What am I doing wrong

I have a 1980 cb900 with air shocks. I bought new shocks and installed
them today. Im having trouble when I try to put air in them. Ive used
soapy water to look for leaks and there doesnt appear to be any leaks.

What seems to be happening is this>

I try and put air in but after I remove the air from the valve stem
there isnt any pressure in the shocks. My inflator has a pressure gauge
and it shows pressure as I inflate the shocks. I hear a big hiss as I
remove the inflator. I know the valve in the valve stem is good.
All I can think of is since there is such a small volume of air in the
shocks it deflates before I can remove the inflator. Ive tried removing
the inflator asquick as I can but it doesnt seem to be fast enough.

Anyone else run into this???

 

I used to have a CB900C and I replaced the original shocks with
aftermarket Progressive air shocks. I never had any such trouble.
There's not a lot of volume in those shocks but there's enough that you
shouldn't be letting it all out just releasing the air chuck from the
Schrader valve. Can you feel the shocks extend slightly as you fill
them up? Are you using one of those lever-style lock-on filler chucks?
Try a normal air filler chuck without the lever.

If I had to guess I'd say you either have a big leak or you don't have
the air hose(s) properly attached.

You have to be careful not to overfill them, and you also need to keep
a minimum pressure in the shocks, they don't like to be run without
any pressure.

 

Try using a hand pump. It doesn't take a lot of air, and a hand pump makes
it easier to monitor what is happening

 

Yes. There is a peg in the middle of the "chuck." It sticks above the
gasket surface to depress the valve core. Some "Chucks" have longer
pegs than others. I shortened the peg on a chuck just for air shocks
to reduce the "hiss" loss..
High end air shock fillers use a locking chuck with a threaded peg to
depress the valve only after a seal is made.

Here is a mountain bike shock/fork gage that claims to have a "no
bleed pump head." That may be good enough.

http://www.ekosport.com/ta_accs_pump.shtml