I couldn't stand it anymore!

[Mustang]

Putts , what bob says ..........even low mile bikes have shit in the fork tubes .
On your Girly they are the same as the 98 steamer forks , no drain hole .

1. take off front wheel
2. remove front fender and brake calipers (leave the brake lines attached)
3. loosen the fork caps dont remove just loosen them  
4. loosen both bottom and top triple pinch bolts
5. take each fork leg out
6. take 1 fork leg and remove the cap , tip it upside down in drain pan
7. when empty compress the leg into the lower , tip it over and drain , extend leg
8 . keep doing #7 until you get most of the old oil and crap out
9. fill it back up with the flavor and qty of your choice of fork oil
10 put the cap back on
11 repeat step 6 thru 10 for other leg
12 reassemble bike in reverse order .

[BruKen]

you forgot to tell him how much oil. This is most important.  :shock:

And I'll be checkin you, because you told me how much and I want to be sure you werent taking a flyer  :twisted:

[Bob Tosi]

Father of 2, married 24 years to fantastic woman, lots of toys and still lots of dreams....

"You're never too old to learn new things."
 

Can I quote this to my wife........

Great tutorial mustang, as usual.  By th eway what would be a good oil weight for off road riding?  Seems like this would be a good time to put in fork spacer also.

[Mustang]

you forgot to tell him how much oil. This is most important.  :shock:

don't rightly know on a Girly too many conflicting stories ........do a search

And I'll be checkin you, because you told me how much and I want to be sure you werent taking a flyer  :twisted:

on a steamer I like a blend of 10 and 15 wt at the recommended level in the manual** and 1 inch of preload spacer  

** ok on a steamer it's ...........130mm from top of tube with no spring inside and tube fully compressed.

[D-Fuzz]

I have this task on my 'to do' list as well.  My forks have the drain hole in the bottom.  Can I do the oil change with the forks on the bike or should I take them off as well?

[Mustang]

I have this task on my 'to do' list as well.  My forks have the drain hole in the bottom.  Can I do the oil change with the forks on the bike or should I take them off as well?

you can do them on the bike if you have the drains .........but .........the oil shoots out the holes straight across the garage when you pump the forks to get the shit out and the hole is pretty small to drain out all the crud . and with them on the bike it is harder to compress them fully to get the crud out

it's still easier in my opinion to service the forks with them off the bike .

[D-Fuzz]

Fair enough.  I've done it on other bikes before, so I can likely manage with the Tiger as well.  The easy part is taking stuff apart.  Getting it to fit back together after is always my challenge. :oops:

I bought 15w oil for my forks.  What is the ideal level to fill them too?  And do I need to add a spacer at the top as well?

[BruKen]

you forgot to tell him how much oil. This is most important.  :shock:

don't rightly know on a Girly too many conflicting stories ........do a search

And I'll be checkin you, because you told me how much and I want to be sure you werent taking a flyer  :twisted:

on a steamer I like a blend of 10 and 15 wt at the recommended level in the manual** and 1 inch of preload spacer  

** ok on a steamer it's ...........130mm from top of tube with no spring inside and tube fully compressed.

** ha ha  :lol:  Triumph dont give a recommendation. Like static sag etc they leave it up to the rider's preference.... (I surmise)(where did you get the figure from? works for me tho :P

and you cant beat consistency...
 :D

and Mustamgs recommended 15wt oil....which has still to go in WHEN SOMEONE CAN TELL ME HOW MUCH :(

what has always worked for me and the showas is to push the forktube down into the lower and then add oil until it is 5 1/8 inches (130 mm) from the top of the fork tube , may take you a couple of trys to get the right level as I suspect you will need to refill the damper units with oil

[Mustang]

** ha ha  :lol:  Triumph dont give a recommendation. Like static sag etc they leave it up to the rider's preference.... (I surmise)(where did you get the figure from? works for me tho :P

ummmm sure they do  page 1.35 ,chapter 1 general specifications ,manual #3850300 issue #6

ok technically it's for the Kayaba's but the showas are identical forks without the drain holes

oops *** you made me go look it up
this is from a newer manual , not sure the volume # I have it on PDF
see the little k's and s's at the far right column ? k=kayaba s=showa

and yes they are different on the tiger 130mm for kayabas 144 mm for showas  also note the showas recommend 10-20 wt oil

[BruKen]

Oh bollox, you gave me duff info. I have Showa forks on with 10 wt. Do I drain them? Thought they lacked the infamous dive.

 :D

[D-Fuzz]

Thanks for the fork info.

My new Kenda Big Blocks arrived this morning.  I already had the Michelins stripped off, so the new rubber went of pretty quick.  I actually ended up putting a D606 rear on for the next little bit.  I thought the rear tire will end up wearing faster than the front, I had the Dunlop kicking around and I don't plan to go anywhere far from home for the next couple months anyway.  They are forecasting cold, crappy weather again until the weekend, so it will be a couple days before I can try them out.  I start some holidays on Thursday, so I plan to explore lots of backroads over the next 2 weeks.  We have quite a lot of flooding going on here, so I'd like to go for a ride and see how things look.

[Bob Tosi]

on a steamer I like a blend of 10 and 15 wt at the recommended level in the manual**  and 1 inch of preload spacer

What does mixing the 2 weight do?

[Mustang]

probably does nothing other than make me feel warm and fuzzy ........

 15 wt works pretty good in the showas or kayabas forks
20 wt makes em a little stiffer but more harsh feeling

[Bob Tosi]

so I plan to explore lots of backroads over the next 2 weeks. We have quite a lot of flooding going on here, so I'd like to go for a ride and see how things look.
_________________
Scott

Pictures?????

[D-Fuzz]

For the past week, a couple buddies & I had been planning to go for a ride this morning.  Well, I woke up to -5C temp, 50km/h wind and snow flurries.  One on the guys is a fairweather rider and bailed out, but the other guy was game so we went.  He rides a Harley, so it was a pavement ride for a bit, then we split up and I took the gravel roads to get home.  Lots of the gravel roads around here are either flooded or close to, so I got to try out the knobbies a bit.  They worked good, no crashes.  I have to do some practising with this bike at low speeds in tights spots.  Is it alright to slip the clutch a bit to keep the revs up?

No pics today.  Too cold to take the gloves off.