Fork seal life expectancy

[RingDing]

I'm going to be stripping down the front end of the bike to make goos some of the rubbish finish (namely repaint the bottom yoke and fork lowers). Whilst I've got the forks apart is it worth replacing the fork seals? What's the life expectancy of the OE ones? I'm currently on 21500miles. It's not a big job to do, should they go in a couple of 1000 miles but if I can save myself an afternoon in the garage then I will.

Cheers.

[Sid Squid]

It's good practice to replace seals whenever the forks are apart, it may seem a bit fussy when there's not previously been a problem, but considering the cost of the seals is not great it'd be a proper pain in the bum if the originals went south not long after you'd had them apart.

[RingDing]

Thanks for the reply Sid. Pretty much what I was thinking but I was hoping someone might turn round and tell me that they should be good to 50k and not to bother! :D

[Spanner Man]

Good evening.

Ditto Sids advice, as there's a fair likelyhood of damage to the seals when one knocks the forks apart.

A good tip is to rub the forks stanchions down with very fine (1200) wet & dry paper & a good lubricant. (I use a silicone lube for this purpose).
This will remove or reduce the very small imperfections that can be on an otherwise smooth looking fork stanchion, & will give your new seals a much easier life.


Cheers.

P.S. Use only genuine seals, they're a touch more expensive than pattern ones but worth it.

[squirrel_hunter]

I got over 40,000 miles out of a set of seals. But I think its was nearer 60,000 I can't guarantee that as the first 20,000 miles the bike did were without me but I doubt they were changed.

But they were never disturbed until they blew, the bike was used daily though.

[RingDing]

Thanks for the pointer on using genuine seals, I've learnt that lesson the hardway though and now I never use anything but.

I would have hoped that they'd last another 20k or so but I know on my GSX they went at around 25k.