Telelever vs Telescopic Front Suspension

lkraus said:

In addition to stiction problems, telescopic fork travel used by brake dive is travel not available to handle road irregularities, which is the primary purpose of the suspension.

Programming telescopic ESA to increase compression damping can reduce (actually, slow down) dive, but this also makes the ride harsh.

In contrast, a Telelever style fork controls brake dive through simple geometry. There is a little bit of dive engineered into it just so it "feels" like it is braking, but it could have been designed to stay completely level, or even rise. Keeping the bike level also helps keep weight on the rear wheel to assist with braking.

Click to expand...

In fact, during testing of the initial design there was felt to be insufficient dive so they altered the geometry to deliberately allow some dive.

lkraus said:

... Keeping the bike level also helps keep weight on the rear wheel to assist with braking.

Click to expand...

With a few exceptions, most of the braking force on a motorcycle is on the front wheel.

For the OP...why not take a test ride? Most BMW dealers encourage test or demo rides on their bikes. Decide for yourself what you like for the feel, or don't like.

Chris

pro tele

I'm in agreement w/pro telelever folks I haven't done a back to back ,but . I really enjoy going up a bituminous MX section &afterward hearing the comments of the telescopic fork folks . I've bikes w/telescopic forks & can appreciate the differences.That said you'll have to pry my tele-lever,you know the rest !

I have bikes with all three currently-available forks on them - telelever, duolever, and telescopic.

Of the three the telescopic works best for me. Next is the duolever, and then the telelever. Those are MY preferences for a variety of reasons - road feel being the primary reason. YMMV

My opinion only.

All of us are human, and the day may come when you overcook a turn and have to do something to slow down. Even worse, something else may make you have to do something to slow down mid-corner.

A telelever bike has less dive, so you can straighten up, brake aggressively, and then lean it over and loose less ground clearance on the transitions. I feel more comfortable with less dive. Race and sport bikes can take advantage of the change in suspension geometry from dive to corner better. The assumption is you will never have unplanned occurrences making you have to change speeds or lines, or even if you do, the slightly faster lap time is all that matters. That is NEVER a concern in my street riding, not crashing is. I do not understand how dive is an advantage to not crashing.

I will admit, it probably took me at least 20K smiles to become comfortable with the telelever feel, I hated it at first. I am a believer now. YMMV

Rod

Hmm...it took you 20,000 miles to get used to the feeling of the telelever suspension...and you hated it till then? Yet this is good? A positive???

Chris

Change is both a curse and a blessing.