Leaf spring fork

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Indian Motocycle Company motorcycle with leaf spring fork

The leaf spring fork is a type of front fork on a motorcycle . The first leaf spring fork comes from the Belgian manufacturer Minerva , who presented this design in 1905. The rubbing of the leaves of the leaf spring against each other dampens the movement. Leaf springs were also used for rear suspension on motorcycles.

Technology and application

With the leaf spring fork, the front wheel is guided on a vertical auxiliary fork. It is connected to the main fork by a quarter elliptical leaf spring.

At Minerva, additional springs were built into the sheaths of the auxiliary fork. It was mounted on the main fork in a straight line.

The leaf spring fork with drawn short swing arm on the main fork was built in large numbers at Indian from 1910 to 1946; the leaf spring fork was a typical distinguishing feature of Indian motorcycles.

BMW built leaf spring forks with pulled short swing arm from 1923 to 1936, until the introduction of the telescopic fork .

  • Drawing from US patent US1101435

  • Drawing from US patent US1101435

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Oskar Koch: The current state of motorcycles. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 321, 1906, pp. 294-298.
  2. ↑ Jerry Hatfield: Indian. Schrader Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-921796-17-2 , p. 20