I've finally changed my fork oil

[arj127]

It was necessatated (think thats how you spell it) by my whole lower fairing going west on the last Auck Thursday night ride, when hitting a dip on a fairly fast straight somewhere in Kumeu/Riverhead.
Ever since i bought the bike it would only travel half the distance on the forks, and when you entered a driveway over a small curb you would completely gonnad yourself.
So i attacked it today, and discovered that the previous owner had the preload wound so far down i wasn't even aware that it was there. Changed the oil and backed off the preload and hooray, full travel.
Went for a spin and couldn't beleive the difference. Its now a pleasure to ride over the bumps.
So i have ordered a complete new fairing from Just Fairings, have to wait four weeks for that, and will give the old girl a full respray and some other preventative maintenance over the next month.
Will go on the Westpac ride and then get stuck into it.
So i will miss plenty of thursday night rides for a while, which is a bugger because i was really enjoying it until my fairing blew into lots of little pieces.

[riffer]

Good on you fella.

A lot of people bitch and moan about how their bike doesn't handle and never think about the work the front end has to do.

And forks are sooooo easy to do.

[arj127]

Riffer. I would have liked to pulled the cartriges down too, but couldn't get hold of a long reach allen socket that attaches to an air rattle gun.
Just really happy that the bike has a softer ride and more travel now.

[riffer]

You're very unlikely to find one, to be honest. I've tried.

Best advice I can give is to try either a T-handle Allen Key wrench, like a Bondhus, or, if you've got welding gear, make up your own T-handle and weld it to an allen key.

Here's what I do (don't laugh):

Get your good quality allen key, put the long end down the bottom of the fork and attach some mole grips to the short end.

Get a mate to hold the forks.

Give the mole grips a whack with a rubber mallet. (Anti clockwise of course). Instant impact driver...

Works for me.

[Roj]

You're very unlikely to find one, to be honest. I've tried.

Best advice I can give is to try either a T-handle Allen Key wrench, like a Bondhus, or, if you've got welding gear, make up your own T-handle and weld it to an allen key.

Here's what I do (don't laugh):

Get your good quality allen key, put the long end down the bottom of the fork and attach some mole grips to the short end.

Get a mate to hold the forks.

Give the mole grips a whack with a rubber mallet. (Anti clockwise of course). Instant impact driver...

Works for me.

I use a soft-wood faced vise and an allen key ...