Stock fork tune-up

[bdfinally]

Ok, I've got a '00 M750 dark and it's way beyond time to do something about the front end. Just got a front stand, so no excuses left. I'm ordering Race Tech springs (35.5x33.5x270 .85kg) tomorrow. No re-valve kit for these forks. I'm about 185 without gear and nothing but street riding, very little riding w/passenger. Haynes manual says 90mm oil level and 380cc of SAE 7.5 oil. My question is have I got everything in the ball park and isn't 7.5 a little thick, wouldn't 5 wt work better? I'm leaning toward Silkolene, but any suggestions on oil brand are appreciated. Thanks in advance

[orangelion03]

From several suggestions on the board, I went with 5 weight oil.

There are several posts in this forum regarding changing the springs.  The RaceTech springs will be shorter than the stockers, but RT provides a quantity of washers in two thicknesses that you use to adjust the preload, etc.  I recently changed mine and followed directions that were posted here and on other sites.  Not too complicated if you have some mechanical experience.

http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=22402.0

[scott_araujo]

That's my post he cited.  Short version: yes, 5wt oil is probably better if you've got springs in the right range now.  And get anything synthetic.  The fork moves quickly for me with 5wt but never pogos.  Gets rid of the harsh bumps the stocker throws at you.

Scott

[Mr Earl]

Not to overthink this, but the property of fork oil that affects shock operation is viscosity, not weight.  And apparently the correspondence of weight to viscosity between brands is poor.  Here's a chart I found and used to replace the Showa 7-weight fluid in my SS900 forks with a blend of Silkolene RSF 2.5 and 5 weight - based on the viscosity values of each oil.

http://www.mediaturbo.com/clients/marzocchi/forkoilviscosity.html

[bdfinally]

Thanks guys, springs and oil ordered, thread bookmarked  [thumbsup]

[scott_araujo]

With that in mind I think I used BelRay oil.