I have just had a call front Maxton who have my forks in for an oil change and service (but no revalve or upgrade) and they suggest I might think the forks are now too stiff as they seem noticeably stiffer to them than when they arrived. What has happened is Maxton would usually fill with 5w oil but as I found the bike lacking in Comp & Rebound damping as standard and had wound the adjusters in (Comp 1 turn out - Rebound 1/2 turn out) I asked them to fill it with 10w oil as I thought and they agreed their normal 5w oil would in effect reduce the already little damping effect even further (in theory anyway). I was happy to suggest filling with 10w oil as this is what the Honda service manual stipulates also but Maxton did warn me that Honda's 10w could be the same as their 5w oil as the Honda oil will be cheap & nasty oil and the accuracy of the viscosity questionable. Anyway Maxton have said they will change to 5w oil if I want them too as this will more than likely return the feel of the fork to how it arrived with them and is what I was happy with. However I m thinking as I had the adjusters nearly fully in, if I backed the damping adjusters of back to say standard setting of 2 turns out I might restore the current fork set up to feeling how it was previously with the thinner oil and the adjusters wound in more. This would seem an improvement to me as it would in effect give me more range of adjustment in theory anyway, but I would welcome some comments and feedback from anyone knowledgeable on suspension or who has made similar changes if possible. Also if somebody could let me know how many turns of adjustment there is on the standard fork for both compression and rebound that would help me have an idea if there is much adjustment with in the fork to soften the dampening effect of if they are indeed a little too stiff. If anyone can help thanks very much, I said I would ring Maxton back first thing tomorrow.
ive got maxton forks on my rr7 racer, and i use 7.5w oil, perfect balance between stiffness and range of adjustment, albeit its motul pro line factory oil & full cartridges.
Thanks for the info Craig. Do you reckon the 10w oil with the adjusters backed out will feel the same as the thinner standard oil (unknown viscosity) with the adjusters wound in ?
yup. ask em to sling some 7.5w oil in mate, its far better for fast road/track use and gives a much more linear feel than heavier/lighter oil.
Craig any chance you can do me a favour and see how many turns of adjustment there is for rebound and comp if you have a 2008 Blade ?
I am not at my wshop so dont have the stock settings to hand, im not going to argue with maxton but i am a little confused they do not have a viscometer to check what oil is in forks they service? I would also dissagree that the oil Honda/showa use is "cheap" as I think to get consistant results the oil must be of some quality, I agree with CastroCraig that 7.5w is a good mid way oil, dont know why they did not sugest that.. the post from them seems a little lost? Or maybe I have read it wrong... Posted on my HTC Sensation with Tapatalk
I have just junked the standard springs they are way too hard!!! useful if you are 16+ stone and have a pillion, i now have some T_tech springs running 5 weight oil and it is perfect!!!!
Yes mine were wayyyyyy to hard, trying to get any preload into them was impossible. Bike now bites into the corners where before it initially loaded up then stopped mid corner and the bike was trying to level itself upright. Very weird handling.
As you say there is only one real spring weight for each rider the rest is down to valveing, shim setup, valve dynamics, oil type, air gap, top out spring type if required and other factors to get the fork to react in a way that will work in the enviroment you wish to use it, good setup has little to do with springs.. Posted on my HTC Sensation with Tapatalk
I went for the 7.5w oil in the end feels good bouncing them up and down in the garage but got to get out for a ride and give it a test.
