Front fork no oil : don't laught to me!

[Steve]

If you want to solve it all with spacers, I guess you could use the spring for a 50CC dirt bike - 6" of spring and 18" of spacer. But I'm inclined to use more spring and less spacer.

Yeah, your idea of "more spring and less spacer" is pretty much the ideal, but Progressive only makes so many springs.

They tend to go for situations that will cover the most bikes, so they use a fixed spring length of a given weight and diamater that will fit a fork tube. Since that length spring will not be proper for ALL bikes, you need to add the spacer to get the ride height correct.

Keep in mind: adding length to your spacers really does nothing to the spring rate while you are riding.
Let's say that your forks "sag" 3" between on-the-centerstand measurement and riding measurement.
Adding 2" to your preload spacer will only make the front of your bike ride 2" higher.
The springs will still be compressed the same amount while you are riding.

.

[deven5498]

Changing Fork oil

I changed my fork oil today and found this tread very helpful. Adding oil while the forks are still on the bike can be a bit confusing. Here was my process.

- Remove air valve cover and release air pressure. (11.4 psi on my 1980 GS1000G)
- Remove Air valve. Allowing air in the top helps ensure full faster draining.
- Remove small drain screw at bottom of fork and let it drain for a while. ( I waited an hour or more)
- Replace drain screw when completely empty

Now the refilling turned out to be more challenging than I had expected. First i had to measure out 241 ml of fork fluid (specific to the 1980 GS1000G). I used a graduated cylinder and eye dropper.

While you could add fluid through the hole where the air valve goes the entry channel is very small and angled so it would take a very long time and almost definitely involve some spillage which will throw you out of the allowable 1 ml difference between the 2 forks. Unless of course you can replicate the same spillage on the second fork.

- I ended up unbolting the handle bars and tying them out of the way to keep pressure off the wires, cables, and lines.

- Get the front wheel off the ground to relax the fork springs. This way the cap doesn't go flying when unbolted. A jack stank under the crash bars is prefect on my bike.
- Then you can remove the fork caps and easily add oil.
- Replace fork cap and air valve, then add the specified amount of air pressure for your model. 3 pumps with a small hand held ball pump worked well. Don't use an air compressor.
- Replace air valve cover
- Repeat for other side
- Replace handle bars
- Test Ride


Thanks for all your help on here!!

[chuck hahn]

Let the air out and use a adjustable and crack the cap loose with the forks in the trees first..much easier to loosen there than if you dont have a vice to hold them..