Which fork oil? Pointy.

Morning Everyone,

I'm a new member to the forum, who passed my Mod2 last friday. Aftet a ride out this week i noticed one of the forks leaking. My question to everyone in the know, is there any prefered spec/manufacturer of oil for the pointy? Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Jay

[MJC-DEV]

No really - every rider seems to have their own favourite oil type, weight and brand. You will get as many opinions as replies. Same for engine oil, brake pads, chains etc etc. Standard weight is 10W I believe but check the manual.

[jambo]

This is pretty much "Add salt to taste".

For bumpy roads I actually think something like a nominal 10w is about right, if the roads you use are smoother, you may prefer something a little thicker. There's an article here comparing fork oils. It's not crucial to match the Suzuki oil exactly, but if you plan to experiment it's important to know that one manufacturer's 10w can be thicker than another's 15w, so if you hop randomly between suppliers you can become convinced that there's no connection between oil weight and feeling.

You'll need about 500ml per leg, be sure to set the air gap on them instead of measuring the oil going in.

Jambo

I've been using multi-viscosity synthetic motor oil in my forks (and shocks) for 20 years. Very slippery, very durable, resists fade with hard use and cheaper than fork specific oils.

Thank you all for your Info. The bike was originally setup for track days by previous owner, so I will put it all back to standard, then I can adjust it to suit me.

[aesmith]

Originally Posted by wideguy

I've been using multi-viscosity synthetic motor oil in my forks (and shocks) for 20 years. Very slippery, very durable, resists fade with hard use and cheaper than fork specific oils.

Interesting, that's actual engine oil? Which exact stuff do you use? I have a few litres 5/40 or 5/30 synthetic oil available at the moment.

Tony S

Originally Posted by aesmith

Interesting, that's actual engine oil? Which exact stuff do you use? I have a few litres 5/40 or 5/30 synthetic oil available at the moment.

Tony S

Yep. Mostly I've used Mobil 1, but they are all good. I currently have Valvoline synthetic in my CB900F forks, because it needs 15w oil with the emulators, and I couldn't find any Mobil 1 in 15w40 (or 15w50) at the time I changed the oil.
There is some viscosity difference between say 10w40 motor oil and what they call 10w fork oil, but, there are also differences between the various manufacturers fork oils- all 10w fork oils aren't the same viscosity either.
I've not found this to be any more of a problem than substituting aftermarket fork oil for OEM fork oil. In other words, no problem at all.
If your specs call for 5w fork oil, sure, use your 5w30 or 5w40 synthetic motor oil.

[yorkie_chris]

5w in stock SV will be squishy as riding a fat bird. See if you can find some cSt@40 degrees numbers for it

[aesmith]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

5w in stock SV will be squishy as riding a fat bird. See if you can find some cSt@40 degrees numbers for it

The web site gives Mobil 1 5/30 as ..

Viscosity, cSt (ASTM D445) @ 40ºC 72.8
Viscosity Index 164

What sort of numbers would you be looking for, for a standard SV?

[yorkie_chris]

What springs?