Patent ID: 8251355

Claim:
A front fork disposed between a frame and a front wheel of a motorcycle, comprising: a body-side tube connected to the frame so as to face downward; a wheel-side tube connected to the front wheel so as to face upward and fitted to the body-side tube so as to be free to slide relative thereto; and a double-rod damper comprising: a cylinder fixed within the wheel-side tube and filled with working oil; a piston accommodated in the cylinder so as to be free to slide axially; an upper rod fixed to an upper end of the piston, the upper rod projecting axially upward from the cylinder and connected to the body-side tube; a lower rod fixed to a bottom end of the piston and projecting axially downward from the cylinder into the wheel-side tube, the lower rod having a different diameter to the upper rod; an upper oil chamber formed by the piston in the cylinder around the upper rod; a lower oil chamber formed by the piston in the cylinder around the lower rod; a damping member that allows working oil to flow between the upper oil chamber and the lower oil chamber under a predetermined flow resistance; a reservoir of working oil disposed on the outside of the cylinder; and a passage that connects one of the upper oil chamber and the lower oil chamber formed around one of the upper rod and the lower rod that has a smaller diameter, to the reservoir, and causes a pressure in the one of the upper oil chamber and the lower oil chamber to increase when the piston displaces in the cylinder in a direction to cause a working oil amount in the cylinder to decrease.