Fork Oil

[Grip]

Just wondering what are peoples opinion on how often to change the fork oil?

 

I've been changing my fork oil every 2 years, but my bike is a street bike ridden once a month if lucky.

 

 

 

 

[khp]

Just wondering what are peoples opinion on how often to change the fork oil?

 

I've been changing my fork oil every 2 years, but my bike is a street bike ridden once a month if lucky.

Hi Grip,

 

Once every two years should be plenty fine with that amount of riding. The fork oil will deteriorate from pumping through valve orifices (essentially, the polymer chains gets broken) and the deterioration will reduce the effective damping provided by the oil.

 

For "normal" street high, I'd say that most riders would be just fine with changing the oil every two years; my experience from talking to other riders and a couple of workshops is that most riders are not aware that the fork oils should be replaced, and experiencing 5 or 10 year old "fish oil" is not uncommon. If it gets really old, the oil will stink like a tomcat's urine (quite unpleasant to say the least).

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

Kai

[Cobie Fair]

Do we want to know how Kai knows what tomcat pee smells like, uh, not likley .

 

CF

[khp]

Do we want to know how Kai knows what tomcat pee smells like, uh, not likley .

Very simple Cobie: I grew up with cats in the family. And while we only had female cats, the male did spray on/around the house when the female was in heat.

 

Oh well, too much knowledge for today .....