Soft Forks.

...on the cbr600rr...

I bought it last week, and noticed that the fork seals were leaking (unusual on a 3 year old bike, although it has only done 60 miles in 6 months) - I've been told on the CBR forum that its not unusual for seals to weep a bit if a bike is stood for a while. Been riding the bike everyday, and the weeping seems to have stopped.

I've bought OEM Honda fork seals, but dont want to replace them if they dont need it. What I am bothered about is how much fork oil may have leaked out over the months - so I've bought some fork oil, which I was going to change, when I was going to do the seals.

Am I right in thinking that if a noticable amount of oil leaked out, the air gap would increase, and would this make the forks less firm? - The reason I ask is that the forks feel very soft (all settings are standard), but then again, I'm about 16 and a half stone. Even pushing the bike around, the forks seem to dive quite a bit.

I'm thinking of seeing if any more oil seeps out over next week, and if not, take the forks out, and replace the oil only...and leave the standard air gap. Do you think this will improve things?

Advice appreciated.

Ta,

BB.

I doubt in a 'weep' you have lot more than a couple of CC ... (I take it it was a weep and not a big puddle on the floor?) ... with only a couple of CC gone, you haven't lost enough oil to make any real notable difference.

The 'air gap' only really makes any difference at ~2/3 travel and more, so if it is soft pushing it along, it is either dry in there of the springs are too soft. It is not unheard of for springs to break either ...

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

The 'air gap' only really makes any difference at ~2/3 travel and more,

Cheers Blue, didn't know that.

Not sure how much has come out, as I only got the bike last week - noticed that the fork seals were weeping, knocked some money off, and it seems to have stopped now that I've been riding it.

Seeing as tho I have fresh fork oil, a strip down and a refill wont do it any harm...but I'll make sure that they have stopped weeing first.

Failing that, I suppose I should make an effort to set the static sag at both ends for starters...