Just finished doing an oil change on my forks. I followed the Triumph specs for quantity and oil level and for some reason in order to have the correct oil level from the top of the fork, 107mm, it will not hold the correct amount of oil called for, 720cc. I have to remove about 30 cc of oil in order to achieve the 107mm. I have fashioned a pretty good tool to remove the oil with a syringe, so the levels are pretty exact. I do have a set of Race Tech emulators installed and put 15wt oil instead of the 10wt recomended.
Could this account for such a difference in the volume?
Which would be considered the most important factor to having the shocks perform best. Oil level or quantity?
Has anyone out there tried a different combination for volume and levels on this model of fork and had good results?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
GBC
I decided to do something about the squishy forks and brake dive on my 2004. A recent posting commented that the air volume above the oil is used for soft compression, and that less air would be less soft. Also, that 10W oil is standard, and less viscous oil would provide more damping. So here's what I did: I removed 150 cc of oil from each fork, and replaced it with 250 cc of 20W fork oil. Now I have better than 15W (mixture), and 100 cc less air. This procedure is easy, just support your front end from above so the forks dangle, unscrew the fork caps, suck out some oil, pour in other oil. Be sure your quantities are equal in each fork.
The result? Not sure. Seems to be firmer and less dive, but I only had time to ride it down the street before I took my gel seat off for modification. I will get a longer ride soon, and also report on my seat modification.
I don't think 30 cc extra oil is a big deal, and you might like it. Just be sure you have equal in each fork.
A few years ago guys were settling in on 13.5 wt oil combining equal amounts of 10 wt / 15 wt fork oil.