Fork oil & seals...... possible springs...?

[dan_t]

Hi all,

I've been a little quite around here for a while & thought I'd throw this one in to the ring to change all that.

I've recently noticed a little dark oily substance on the surface of the S4rs's lower oil cooler & just thought that I must have run over something on the road and that it's just flicked up. Problem is that I noticed it again though after washing it.

I went to wash the bike this afternoon and had a very close look at the front forks. I actually saw a droplet of what appears to my untrained eye to be oil on the very bottom of the fork itself. From what I'm guessing, my front fork seals aren't doing their job & very slowly, the oil is leaking out & causing the aforementioned dirty marks.

Here's the questions to you all;
a) what's involved in replacing the seals?
b) how much would this 'normally' set me back from a dealer?
c) if (when) I were to have this done, would it make more sense to also have the springs changed to better suit my weight?

The bike's an '08, has approximately 15,000 klm's on the clock and hasn't been ridden at all for pretty much 2 months (I've been away on an overseas trip).

Just after I purchased the bike a couple of years ago, I did take it to James at Zeno Damper for him to set it up for me, only using the stock Ohlin's parts. It did make a huge difference, but he did suggest putting heavier springs in there. His best guess was around the $1,000 mark all up.

Any thoughts, or even suggestions on where to go for this?

Cheers,
Dan

[Jukie]

Hey Dan
I just had my forks changed when I was getting the repairs done to jukie. All I got done was to have the folks changed, oil change and seals and cost me $270

[brimo]

Old dirt rider's trick, try cleaning under the seal first, you'll have to take the dust seal off first, run a piece of very thin plastic around under the seal. You can even use p800 emery paper as it has the stiffness. It's often not the seal that's stuffed but a bit of grit caught under the lip. Give it a shot, nothing to lose ay?
There's also a couple of you beaut tools on the market that do a similar thing. e.g.
http://sealmate.net/

[J5]

go back and see zeno

he will do the minimum or the maximum depending on what you ask him to do

forget the dealer

its something that you are really better of seeing someone who does suspension and knows what they are doing

[Rowdy]

The guys at Speedys in Brisbane have done the suspension on both of my Duc's, Showa S4R and Ohlins 1098s. They did an awesome job with new springs, valves, seals and oil for $600.00 each bike, each end (front - rear). If you are getting the seals done, that is a great time to get the springs done too.

PS I reakon the Showa set up feels as good as the Ohlins (I'm no expert by the way but I did notice a big difference once the suspension was setup properly with the right internals).

[dan_t]

Old dirt rider's trick, try cleaning under the seal first, you'll have to take the dust seal off first, run a piece of very thin plastic around under the seal. You can even use p800 emery paper as it has the stiffness. It's often not the seal that's stuffed but a bit of grit caught under the lip. Give it a shot, nothing to lose ay?
There's also a couple of you beaut tools on the market that do a similar thing. e.g.
http://sealmate.net/

Great suggestion!
I remember reading about that somewhere else too. I think I'll give that a crack & see how we go.

Thanks everyone else for the input, really appreciated.