UK Riders -fork oil change ?

[Big Kev]

Hi

I have always found the GTR to be harsh at the front end - jarring through the bars on typical badly laid UK roads. Web threads suggest its due to the fork oil being too thick and giving too much compression damping which is not adjustable. I have played with rebound and Pre load and its not doing what I want. I know how good front end suspension feels as my last bike was a BMW GS adventure that soaked up the bumps vey well.

I am sure it feels worse on cold mornings when the oil viscosity goes up

Has anyone chaged to a lighter oil in the UK and if so what types and what were the results. I say UK so that I know we ride in similar temperatures and on the same roads.

Kev

[greko]

BMW has different suspension system... "telever" so after that every other bike with traditional suspension it's not good enough i had all ready BMW GS adv myself .

[BergDonk]

Hi Kev,

I'm not in the UK, but my fork development has been happening over recent months, with temps ranging from 0 - 15 here at home to 35 deg in Qld post revalve. I also reckon our roads are generally worse than those in the UK, so I don't think my experiences will be too far off.

I have found a definite improvement with a simple change to Silkolene Pro RSF 2.5w as discussed here http://gtr1000.yuku.com/topic/4280/t...ork-Setup.html and here http://forum.concours.org/index.php?topic=59828.0

Easy and cheap enough to do, and IMHO a definite improvement.

Its since been revalved and back to 5w and I'm awaiting springs. I'm shortly off to Africa for the rest of the month, so it'll be a while before I finish them, but I reckon if you think the standard forks are a bit harsh, you'll like the Silkolene version.

You can change the oil without removing the springs if you want, as spring removal is difficult in these forks. Remove the forks, but loosen the fork caps whilst the bottom clamp is still tight, and the top clamp loose. With the inner tube collapsed you will find the nylon preload spacer has two holes in it. You can then feed a zip tie down to use as a dipstick and find out what the standard level is when assembled. Hopefully they are the same. Then invert the forks and drain them, pumping them a bit. I measured what came out and it was close enough to what is specced in the manual. Refill, and I added 10mm to enhance bottoming resistance a bit and refit.

If you don't like it, change back, but then you'll know.

The problem with this bandaid is that you need to screw the rebound in to compensate, and the oil flow is quite low as a result and not optimum, which is why a revalve is better again.

Try it,
Steve

[mascilhul]

Cheers!
Valikie
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