Fork cartridge, emulators, and pistons?

[kumpy]

What are the differences in performance and pricing between getting emulators, cartridges, and pistons? I know i got Ohlins cartridges which I believe is the entire internals of the fork other than the outter sleeve and lower shaft (inverted forks). As for pistons, I know they're about 1/2 the price of cartridges, but what are the performance benefits of going to cartridges? Also, what are emulators? Does it depend on your bike, where some bikes uses emulators and some use pistons and some use cartridges only? Please no irrelevant comments like, just factual comments that will help clarify my confusion.

[csmutty]

Emulators are for damper type forks. They try to emulate cartridges.

[loudog]

Cartridges > Pistons alone > Emulators (for damper rods suspension like Smutty said).

No need to change what you got.

[SwiftTone]

Cartridges > Pistons alone > Emulators (for damper rods suspension like Smutty said).

No need to change what you got.

So where does valving fit in the picture?

[jasnmar]

A Cartridge generally refers to an entire "drop in" kit.

Pull out the whole assembly (minus springs) and drop in the new one.

Valving is a component of the larger "cartridge". There's a lot of black magic associated with selecting the proper valving, shims, and assundry other bits that make up the "cartridge" that are still something of a mystery to me.

[wheelieman14]

Here is a good thread on Fork Questions (specifically related to 2000+ 5KE TZ250), but the pictures give a good explanation on how the shims are configured to provide valving for compression & rebound in a set of cartridge forks.

http://www.tz250.com/cgi-bin/forums/...ST&f=15&t=8552