Fork Oil

[Red5]

Never changed the fork oil my self and really have no idea what to look for regards specifications. Its for my Daytona 675. Looking for something road biased but good for the occasional track day I guess. I can just phone up triumph and ask what they recommend but thought I'd delv into the wealth of expertise and luck on here. I'm guessing there must be a particular spec, such as standard brake fluid has a dot rating/number, road bikes using dot4.

Help, advice, patronisation all gratefully received.

[billinom8s]

As you are a heavier breakerbraker I would use 12.5w oil. It will tell you how much in your manual.

[TLS-Moose]

As with any oil, there are specific grades that will be specified by the manufacturer. A thicker oil than standard will make the damping action slower, thinner oil faster. Then you can also alter the volume from stock - more oil less air = heavier damping, the reverse lighter.

So, in the first instance, if you are happy with standard performance, find out what the standard grade and volume of oil is. Sometimes a volume is not specified, but they give you an air-gap figure in mm. This is the distance down from the top of the (compressed) fork the oil must reach.

As you had your bike set-up in Portimao, it might be worth speaking to those people to see what grade and volume/air gap they recommend.

My TL forks use 5w oil as standard. Having been rebuilt by Maxton, they recommend using 7.5w oil with a different volume/air gap to stock too - all provided on a handy little A4 sheet along with starting pre-load, compression and rebound damping positions.

As with any motor-oil, you tend to get what you pay for and its worth spending a bit more forma quality oil. Remember the suspension works the oil hard so you want one that doesn't foam easily, stays stable and consistent at temperature, and performs reliably.

With upside down forks, most require the forks to be removed from the bike and the springs to be removed as a minimum , ideally separating the forks completely to ensure as much of the old oil is removed. A special tool is often required to allow the spring to be compressed and removed, though these can often be improvised easily enough ......

[deej]

As with any oil, there are specific grades that will be specified by the manufacturer. A thicker oil than standard will make the damping action slower, thinner oil faster. Then you can also alter the volume from stock - more oil less air = heavier damping, the reverse lighter.

So, in the first instance, if you are happy with standard performance, find out what the standard grade and volume of oil is. Sometimes a volume is not specified, but they give you an air-gap figure in mm. This is the distance down from the top of the (compressed) fork the oil must reach.

As you had your bike set-up in Portimao, it might be worth speaking to those people to see what grade and volume/air gap they recommend.

My TL forks use 5w oil as standard. Having been rebuilt by Maxton, they recommend using 7.5w oil with a different volume/air gap to stock too - all provided on a handy little A4 sheet along with starting pre-load, compression and rebound damping positions.

As with any motor-oil, you tend to get what you pay for and its worth spending a bit more forma quality oil. Remember the suspension works the oil hard so you want one that doesn't foam easily, stays stable and consistent at temperature, and performs reliably.

With upside down forks, most require the forks to be removed from the bike and the springs to be removed as a minimum , ideally separating the forks completely to ensure as much of the old oil is removed. A special tool is often required to allow the spring to be compressed and removed, though these can often be improvised easily enough ......

moose great write up but you forgot to say about the SWB10 discount code on the belray fork oil

http://www.averysmotorcycles.co.uk/stock/bel-ray" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

High performance fork oil for your trackdays or standard oil for road riding

[Red5]

Great, thanks all for that. Still suitably confused Think I'll be looking at some 'heavier' oil than OE due to a few recent comments from people about my riding. I get the idea but just the unknown, AKA, ignorance.

At Portimao, they set it up once and that's when I came off. Not blaming of course, as they do always say take it extremely easy so they never had the chance to really look into what's what and where to go from their idea's of set up.

Will be looking at it over the next few weeks. Need to either ask someone to hold my hand or find some where to take it to. Like to have a go to see what's involved.

[billinom8s]

if you speak to colin he will come to your house and work on the bike there in his mobile workshop.

he posts on here every now and again but you will find his ad on here somewhere and he posted in this years llandow thread.

just LISTEN to what he has to say and take it in.