6th gen Fork Refresh

Hey guys I want to do a mild refresh on the factory forks on my 2007 vfr800. I have 41,000 miles on them, so I figure its time for a fluid change and maybe the seals or something. I want to do a delink and f4i swap within the next 15,000 miles, but I just had to get all new brake pads all the way around last week so I am probably going to hold off for the next year or so, and then do an USD fork swap maybe a year after that. But in the mean time I think I can get by with a freshening up. What I had in mind was cleaning them out, and refilling them with a heavier weight oil, and replacing the seals while I am at it.

This is not some thing that I know too much about and I can't seem to find too much on here about freshening them up. (there is a shit ton of info about fork swaps though lol)

So basically my question is what is the recommended fluid people people usually go with for better handling.
Also they seem to be sticking, what parts should I order now to swap out inside there while I'm changing the fluid? Maybe the seals or o-rings or something. I don't really want to throw a bunch of money at the factory forks, but I wouldn't mind throwing 20-40 bucks at them if it will make it a better handling, safer bike in the meantime before I swap out a proper fork on here.

Thanks for your time guys

 

My only thought here is that 20-40 dollars doesn't get you much more than oil. I just had Jamie do the street upgrade to my 07's fork and shock (haven't ridden it yet) and the HKS seals (less sticktion) were $50 by themselves and the stock Honda seals were $40. It's great that your able to get in there and do the fork work yourself. I'm anxious to try my set up out as I also did brake pads, fluid and PR3's. good luck, I'll be watching to see what you come up with.
John

 

Make sure to use Honda Pro Oils 5w fluid. That will give you the best results. I would look closely at them while apart, anything that keeps them from moving smoothly should be replaced. I'm not sure what would cause that, I'd probably look at the bushing first.



BTW John, you got SKF brand fork seals!

 

Thanks for the correction Jamie. My crappy memory.
Apologies for the high jack here but since Jamie has rightly corrected me I just wanted to drop this in here as it is timely. Took my first ride today after installing new PR3's, EBC HH pads, and fork and shock street upgrades by Daugherty Motor Sports (Jamie). I didn't go for a long ride as I had some Easter obligations to attend to, but what a nice improvement in ride quality! From the short ride it seams like it's just what I was looking for. More compliant and less front end dive. Feels like I have more control and confidence. Thanks Jamie. Ooh, and I got a free shirt. Nice!
I have a feeling that CandyRed is looking for more of a performance upgrade, but for the street I feel like this was money well spent.
John

 

So I would be a buzz cruncher if I had a personal opinion of hondas 5 weight oil being shite. My experience with it is as follows: 91 VFR bought in 95, immediatley upgraded stock front end with Race-Tech Gold Valve kit along with their fork springs, also bought a Fox Shock for the bike. Bike had periodic fork oil changes thru its life span, one day out of bordom, I decided to change the fork oil, I went with the "honda 5 weight oil" and immediately got a worse ride, (read-rode like a pogo stick) and got weepy fork seals to boot! This happened at 70,000 miles, so I can't really complain about not getting high mileage out of them. I replaced the fork seals, cleaned the tubes out, painted them, and proceeded to go to my favorite company, Bel-Ray - used their 7 weight oil, which if I looked at my notes instead of just blindly going into the local friendly honda shop, would have saved my self some aggravation. If you own something long enough be it, mechanical, human, cannine, you get the picture; you will notice subtle differences as well as glaring ones. Nuff-Sed...

The difference between lousy honda 5 weight and bel-ray 7 weight was night and day! Not bitching either here, but I think their brake fluid kinda sucks too, its yellow right out of the bottle, and makes it more difficult to judge if its getting nasty with age. Bel-Ray has a nice synthetic brake fluid thats more clear and easier to see if its getting dirty. Don't get me started on their motor-oil :wacko: Recently dumped some fork oil out of a bike for someone (20,000 mile unit) and it was clean as a whistle, I used Bel-Ray 20 weight and they were happy; I have used ATF on some peoples bikes too when I didnt feel like going to the store...

Cheers...

 

Gee and I just noticed your from the "Conch-Republic" :thumbsup:

 

For the forks it doesn't get much more performance than what you got! The only thing remaining that could have been done was to upgrade the rebound pistons. For street riders you have to be ultra aggressive to make use of that. The work I did on the rebound side of your forks should be plenty.

Enjoy!

 

Something to keep in mind is that many of the bikes on an AMA roadrace grid have Honda Pro Oils 5w in the forks. Maybe we are talking about different stuff? I agree the SS-7 fluid is not good - not the same as what I'm suggesting.

 

I don't really recall, it was in a black bottle kind of long neck. Thought it was their pro-oil stuff but could be mistaken.

 

That sounds like the SS stuff. The Pro Oils is in a normal quart sized oil bottle.

 

Orlando as of 2010, but yeah conch republic, born and raised

 

I am kinda thinking about just cleaning the forks out and refilling with good fluid. I can't really justify dropping money on these stockers. I'll just start saving for a ohlins rear and fork swap. So best fluid for the stock front forks are? I am getting an awful lot of conflicting recommendations.

 

I guess ill just get the Honda Pro Oils 5w

 

Look in to race tech fork springs. It is reasonably cheap upgrade(about 150) and makes a lot of difference.. I know you don't want to spend a whole lot, but look in to the springs..

 

I wound up just taking them apart cleaning them out and refilling with the Honda Pro Oils 5w like Jaime said. They feel great now! I will start looking for something a little more high tech in a few months, but at the moment I am pretty happy with the out come.





















Before and after cleaning:







The bad stuff:









The good stuff: