After five years and 44,000 hard miles my 2011 model blade has blown a fork seal, It is booked in for it's 44k service next week at my Honda dealer anyway. Spoke to them today and they want an extra £220 to do the seals, is it worth getting them done or upgrade them to the big piston Showa ones. I have a friend who swapped his over to Ohlins after 500 miles and has the big piston ones which he will sell to me for £375. I swapped the rear to the Showa one so is it worth doing the forks as well?
That’s a good price by your friend so I would say go for it, the only down side to the big piston forks is they can feel a bit crashy/hard but I was told you can dial a lot of that out with a good set up which when taken into account the deal your getting on the forks the extra 50 quid on top isn’t so bad in my book.
I get angered by the way Honda dealer charge premium prices when a good independent centre can charge up to 20% less and still do an equally good job. An EXTRA £220 is a fair swag when your bike's already there! If you're keeping the bike for some time, I'd grab the forks - after making sure the caliper mounts are compatible. Then there's installation! Can you do that or will you have to pay? That could change the equation.
No issues with doing work on the bike, if I can work through an ABS bleed anything is possible . going to book it into MCT to have them setup anyway so extra cost there. the forks are same just black tops where mine are gold ones.
