Re: Textbook recommends Fork OIl change annually. You?

Posted by shinyribs on Jan 28, 2014; 9:53pm
URL: http://vintage-and-classic-hondas.81.s1.nabble.com/Textbook-recommends-Fork-OIl-change-annually-You-tp4048451p4048454.html

I'm not sure fork oil or ATF either one will break down in a years time just due to age. I'd say it has more to do with miles ridden than time spent inside the forks. I suppose if you have a leaky fork seal that was allowing moisture in to the system that it could affect the oil quicker, but that's a whole other ball of wax.

Right before I sold my '76 recently I swapped the front end on it. Those forks had fork oil in them and that oil was about 1.5 years old with about 5k miles on it. It had darkened a tad, but it wasn't too bad IMO. And these legs had never been properly flushed. Just a simple drain and refills. But I had been playing with fork oil weights to see what I liked (tried two or three different weights) and riding for just a few days on each test. So it's kinda like it did get flushed out in a way.

I don't have anything against ATF, but being able to ''tune'' your forks with different weight oils is nice. In the end I probably dropped about $60 on various weights of fork oil, but the result was a front end that was really comfortable to me. IMO it's worth the added cost.