Remove your forks in 22 minutes

FJR-Dude · Oct 29, 2005

Gonna have some fork work done and after hearing it was $110 to R&R the forks I decided to do it myself even though

stuff like this usually ends up in me spending several hours.

I happen to own an EazyRizer bike lift (had it for many years now) and decided to put it to use for the first time with my FJR.

Took about 20 minutes of fussing to get it set right, but now that it's set, future use will take no set up at all.

Simply slide in place, lock down side stand and up she goes.

Anyway, for anyone who needs to remove the forks fear not, it was absurdly easy, even for me. B)

Took 22 minutes from the time the bike was in place to the time I snapped the last pic. $110 for that? Ouch. :blink:

Warpdrv · Oct 29, 2005

Nice work M8....

Glad it went so easy, for you....

What are you doing with the forks out... new spring kit... or what...?

Warp

FJR-Dude · Oct 29, 2005

Thanks Warpdrv.

Im having my suspension dude install the RaceTech Gold Valvest. He happens to be an FJR owner as well and I was fortunate enough to take his bike for

a test ride to see how it felt.

I think I'm going to ditch the 020's while I'm at it in favor of the Avons that everyone raves about, and which also happened to be on his bike when I rode it.

It's hard to chuck tires with only a couple thousand miles on them...but damn...I hate 'em. :axed:

Maybe I can sell 'em for $75 or so.

yamahlr · Oct 29, 2005

Hey FJR Dude, that lift looks pretty good, been looking for a quality one. How does it mount to the FJR? Is it with the sidestand clamp in their ad? Did you get the tire lift adapters as well?

Yambone · Oct 29, 2005

after hearing it was $110 to R&R the forks I decided to do it myself even though stuff like this usually ends up in me spending several hours....Took 22 minutes from the time the bike was in place to the time I snapped the last pic. $110 for that? Ouch...

Hold on there, pard, uninstall is the easy part! You still have a long way to go to finish the job. Dumping the old fork oil and proper internal cleaning before re-install is kind of a nasty job, and time consuming if you really flush out the old dregs in the forks, drain for how long (?), let new oil settle out air bubbles, Then re-install. I'd say $110 bucks is about right for shop time and new fork oil, ASSuming they do a quality job of it.

I took the better part of an afternoon to do it myself along with the steering head service, including re-assembly. I agree it is relatively easy and satisfying to do it yourself, and know its done right (at least to some extent, in my case!).

Excellent lift you got there. A scizzor jack with foam pad under header pipes and 'pipe stand' with suspension straps above works well for me, also.

Vstar2FJR · Oct 29, 2005

Im interested in the Stones for $75. Sent you a PM.

John

toophast · Oct 29, 2005

Even if you brought the forks to the shop for the "dirty" work you would still save money and have some satisfaction from having contribuited to the job. Thank you very kindly

FJR-Dude · Oct 29, 2005

I'd say $110 bucks is about right for shop time and new fork oil,

Well ya...if that's what I was paying for it would be deal. But...The $110 was for the removal and reinstallation (R&R) of the forks in the bike.

Nothing more than that. I saved $110 by bringing the forks over myself.

yamahlr, yes, I am using the same mounting parts that I got with the stand 5 years ago. It works perfectly on the FJR. The tricky part (well...for me anyway) is

getting the side stand clamp assembly positioned right the first time. It' had been yearssssssssss since I'd done it, so it took me awhile this time.

But this is how the stand fits in the clamp -

I have not gotten the tire adapters because I've never found a need for them. What I like about this set up is that I can remove both wheels from the bike

at the same time.

Vstar2FJR, got your note, PM returned. :drinks:

Yambone · Oct 30, 2005

Well ya...if that's what I was paying for it would be deal. But...The $110 was for the removal and reinstallation (R&R) of the forks in the bike. Nothing more than that. I saved $110 by bringing the forks over myself.

Ah-so, I get it now. I ASSumed one of the R's was for Rehab of dem forks.

Or maybe one R was for 'Rithmatic.' You still got to add the re-install time, should put you up to about an hour total. Anyway, great post, great pix quality by the way, and likely to get some folks thinking about winter projects. Easily neglected, that front end work on this beast. Ask me how I know... :agent:

Mind letting us know a bit about the benefits of the RaceTech Gold Valvest procedure you mentioned? Cost, availability, etc. Thanks again.

Coyote · Oct 30, 2005

Ask me how I know... :agent:

How you know?? :blink:

FJR-Dude · Oct 31, 2005

Mind letting us know a bit about the benefits of the RaceTech Gold Valvest procedure you mentioned? Cost, availability, etc. Thanks again

The reason I'm having the RT valves installed is because the stock valving sucks. The stock spring rate is also far too low for such a big bike, so

that's being addressed also.

Im having both the rebound and compression valving replaced with the Race Tech parts. You can get them directly from RaceTech

There's a page in showing how the valves are installed on this page

Yambone · Nov 2, 2005

FJR-Dude, thanks for the links. The more I get to know the bike, the more I consider upgrades to the suspension.

QUOTE (Yambone @ Oct 29 2005, 09:47 PM) Ask me how I know...

QUOTE (Coyote) How you know??

Cause I'm an fool and pushed it to about 22K miles before front fork service. Man, was that stuff was nasty when it came out. Several others I've talked to have delayed doing this, too, so I am not alone. :eh: Can't say that I have the front dialed in as well as I like, I may have put too heavy of oil 10W in there. I'm going to re-do it this winter and thus have an interest in other products out there.

FJR-Dude · Nov 3, 2005

You definitely don't want to be running heavy fork oil in these forks in stock form. The damping holes in them are teeny tiny, and the oil simply cannot flow through them fast enough during high speed movements. It can also result in "hydraulic locking". For the rider, the feeling from the suspension is a pounding, jolting ride.

radman · Nov 3, 2005

I do all the scoot forks yearly, regardless of miles, and never have used anything heavier than 10wt. Frank seems to like the 7.5 Silkolene in him now. Trans fluid makes a good flush lube, I then dump a half can of brake clean in each tube to flush that out before adding the actual oil I'm gonna run. FWIW.

FJR-Dude · Nov 7, 2005

Got the forks back and re-installed this weekend. Wow. An amazing imrovement up front. Night and day difference.

Of course now the rear end feels even worse than it did before, and I need to crank the front preload way down because Im in "chopper mode" now. lol.

Still gonna be a few weeks till my Penske shows up. Dammit.

jestal · Nov 7, 2005

delete

dgfella · Nov 8, 2005

FJR-Dude - I'm interested in the EazyRizer lift for the FJR. Can you post a picture of the bike and the attach points of the lift? I would greatly appreciate it. I'm not really clear on the front attach point.

FJR-Dude · Nov 8, 2005

Took a bit longer to reinstall the forks and wheel. I'd say 40 minutes. Always takes longer to get stuff back in the right order.

dgfella, there's no real "attach point" on the front. The header simply rests on the front plate.

Over all the weight is distrubuted between the shock lingage, the side stand and the headers.

This is from an FZ1, but it mounts the same way on the FJR.

dgfella · Nov 8, 2005

FJR-Dude - Thanks for the pix. What I'm not fully understanding is that the FJR tupperware up front doesn't expose the header pipes. How/where do you rest the front mount of the eazyrizer? Is it on the cat? Sorry to be a pain, but this is a $600 purchase for me.

Remove your forks in 22 minutes

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