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update on fork oil, concrete road joints.

1K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  duc96cr 
#1 ·
Hi, Can't recall who was wondering, but this weekend I covered 327 miles with the 5w Belray fork oil. Many miles on concrete freeway with rough joints.

Was much better on joints. At least my butt stayed on seat. I could see fork move at every joint, however bike is still very rough on these sections of roadway. Now I can feel the rear being the harder hit. The front is dramatically better, but I was hoping for a much better ride as many of our worn roads are like this.

Had to ride some miles in rain also. Of course was dark in rain as was before sunrise. Interestingly the better fork action seemed to make bike feel really stable on wet roads Was the rough joint concrete & worn rough asphalt. Traffic forced me to keep speeds of 58-62 mph in the rain. I felt safe. Well, as safe as one can feel in rain in dark... Was sure glad I went over all the electrical connectors & verified the points wire & cover plate seal & gasket were good. I kind of like the sound of rain on helmet & face shield. I'm nuts!!

On a good note. With ATF I had trouble keeping up on curvy rough roads on club rides. Today on club ride we covered 100 miles of same roads. I followed same guys & gals. No problem at all keeping up. Fork followed road surface very well. Now I know how they go so fast. Their bikes handled properly. Finally mine does too.
Don
 
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#4 ·
The best riding OIF bikes I have ridden didn't have the original forks....The Triumph design has no bushings like a Showa or even the older Triumph design,and there a lot more friction because the whole length of the tube inside the slider acts as a "bushing".....Improvements to help quite a bit...
But the concrete road joints can be nasty on any bike with sporting suspension...
 
#5 ·
Our old rides don't have very sophisticated forks. The upside down type on newer bikes don't flex near as much, aiding steering precision. Many, like the forks on my Ducatis, have adjustable spring preload and separately adjustable compression and rebound damping. All this advanced technology and still people spend hundreds to fine tune the spring rate, valving, and oil weight. This is because the key element is keeping the tires in contact with the road in as smooth a fashion as possible. I think with some patience we can make our forks work much better than when they left the factory, as you're finding out.
 
#6 ·
Do this, straddle the front wheel of a Triumph ,clamp you legs tight against the front wheel and force the handlebar right and left slightly...Surprising how much flex there is...But the bikes handle well despite this because a relatively low weight and power...I believe the flex is primarily the lack of clamping from the stock yokes...Do this same test on 70-80's Moto Guzzi with the same size tubes as Triumph, 35MM, but there's no flex with the larger aluminum yokes..
These are my observations, and the 90's Yamaha FRZ600 I modified to fit my 70 T120 made a big difference in how the bike felt and rode...
But for most, the stock forks work well enough with a few changes...
 
#11 ·
We have the Honiton dual carriageway in concrete.Put down in the early 90s and the noisiest road in the UK.Declared illegal due to road noise and Gov agreed to redo the whole lot.It is still concrete to this day.
I use a length of this on my many outings and it is where most of my bike parts have fallen off.Normally the indicators shatter or undo.Beginning to wear down smoother now so a bit quieter.
I have used the concrete roads in the USA and the joins do make a lot more noise than on the British ones.Our separators are a bit tighter.
Taunton stretch was built in concrete and later dug up and replaced due to ground heave lifting up the slabs.
M25 London orbital is almost entirely concrete.
 
#8 ·
Hi, Yes the fork flexs as expected. I think the main thing would be a good fork brace for the sliders. I'm not concerned about that. I'm not too sure the non bushed sliders are causing much friction. They fit fairly loose & the space gets filled with oil.

The piston O-rings are stock rubber. I tried making Teflon seals, but they would bind when they warmed up. When I fit looser they leaked by.

I will order some from LP Williams & see if they are better than the rubber seals in real life riding.

My springs are stock than came with bike from new.
Don
 
#14 ·
Hi Tiger Dale, The LP Williams part # is 97-4003P. The P is important as it's the special ones. Here's a link. About 1/2 way down the page.

https://www.triumph-spares.co.uk/cat_details.php?p_head=Fork oil seals

My homemade Teflon ones were bad. At least I tried though. I'll order some of the LP Williams ones, but don't know when I'll put them in.

The Leak Proof seals are very good at reducing friction, plus they don't leak! Very important they are installed with 2mm or so float. If your forks don't have snap rings, you'll need the kit with the thick retaining ring. It's a press fit, but not too hard to install. Very easy to install with a seal driver if you have one. The Leak Proof have a fraction of the friction of normal seals. No sealant used on these seals, they must be free to move up/down with minimum of .020" & max of 4mm up/down play in slider. I was concerned they'd wear the top of slider on seal outer surface, but it does not. After seeing forks that ran leak proof many miles they show no wear. In operation the seal ends up migrating up to retainer ring & pretty much stays there.

No idea how much they reduce friction. I've not used them. Someone on one of the sites did & said they worked good.


Don
 
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