Telelever ?

[oldcamper]

Money has a lot to do with it as well. Telelever and others like it generally cost more to manufacture than standard forks. Most of today's fork assemblies and internals can be purchased "off the shelf" by manufacturers at a considerable cost savings.

Maybe, but the number of parts is about the same. The hinged A frame that attaches to the lower clamp on telelever is an additional part, but there is only one spring instead of two and only one external damper (shock) instead of (maybe) two internal damper systems.

It might be interesting to compare replacement/repair parts cost of a GS telelever system to a similar R bike with USD front suspension.

 

[jackskelly34]

The Duolever on my K1300GT is, IMHO, the only fork BMW has produced that is worse than those of the 81-84 Airheads (R80G/S excepted). Even a top-notch aftermarket shock hasn’t fixed the harshness and poor feedback from that front end.
But, as you so clearly pointed out, one’s opinion may differ from mine.

Best,
DeVern[/QUOTE]

Actually the R80G/S front fork was virtually identical to all the 1981-1984 R100 and R80RT models.
And you are correct, the Type III front fork was undoubtedly the crappiest front suspension ever installed on a BMW motorcycle.
(Yes, even the R80G/S)

 

[AntonLargiader]

The Telelever design also allows the suspension unit to be totally separate, meaning you can get very sophisticated damping without a lot of fork-specific modifications.