Fork oils

[Smitty]

finished off my service on the GPx yesterday
and that included a stg head bearing regrease
and new fork oil
the fork oil was changed 18 months ago, 7,500ks ago
and it came out black...
unbelievable how black it was
looks like bad engine oil

filled it with 15w and 10mm higher levels
and that has stiffened up the front very nicely....

so when was the last time anyone changed their fork oil
with their engine oil???

[Yankee]

WOW! that is DARK! i have never tried that (fork oil change)... is it easy? i always do the little stuff (engine oil/filter, air filter, etc..) but have never tried that!
is it just a matter of draining and re-filling with new?? i'll have to look into it.....

[Barrabob]

It can tend to get like that and is often neglected on older bikes smells a bit like old diff oil too.

Has the gpx got cartridge forks or dampening rods with a top cap for easy changes. I havnet done a sevice on cartridge forks but th old style 250 ones are easy as to do and could just about go on the service schedule for the 15 bucks worth of oil and one hour of time it takes.

well worth the exercise.

[mrmina]

i got a mate to do mine ( i watched) at 28000km and the oil wasn't too bad, but there wasnt much of it. thats what happens when u have a leaky seal.

[MadKaw]

I change mine nearly every 6 months and it always comes out black... Goes in a nice puple...

Its something most ppl overlook and shouldn't as it can improve the front end a great deal.!!

[Smitty]

Has the gpx got cartridge forks or dampening rods with a top cap for easy changes. I havnet done a sevice on cartridge forks but th old style 250 ones are easy as to do and could just about go on the service schedule for the 15 bucks worth of oil and one hour of time it takes.

well worth the exercise.

the GPx is the older style....
remove bars, undo top cap, and then undo drain screw (support with jack!)
refill with correct measure and test fluid height is correct (airgap is correct)
refit top cap and bars and you are done
(my photo shows it stripped as I did a stg head bearing grease as well...)

hth
cheers

[Musty]

nyick thats ugly oil, i always do mine every 6 months. The GPX although is the first bike to go 8 months untouched

[Smitty]

nyick thats ugly oil, i always do mine every 6 months. The GPX although is the first bike to go 8 months untouched

I think the recommended is 10,000 or 2 years
I just did mine coz I was doing everything else
and the bike was stripped..
it was a surprise when it came out... still thin, but black

cheers