to the triple clamps. But the triple clamps are relatively stiff, and they are what mates the forks to the rest of the chassis. So, the relatively smooth bending of the forks turns into a kink at the bottom triple clamp.
You can see this kink exaggerated in the photo here. As the forks compress, the bushings that the inner fork tube slides on will pass through this kinked spot, which causes some binding of the suspension, and a harsh feeling for the rider. Anything that can be done to minimize the kink in the forks will allow for smoother suspension action and a plusher ride. And that's what split clamps do. The separate clamping areas are able to flex independently of one another and smooth out the kink. The kink is still there, there's nothing that can eliminate it in a traditional suspension fork design, but it's slightly reduced by using split clamps.
We can show the details of the kink with some finite element analysis. Here's an FEA result representing a hard landing that's causing the forks to bend. We can look at how the fork tube kinks with both our Gen1 (solid/traditional) triple clamps shown on the bottom of the image and our Gen2 (split) triple clamps shown on the top. These happen to be KTM/Husky clamps, but all fitments will be similar. We can plot the fork tube deflection vs. distance along the fork tube to see how the tube kinks (more specifically, we're looking at deflection of the inner diameter of the fork tube). The traditional style clamps are shown with a solid red line and the split clamps are shown with a solid blue line on the graph. But from this plot, it's not so obvious what's going on. To more easily see what's happening, we can take the derivative of these curves and see the slope of the fork tube bending along its length (see calculus is useful!). The slope of the fork tube is shown by the dotted lines. Ideally, we'd have a constant slope that doesn't fluctuate much as that represents a kink in the tube that binds up the suspension. You can see the slope of the split clamps is a little smoother (dotted blue line), especially right where the triple clamp starts to clamp on to the fork tube.
So how much of a difference does this make in reality? Well, it's not a night and day difference by any means, but it is noticeable on the track. Clearly a traditional clamp isn't terrible as we've all been using them for a long time, and many championships are won with them. But any small improvement is a step forward towards a more comfortable and faster ride. One important thing to note here is that the split clamp only helps this issue with the bottom clamp. The top clamp being split doesn't help with this at all as the fork bushing never slides through the top clamp clamping area.
Comments (7)
Hello,
I just came across your company literally by accident. I am currently waiting on my 2023 Husqvarna FC350 to arrive at the dealership I ordered it from (it was supposed to arrive in July so hopefully it arrives this month). I have XTrig clamps on my current 2021 Yamaha YZ 250F but am very interested in trying your triple clamps & bar mounts on my new arriving Husqvarna. So my question is do you currently have in stock triple clamps and bar mounts that with fit the 2023 Husqvarna FC350? Also is it the "Fat Bar" bar mounts that would fit my Flexx bars I will be installing with the triple clamps?
Hi Brent, I just responded via email with all the details. Thanks!
1/26/2022 just watched you & don from swap explain your products on line . i have a 17 crf450 ,i understand why she gets ruff to ride when the track gets ruff. are there any pro honda teams using your product?
Ti-Lube Honda is using them in Arenacross and for East Coast Supercross this year. Grant Harlan has been testing them for a while now and loves them!
I'm currently have a deposit on a 2022 Honda CRF450WE when it's available in August(That's what I was told by the dealer) that I can't wait to have. I have been looking at mods and doing research before the bike gets here and learning what parts work and don't work. I just learned about your Gen2 triple clamps for the 21' CRF450R in the stock 22mm offset. I was looking into getting a set from Ride Engineering that has 22mm and a 23.5mm that they recommend for motocross. Your technical information had me thinking a lot and I also like the look of your clamps as well. I think it would really pop on that bike. Does it really matter what offset to get? Or should I just stick with 22mm since it's the same as stock? And if I plan on adding the steering stabilizer that Honda use to put on their bikes, do you have a mounting system for it? Thanks!
Hi Harold,
We currently only offer 22mm offset, but will have 24mm in the near future. Which one you want is up to you, really, as everyone prefers something different and will depend on where you're riding. Most people are pretty happy with the 22mm offset on the new chassis, though.
Both offsets will be compatible with the HPSD damper. As of now, we don't offer an install kit for the top portion of the damper, but we're working on a weld-on bung for that. Bolt on kits just aren't a great idea and weld on is much better. The downside is you need to have a good aluminum welder install it. Shoot us an email or call if you have more questions!
thank you very much for actually explaining these things with actual data and not marketing bs! i guess the only way to completely eliminate the pinch binding of the bushing as it passes through the clamps would be to rehone the fork tubes with the clamp torqued while honing. this is surely splitting hairs and would be a bit crazy with removing and recoating etc, but what i have seen people pay for suspension mods anything is possible !
What a great write up!