Fork Seal Brands

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RailwayRog
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Fork Seal Brands

Post by RailwayRog »

Got to replace my fork seals, are there any particular brand of seals I should use or a particular brand to stay away from?
I tried doing a search for detailed instructions for disassembling and reassembling the forks, found lots of tid bits but nothing thorough.
Does anyone know of such a thread?
The other question I have is I share the bike with my son who weighs 165lbs with gear on and I weigh 226 with gear. So I'm not sure what weight oil I should be using. (i know i should convert the forks to the KX ones)
Goofaroo
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Fork Seal Brands

Post by Goofaroo »

Got to replace my fork seals, are there any particular brand of seals I should use or a particular brand to stay away from?
I tried doing a search for detailed instructions for disassembling and reassembling the forks, found lots of tid bits but nothing thorough.
Does anyone know of such a thread?
The other question I have is I share the bike with my son who weighs 165lbs with gear on and I weigh 226 with gear. So I'm not sure what weight oil I should be using. (i know i should convert the forks to the KX ones)
As far as the fork seals- Any of the name brands should be fine. As long as you are doing it you might as well replace the dust seals at the same time. In reality, they are usually leaking just because they are dirty but it falls into the category of "while I'm there, I might as well replace them". However, if you are on a tight budget you can just give them a thorough cleaning and inspection and if they are still soft and look good, they are probably fine. Also inspect the stanchions for any nicks or dings that may be causing the leakage.

I'm not sure why you think you should convert to KX forks but first I would try setting up the front end properly with the factory forks. As a baseline, try whatever weight oil is factory recommended. Then reassemble the bike and check the static sag. I always set the spring preload on the forks to give me about an inch of static sag but someone else may chime in here with a better initial setting for your 2006 model.

Setting the race sag in you case is irrelevant because you are trying to accommodate two riders with two different riding styles and abilities. Obviously if you are a seasoned rider who charges through the woods like Scott Summers and your son is just learning to ride, then one of you will have to make a concession to the other.

Ideally what you are after is for the fork to be as compliant as possible and only bottom occasionally when you really start riding to the best of your ability. If you aren't bottoming occasionally, you are probably set up too stiff and not taking advantage of all of the travel your suspension has available.

Here's a trick to find out what is happening once you get on the trail:

With you or your son on the bike, put a zip-tie around the stanchion tubes tightly enough that it will hold it's position as the fork slider hits it and moves it further up the stanchion (or down if USD forks). Does that make sense? Kind of a tell-tale to let you know how much suspension you are using. Take note of how much travel is used and then trade riders and repeat the process.

If neither of you is using all of the available travel then start by reducing the viscosity of the oil until you are using as much of the travel as possible. You may find a good compromise that works pretty well for both of you. If it turns out that one of you is bottoming constantly but you still have no option but to ride the same bike, then you will have to compromise towards the faster rider to prevent the constant bottoming issue.

The same holds true for the rear shock and that setting is arguably more important to achieve proper handling. Start by setting the static sag and then..............................
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