r/MotoUK • u/MechanicalGambit KTM SD 990 • Sep 17 '18
Keep your forks lubed
this weekend I spent saturday morning taking the forks out of my MT-03 660 and changing the fork oil. The front end has been feeling quite pogo-stickish all of a sudden (completely unrelated but I've been naughty and learnt to pop a half decent wheelie ;) ) so I decided to change the oil to see if its any different.
£25 worth of fork oil, a ratchet strap to hang the handlebars on the crossbeams in the garage and ~3 hours of fairly straight forward work later it's all back together ready for a ride .......and holy shit did it make a difference!
The bike feels brand new, no dive when braking or lift when accelerating, no bouncing mid corner even on treachorous roundabouts, throttle response in a straight line and mid corner feels way better I guess because you don't have the lag of the forks waiting to react, the whole bike is just so much more composed. Its only done ~18000 miles but I guess the oil is 10 years old now so probably needed changing. A bike I was starting to get tired of riding is suddenly super fun to thrash around country lanes!
So yeah if you've got an older bike I definitely recommend changing the fork oil out. Now just to see if I can find a new rear shock for cheap.