Front fork oil question/mods

[devonnick]

Hi I am about to fit new fork seals just wondering what oil to use and if there are any cheap mods to do ....cheers.

[trixynut]

Are you happy with the front end damping/diving? If so, just replace with recommended weight and amount of oil.

If not, go for something a little heavier and thicker.

No real tricks or mods you can do, just make sure you get the forks back in with the right amount of rings showing over the yoke, or take the opportunity to drop them down a bit over recommended for more turn in.

[wreckage]

The below may help:

Fork-Oil_01.png

This is from page 8 of the manual available here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sromi2fcwbjmv ... l.pdf?dl=0

... and on page 121 of this :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rjrhcq4oeo1hn ... 2.pdf?dl=0

Fork-Oil_02.png

I've been advised to buy fork springs to suit my body weight but I'm no mechanic and I don't know how to go about this at all.

I know there are many here who know much more than me and will assist.

I'd like to know some reliable places from where to purchase Yamaha (and after-market) parts myself!

Cheers.

[Smithers]

Weeeeeeell, there is an excellent and dirty trick you can do with the fork springs to raise the rate. Learned this little gem from an excellent article written by a knowledgeable Aussy. This was my first step in cheap fork tuning and it made a difference .... cut the first five coils from each spring (preferably heat and grind the ends square) and make new spacers that protrude 10mm above each fork tube...... Worked a treat after blending oils to get the damping to suit...... following from this I've made my own emulators, used the same spacers, put in 5 weight hydraulic oil and Voila, a hell of a difference. Must be better because questionable rear shock performance became immediately obvious ..... just a suggestion for the "fiscally challenged/ anally retentive/ dammit, I can make that! " type of rider..... oh, and fiddling with oil capacity is a good way to fine tune fork rising rate. Did that with the first attempt. With the last mod I think I kept oil volume standard, to the book.