V11 Top Dampener Valve Leak

[Rich Sam]

I have one top dampener valve that has a slow\medium air leak.  The same valve is always zero pressure when I do a suspension pressure check.  The rest I suspect are well within tolerance, if any air leakage.

I emailed EWheels and they reminded me to check the Schrader valve to make sure it is tight.  Did not dawn on me to check that!  I was already thinking of bad seals and yada yada.

Very cool inmotion included a cool valve extender but on the valve extender is a Schrader core tool!  How cool is that they included it?  Sure enough one of my valve stems had a tiny bit of play.  Fingers crossed pressure holds.

Posting this in case someone else has the issue, the quick reply from ewheels may be a sign this is a common problem.

 

[Ádám Szitás]

Any other possibilites, if it not the valve? Mine is tight, but I do notice air loss randomly, sometimes very fast. 

[Rich Sam]

23 minutes ago, Ádám Szitás said:

Any other possibilites, if it not the valve? Mine is tight, but I do notice air loss randomly, sometimes very fast. 

I have never rebuilt an MTB bike shock before but have looked at the process and even bought rebuild kits for some of mine.  If it was mine I would try and get warranty to cover it first.  If out of warranty I would consider purchasing a new shock Assembly at 60 bucks, that is not bad. [see euco link below]

If I was going to try and service I would look at these resources, and it was not a simple valve tighten fix then most likely an o-ring is failing would be my guess.

On the V11 as far as I can tell is a standard MTB bike fork shock. See suspension piston in the parts section of:

https://www.euco.us/products/inmotion-v11-electric-unicycle

It looks like a fork suspension piston off a standard MTB bike minus the crown.

https://www.mbr.co.uk/news/inside-suspension-fork-322602

There are lots of rebuild vids

 

 

 

 

[Rich Sam]

I can confirm that tightening the valve core fixed air leakage for me.  Just did a pressure check after more than 24 hours and pressure held.  Good deal!

[mrelwood]

On 2/8/2021 at 10:55 PM, Rich Sam said:

It looks like a fork suspension piston off a standard MTB bike minus the crown.

The V11 shock is different from regular MTB forks in that it’s just a very simple piston inside a straight tube. No float fluids, springs or other elements from a MTB fork design. Also a fork usually has two different kinds of tubes, I think one for shock absorption and one for rebound control. The V11 shocks are identical, as the sliding mechanism requires identical forces on both sides.

 By Inmotion’s words the shock unit is a custom order, and no direct replacements are known to be publicly available.

 Unfortunately the V11 shock is not serviceable, in that the tube has been closed by pressing and glueing. So the O-rings can’t be replaced without modifying the shock to be one that you can open and close yourself.

[Rich Sam]

2 hours ago, mrelwood said:

The V11 shock is different from regular MTB forks in that it’s just a very simple piston inside a straight tube. No float fluids, springs or other elements from a MTB fork design. Also a fork usually has two different kinds of tubes, I think one for shock absorption and one for rebound control. The V11 shocks are identical, as the sliding mechanism requires identical forces on both sides.

 By Inmotion’s words the shock unit is a custom order, and no direct replacements are known to be publicly available.

 Unfortunately the V11 shock is not serviceable, in that the tube has been closed by pressing and glueing. So the O-rings can’t be replaced without modifying the shock to be one that you can open and close yourself.

Now I did some digging on these pesky things...  I may be a load of horse crap but:

1.  You can order directly from EUCO

Look at the piston this guy pulls out of a fork teardown, looks identical to v11 piston.  Granted probably different but same type of part.  Look at 4:52

In the video it refers to the part as an "Air Spring"

 

Edited February 22, 2021 by Rich Sam
clarity

[mrelwood]

5 hours ago, Rich Sam said:

Now I did some digging on these pesky things...  I may be a load of horse crap but:

1.  You can order directly from EUCO

Look at the piston this guy pulls out of a fork teardown, looks identical to v11 piston.  Granted probably different but same type of part.  Look at 4:52

In the video it refers to the part as an "Air Spring"

 

Nice find! Yes, it’s basically a similar air spring, the thick section just looks to be shorter than on the V11 shock. The insides look different, but they have the same basic operating principle.

I was trying to find a replacement air spring cartridge we might use as a replacement shock for the V11, but the local shock shop said that they’d have to know the fork model it goes into, since they are not sold by measurements such as max length, travel distance, etc. One could still find an online shop that sells air spring cartridges, and maybe ask if they could measure the length and thickness.

I actually would still be interested in giving it a shot if something like that comes up, I just stopped actively searching for it.

[gon2fast]

My top chambers leak to zero psi. I don't ride the V11 much so I can't say how aggressive the seepage is, sorry. Sucks, but an easy fix (especially if you don't run bolts on the top sections of the saddle). 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by gon2fast