Stiction

[marcus]

I ride an 06 GSXR1000 and these suffer badly from stiction.

 

I have oil soaked foam under my dust seals which reduced it 5mm, I still have 9-11mm.

 

I have backed off the bolts from the triple clamp, given the wheel a tap and loosened the axle nut which also helped a bit.

 

Any suggestions to help reduce it?

 

My suspension guy has a chromed stanction to test but im putting that off and since he hasnt asked me when, I assume he is a bit busy anyway

[littlefield]

I guess you're always going to have some. What do you think is acceptable?

[Cobie Fair]

I ride an 06 GSXR1000 and these suffer badly from stiction.

 

I have oil soaked foam under my dust seals which reduced it 5mm, I still have 9-11mm.

 

I have backed off the bolts from the triple clamp, given the wheel a tap and loosened the axle nut which also helped a bit.

 

Any suggestions to help reduce it?

 

My suspension guy has a chromed stanction to test but im putting that off and since he hasnt asked me when, I assume he is a bit busy anyway

 

I'm going to ask Will to look in on this thread.

 

C

[Balistic]

I ride an 06 GSXR1000 and these suffer badly from stiction.

 

I have oil soaked foam under my dust seals which reduced it 5mm, I still have 9-11mm.

 

I have backed off the bolts from the triple clamp, given the wheel a tap and loosened the axle nut which also helped a bit.

 

Any suggestions to help reduce it?

 

My suspension guy has a chromed stanction to test but im putting that off and since he hasnt asked me when, I assume he is a bit busy anyway

 

I have never had a bike with much. I would look at everything to make sure it is straight(axle, tree, triple clamp). One thing I do is with one tube tight and one loose I use the front axle to set the height (when it spins free in both legs). All forks are not the same and a little tention on this dimention could bind the fork up.

Will

[Jaybird180]

I ride an 06 GSXR1000 and these suffer badly from stiction.

 

I have oil soaked foam under my dust seals which reduced it 5mm, I still have 9-11mm.

 

I have backed off the bolts from the triple clamp, given the wheel a tap and loosened the axle nut which also helped a bit.

 

Any suggestions to help reduce it?

 

My suspension guy has a chromed stanction to test but im putting that off and since he hasnt asked me when, I assume he is a bit busy anyway

 

I have never had a bike with much. I would look at everything to make sure it is straight(axle, tree, triple clamp). One thing I do is with one tube tight and one loose I use the front axle to set the height (when it spins free in both legs). All forks are not the same and a little tention on this dimention could bind the fork up.

Will

 

 

I also have a issue with stiction and a local guy suggested that the forks will need to be torn apart. No mention of front end misalignment (which I have a slight misalignment). I had my forks revalvled and sprung about a year ago. He suggested that it may be time for oil and or could be another issue. Since I'm now doing this on my own, should I invest the time tearing them down or other more important things? The stiction wasn't even noticable until he pointed it out.

[racer]

Hi Jaybird180,

 

I change fork oil at least once a year as a matter of basic maintenance regardless of any issues. A complete teardown isn't necessary to change the fork oil; but, I do remove the fork tubes from the bike (one at a time) so that I can work the stanchion in and out to completely drain and flush the old oil from the dampers. Afterward, the alignment procedures mentioned by marcus and Balistic are highly recommended to prevent binding. If you still have significant stiction at that point, then there might be other issues with the forks, such as low quality oil seals (I use OEM or NOK) or worn bushings which can lead to excessive flex and binding in the fork tube itself. And there may be other tricks to try. For instance, some racers run without dust seals on their forks in an attempt to reduce stiction. In fact, my HRC RS factory roadracers do not include dust seals on the forks at all.

 

Bon chance,

 

racer

[Jaybird180]

Hi Jaybird180,

 

I change fork oil at least once a year as a matter of basic maintenance regardless of any issues. A complete teardown isn't necessary to change the fork oil; but, I do remove the fork tubes from the bike (one at a time) so that I can work the stanchion in and out to completely drain and flush the old oil from the dampers. Afterward, the alignment procedures mentioned by marcus and Balistic are highly recommended to prevent binding. If you still have significant stiction at that point, then there might be other issues with the forks, such as low quality oil seals (I use OEM or NOK) or worn bushings which can lead to excessive flex and binding in the fork tube itself. And there may be other tricks to try. For instance, some racers run without dust seals on their forks in an attempt to reduce stiction. In fact, my HRC RS factory roadracers do not include dust seals on the forks at all.

 

Bon chance,

 

racer

 

 

I'll give it a shot, sir. Thanks for the swift response.

[Red Duke Rider]

Here's a trick I used to free up/get rid of some of the stiction on my Honda that was a very low cost solution.

 

When you have you forks apart for you next servicing, polish, and I do mean polish, you fork legs (I'm assuming they're just hard chromed coated). My favorite device is to use a Black and Decker Mouse type sander with a pad on it that resembles a Scotch Brite pad. Look around at Lowe's or Home Depot for them. Use SimiChrome, and spend about half an hour on each tube getting them to a mirror finish. Wipe all of the SimiChrome residue off with a rage with lacquer thinner. Then apply of coat of MacGuiars #21 Silicone Sealant on the chrome. Short of spending hundreds of dollars for titanium nitride coating or something similar, this will get them very slick and low friction.

 

If you have a lot of stiction after doing this, I would investigate a binding issue.

[Jaybird180]

I also have a issue with stiction and a local guy suggested that the forks will need to be torn apart. No mention of front end misalignment (which I have a slight misalignment). I had my forks revalvled and sprung about a year ago. He suggested that it may be time for oil and or could be another issue. Since I'm now doing this on my own, should I invest the time tearing them down or other more important things? The stiction wasn't even noticable until he pointed it out.

Turned out to be badly worn bushings and/or kinked upper tubes.