Suspension Maintanence

[Pumba]

Right the SV has gone past its first birthday and has a very fun 20,000km on the clock. As to comply with the warenty the engine has been regulary serviced, as well as all the other regular stuff, (tyres, chain, sporckets).

Now the question, in order to maintain best preformance what maintanence needs to be undertaken on the suspension components and what would be the recomended service intervals?

[James Deuce]

Do you have the owners manual?

It will have the service schedule in there and it will list things like "lube linkages" and change "fork oil".

If you are able to support your bike so you can get either both wheels off the ground or one at a time, you will be able to do it all yourself. Fork oil is easy - front wheel off the ground, remove wheel, undo the drain bolts that were previously hidden by the axle. Make sure you have something to hand to catch the old oil. Put the drain bolts back in, remove the fork caps and pour in the correct amount of oil (it's in the manual :) ). This is where you can experiment with oil weights, once you know how to do the job. Fork oil is cheap. You'll also see how easy it is to change fork springs or insert that Cartridge emulator you bought from Robert Taylor :).

Steering head bearings should be checked and liberally lubed. This is a forks out job so you'll need a friend to help. After you've changed the fork oil and before you pull the fork legs out, check that the steering works smoothly throughout its travel. Has the front end been making a knocking sound under heavy braking? If so you'll need to tighten the steering head bearings. While you've got the fork legs out, this is a good opportunity to lube the steering head bearings LIBERALLY using really good grease.

Best bet is to find someone willing to help you with all this, because it is an excellent learning experience. Getting the front end serviced by a shop is a $400-600 job. You can do it in about 4 hours.

Get a service manual and it will all become clear!

[Pussy]

Not much point putting cartridge emulators in SV 1000 cartridge forks! Best to remove forks, remove top caps etc, thoroughly drain oil and refill to specified LEVEL

[James Deuce]

Ok then, we'll change that to Ohlins inserts.

You pussy.

[Pixie]

Do you have the owners manual?

It will have the service schedule in there and it will list things like "lube linkages" and change "fork oil".

If you are able to support your bike so you can get either both wheels off the ground or one at a time, you will be able to do it all yourself. Fork oil is easy - front wheel off the ground, remove wheel, undo the drain bolts that were previously hidden by the axle. Make sure you have something to hand to catch the old oil. Put the drain bolts back in, remove the fork caps and pour in the correct amount of oil (it's in the manual :) ). This is where you can experiment with oil weights, once you know how to do the job. Fork oil is cheap. You'll also see how easy it is to change fork springs or insert that Cartridge emulator you bought from Robert Taylor :).

Steering head bearings should be checked and liberally lubed. This is a forks out job so you'll need a friend to help. After you've changed the fork oil and before you pull the fork legs out, check that the steering works smoothly throughout its travel. Has the front end been making a knocking sound under heavy braking? If so you'll need to tighten the steering head bearings. While you've got the fork legs out, this is a good opportunity to lube the steering head bearings LIBERALLY using really good grease.

Best bet is to find someone willing to help you with all this, because it is an excellent learning experience. Getting the front end serviced by a shop is a $400-600 job. You can do it in about 4 hours.

Get a service manual and it will all become clear!

"undo the drain bolts that were previously hidden by the axle."
These are otherwise known as cartridge retainer screws :laugh:

[James Deuce]

Yes, blah blah. Didn't look closely at the bike description.

[Pussy]

Ok then, we'll change that to Ohlins inserts.

You pussy.

I am so!! There is a relatively cheap mod that can be done to SV1000 forks. From memory it is to use a Traxxion compression piston and associated shim stack, springs optimised for rider weight, and decent oil. The forks on the SV1000 are very closely related to the K1- K3 GSX-R600 forks, so there are plenty of mod options available

[JD Racing]

The shock will definately need a service, the oil in most Japanese shocks is aerated direct from the factory, with time nitrogen migrates through the rubber bladder as well.
Get a professional to work on it not a mate of a mate who owns a socket set.

The forks on SV1000's can be made to work really well with a re-valve and stiffer springs, the forks are Kayaba, the 600's are Showa so they are not really alike, unusually for KYB the compression ports are such that you don't need to change the pistons unless your intending doing some really serious track work.

[Pussy]

The shock will definately need a service, the oil in most Japanese shocks is aerated direct from the factory, with time nitrogen migrates through the rubber bladder as well.
Get a professional to work on it not a mate of a mate who owns a socket set.

The forks on SV1000's can be made to work really well with a re-valve and stiffer springs, the forks are Kayaba, the 600's are Showa so they are not really alike, unusually for KYB the compression ports are such that you don't need to change the pistons unless your intending doing some really serious track work.

My bad. I always thought the 46mm RWU forks on the K1-K3 GSX-R600 were the same flavour as the 46mm forks of the SV

[Pumba]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Jim by owners manula I presume you mean workshop manual because apart from telling me at what intervals some things need to be looked at it dont tell me dick shit.

Now if I am following it correcty, replacing the front fork oil and filling to the corect level should be a must, and any other maintanence, well that depends on how much I want to spend.

Is there any maintanence that can/should be carried out to the rear shock? apart from of course oiling all the required bearings and pivot points (somthing I would expect to be carried out durring a regular service).

[Robert Taylor]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Jim by owners manula I presume you mean workshop manual because apart from telling me at what intervals some things need to be looked at it dont tell me dick shit.

Now if I am following it correcty, replacing the front fork oil and filling to the corect level should be a must, and any other maintanence, well that depends on how much I want to spend.

Is there any maintanence that can/should be carried out to the rear shock? apart from of course oiling all the required bearings and pivot points (somthing I would expect to be carried out durring a regular service).

Yes, as JD pointed out the shock will be very aerated and due for service. At 20000 clicks the top seal head bushing assembly in it may or may not be okay. The shock should only be serviced by an experienced suspension tech doing a lot of this sort of work.