Has anyone tried replaceing the fork oil with a heavier weight to compensate for the springs being too light/soft? Seems like a cheap fix to me if it can be done and makes some difference. Also, you set compression on the front forks by the clickers at the bottom...where/how do you adjust rebound and sag for the front?

 

Oil is no replacement for proper springs. There is no rebound for the front. Sag is not easily adjustable (like street bikes). If you want to adjust it you need to make PVC spacers & put them inside the fork (trial & error).

 

+1 on what klxer said. I think some have put in heavier oil though. Cranking the compression in will help alot. I think I am at 4 clicks out vs. 18 stock.

 

Hmm, maybe I should word the question differently...While I'm saving up for new springs would it help any "in the mean time" to replace the oil with a heavier weight? I amaware that heavier oil is not an alternative to proper springs.

 

I hear that 10w helps out a lot with the rebound on our forks

 

on moto pros website they reccomend 10w oil for my weight and ridng style, if you have the service manual look at the procedure to change the oil..... seems pretty complicated.... but probably isnt.... they say it should be changed once a year too....

 

I changed the fork seals and oil myself, it isn't very hard at all.

It looks pretty daunting because of all the diagrams and "OMG BE CAREFUL" instructions. Once you get the forks apart and become familiar with what goes were, you feel right at home unbolting stuff and tearing into stuff.

Just changing the fork oil is actually easy as hell. Loosen top tripple clamps, undo fork caps, losen bottom tripple clamp, take out the actual fork, then take off the cap and the little stop nut behind it, and slide off everything on the dampening rod.

Turn the fork assembly upside down and let the oil drain. pump the stanchion tube up and down a few times to make sure you get all of it out. Let it sit for maybe a half hour just to be safe.

Then push the stanchion tube all the way into the outer tube, and start filling the whole assembly with oil. Once you get pretty close to the top of the fork, stop, and pump the fork a good 30-50 times, or until you stop hearing any gurgling or see any bubbling. Then remove or add oil untilthe level isanywhere between 4 and 3.5 inches from the top of the outer tube (make sure it's the exact same for each fork now). What I did was I just took an old plastic ruler, cut the metric side off so it'd fit into the tube easier, marked 4 inches on the ruler, and used it like a dipstick. Just line up the 4" mark on the ruler with the brim of the outer tube, and then pull the ruler back out, and check how much excess fluid there is by seeing how much of the ruler was submersed in the fluid. If it comes out dry, just add some more. You know it's good when the ruler comes out completely dry except for a little bubble of fluid right at the tip. Don't forget to dry it before you stick it back in there :P

Put everything back together in order, done. Now that i've done it before, I can change the fork seals in about 30-40 minutes tops (not including time taking the fork off ofand putting them back into the clamps, or removing the bars to get at the fork caps, or time taken putting the wheel back on). You could probably change the fluid in 10.

I don't see how people can pay nearly 200 dollars to have somebody else change their seals or oil. FFS, unless you've got an actual scratch on your stanchion tube, it's easy as pie to just change a set of old and degenerating seals.

 

sinko, good description......do you have any pics of doing this, I comfortable ripping an engine apart but forks and seals ..... I'm clueless.

 

For further enlightenment on setting the compression on the front forks go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H4S0...elated&search=