After resurrecting this bike and doing some riding, I noticed I'm leaking fork oil from the left leg. It's significant enough that the front pads are soaked and no good any longer (a little scary when I grabbed the front brake and wasn't much there). Anyways, I've never had the forks apart but I checked the manual and found a nice video by tomk1960 on here and I think I'm comfortable enough removing the fork legs and putting new seals & dust caps in. For those who have done it, did you also replace the fork bushes? I have 24,000 miles on my bike.
I would have thought they'd be alright at 24K, but they're easy to check once the forks are apart. Just look for worn sections of coating (similar to bearing shells if you've done that before). Dosen't help much if you're trying to pre-plan and have everything ready, but the default position is they're usually OK on low K bikes.
I was trying to pre-plan as I actually have a free day Saturday that I can work on the bike. I'll just pickup the seals for now. Thanks for the feedback.
Nick, I would replace the bushes while you're in there, unless they look absolutely pristine. Chances are that you'll never have to replace them again and it's a very simple thing to do while the forks are apart. The upper bushes should have a nice coating with no copper showing on the insides of the rings. The lower bushes should have a nice coating with no copper showing on the outsides.
Glad you found my video helpful. It's not a bad job at all and after you do it once, you'll be very pleased that you did it yourself.
If you're ever riding up in the Worcester area, look me up. I can show you some great roads up here.
Thanks for the offer. I pass through your area sometimes and will look you up.
I finally had a chance to work on the forks and get them disassembled. There was some muck under the dust caps and the fork oil was brown so I'm glad I had the chance to do this. I ordered new bushings also.
One question - I noticed your fork spacers in the video are longer than mine and after closer inspection, I can see mine were cut down to 1 1/2 inches. Is the net effect of that mod to lower the suspension? I'm 6/4" 240 so I'm concerned about it.
I think it will probably lower the bike some, but I'd be more concerned about how the front suspension feels since it won't be as firm with that section of spacer removed. I'm guessing that it will be bouncier.
Check with Progressive of Racetech - they might sell just the spacer material, which is quite easy to cut to length. You'll just have to make sure you get the correct diameter.
Tom
End of thread · 6 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 6 Jul 2017