Front Fork Oil Change

Acted as the apprentice to !tag today to change the front fork oil.  It looked very past it's use-by date.  No dramas mechanically, thanks to !tag having constructed replicas of all the genuine Suzuki tools required for the job!  She definitely felt better on the way home, meaning I should do this more often (ie more often than once every 55,000kms )

A big thanks to !tag - great job mate. 

Do I get a free Cajun Burger and schooner of IGA beer when I install your Ohlins arse end too?

I changed mine on Friday. !Tag didn't help me

So fill us ignorant infidels in on the oil used. 
I have changed fork oil before, but remember reading recently something about fork oils. 
From memory, it was something about modern cartridge forks not working well with standard 5w or 10w oil and needing something specific to cartridge forks. 
Will be doing more research before my next change.

!Tag wrote:Do I get a free Cajun Burger and schooner of IGA beer when I install your Ohlins arse end too?

Yep, definitely (but it was IGP beer).

Bosco: I'm not sure how generic or useful the information would be as mine has 1kg/mm RaceTech springs and gold valves. Rider weight would also be a factor and hence needs to be tailored to each individual. I put 7W Belray oil in it because that was what was available in the local bike shop. It was out of Motul, except for 2.5W. Hard to say if the 7W is the 'best' option and I reckon some trial and error with different brands and different weight would be required to get any sort of decision on what is best. But I can't afford to feed !tag with all those burgers and beer to get this extent of information. Besides, the diet might kill him before we've got the database full! I have a feeling that going to a heavier weight oil with my setup might start orienting it to a 'track' setting rather than a 'road' setting but that hypothesis is largely speculative.

Bet that didn't help much!

2wheelsagain wrote:I changed mine on Friday. !Tag didn't help me

That's good - you probably got it right then

Bosco, As far as I know standard fork oils are fine for most damper rod and common cartridge (open cartridge) forks.

Some of the newer types (closed cartridge, big piston, pneumatic forks) may need specific oils, but I've never owned any of them so dunno. 

One thing may be that the comparative weights vary considerably between brands. That is the viscosity of one manufacturers 10w can be very different from another brands 10w. If you check this chart, you can see how much:  http://mahonkin.com/~milktree/motorcycles/fork-oil.html

There is also the religious argument over synthetic fork oils vs mineral based - now I'll bet you've come across that debate before.

Dave,
We were posting at the same time so I didn't see your post.

  "I have a feeling that going to a heavier weight oil with my setup might start orienting it to a 'track' setting rather than a 'road' setting but that hypothesis is largely speculative"

But - bad hypothesis in your last sentence there - bring a burger and 2 beers to my place and I'll explain why

Why do you want a burger in a cage ?

Jimcoleman wrote:Why do you want a burger in a cage ?

If you had been in the cage , you might fancy a burger as well