Suspension Service! Why?

webfors

webfors

Joined
Jun 6, 2006
Messages
5,442
Location
North
Because you're riding on sub optimal suspension because of fluid/maintenance neglect. The difference between well serviced forks with fresh fluid, and 18 year old forks that have never been serviced is like night and day.

I now do service; dump fluid, clean, inspect and reassemble with fresh fluid every 20k. Replace wear parts at 40k kms (depending on ab-use).

I bought an 18 year old Burgman scoot with original fluid in the forks. The difference after a rebuild (piston, guide, oil lock, gasket all new) is incredible. Went from wanting to sell this scooter, to wanting to keep it with its very planted and well damped front end.

Most stock forks are easy to service. And if you're not the cleaning type, just use double the fluid and cycle fresh fluid through it for 20 cycles, then dump and refill... if you do nothing else... do that and you'll love the results.
IMG_2770.webp
IMG_2767.webp
 
While I'm no bike guy, I do recall a pal servicing the forks on a recently acquired, European motorcycle as you describe.
That machine had to have been neglected, given its dirt and "take it off my hands" pricing.

Ha.... he met his wife, in a car, on a sharp, blind curve she took widely. Flying off the road was his only option.
The bike was bent in many places. I know because I fetched it. A nearby guy with the same bike bought it for parts.
His shoulder took the brunt of it. Otherwise, he broke even.
 
The forks should be serviced for sure, but every 20k km (12k miles) is overkill IMO.
And I wouldn’t replace any internals at some arbitrary interval either. I only dismantle the forks if I need to replace the seals. The bushings usually wear on one side only, so I simply flip them 180. But with regular fork oil changes, they should show much wear at all.
 
KrisZ said:
The forks should be serviced for sure, but every 20k km (12k miles) is overkill IMO.
And I wouldn’t replace any internals at some arbitrary interval either. I only dismantle the forks if I need to replace the seals. The bushings usually wear on one side only, so I simply flip them 180. But with regular fork oil changes, they should show much wear at all.
Click to expand...
Depends on conditions. I'm rebuilding the front forks on Pig1 (DR650 #1) after its trip last year that was just over 20k kms. 3k kms of which was off road mountain and Dempster Highway riding... I'm not comfortable heading out on another new trip without at least a dump/inspect/fill.

The piston and guide on this 18 year old burg with 43k kms had no teflon coating any more, so it was done.

Agreed, under pavement and low impact/abuse conditions, overkill. But it's cheap, I learn, and winter projects keep me sane.
 
One of the best, and most often overlooked maintenance procedures you can do on a motorcycle. Most bikes can also be improved with appropriate spring rates for the load they carry, and better damping can often be achieved with rebuilds with quality aftermarket parts, unless your bike was equipped from the factory with top quality suspension. Very few are.
 
02SE said:
One of the best, and most often overlooked maintenance procedures you can do on a motorcycle. Most bikes can also be improved with appropriate spring rates for the load they carry, and better damping can often be achieved with rebuilds with quality aftermarket parts, unless your bike was equipped from the factory with top quality suspension. Very few are.
Click to expand...
Bingo!

I'm 200 pounds'ish and on big trip carry another 50 pounds. Upgrading front and rear springs was key on my DR for my use case (abusive multi week camping trips), along with reshimming the compression and rebound stacks on the stock shock. HUGE difference.

Scooter is staying pretty much stock except windscreen, and other ergo related upgrades.
 
Last edited:
KrisZ said:
I actually achieved good results with just thicker fork oil on my Valkyrie. It would dive excessively, even at lower speeds and going with 15w fork oil helped a lot.
Arguably a spring upgrade would’ve been more effective, but also far more expensive.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I did on this scoot... 15w from 10w. Very smooth/controlled damping compared to previous.
 
webfors said:
Bingo!

I'm 200 pounds'ish and on big trip carry another 50 pounds. Upgrading front and rear springs was key on my DR for my use case (abusive multi week camping trips), along with reshimming the compression and rebound stacks on the stock shock. HUGE difference.

Scooter is staying pretty much stock except windscreen, and other ergo related upgrades.
Click to expand...
You would LOVE the Cogent Dynamics rear shock.
 
We're Metals said:
You would LOVE the Cogent Dynamics rear shock.
Click to expand...
Got the Mojave on Pig2, great shock! It was a treat... but after the rebuild of the stock, and the performance I got from the custom shim stacks on my cross country trip last year on the stock shock, hard to justify $1000 when a rebuild that performs 90% as well cost me $50!

Pig2 has been stored out east by the ocean... can't wait to head to Cape Breton in two weeks to reunite and ride the highlands with that shock.
 
webfors said:
Bingo!

I'm 200 pounds'ish and on big trip carry another 50 pounds. Upgrading front and rear springs was key on my DR for my use case (abusive multi week camping trips), along with reshimming the compression and rebound stacks on the stock shock. HUGE difference.

Scooter is staying pretty much stock except windscreen, and other ergo related upgrades.
Click to expand...

I've been debating a dual-sport or lighter ADV bike for over a year. I just haven't been able to decide. The DR650 is in the running, primarily because of it's simplicity. A more modern EFI engine with attendant ECU and electronics on the fancier ADV's have their appeal, but also pose a downside if they fail 50+ miles from the nearest paved road.

Any positives or negatives you feel are worth mentioning for a potential DR650 owner? I've already figured I'd have to go through the suspension to make it acceptable. Probably a bigger gas tank would be needed too.
 
02SE said:
I've been debating a dual-sport or lighter ADV bike for over a year. I just haven't been able to decide. The DR650 is in the running, primarily because of it's simplicity. A more modern EFI engine with attendant ECU and electronics on the fancier ADV's have their appeal, but also pose a downside if they fail 50+ miles from the nearest paved road.

Any positives or negatives you feel are worth mentioning for a potential DR650 owner? I've already figured I'd have to go through the suspension to make it acceptable. Probably a bigger gas tank would be needed too.
Click to expand...
I won't ride anything else but the DR650. I have two, a 2018 and 2022. This scooter is an experiment to potentially ride 2up with my wife for Sunday back country rides and local hikes within a 2 hours radius. She won't ride on the DR, or anything with gears that causes her helmet to smack against mine. So scooter cvt seemed like the next logical choice.

I rode 14,500kms across Canada, the northern Territories, and Alaska last year on Pig1 (2022 DR650). I rode multiple 1000km days, and 3000kms of gravel, mountain dirt roads, and the Dempster Highway to Tuk. Bike never missed a beat and I was all grins the whole time, while I watched larger "ADV" bikes struggling.

Buy a bone stock barn sale (like my 2018 for $3500 CDN) and invest to make it your bike. I have a lot of hours and $$ invested in my DR650's that pay dividends over and over again every time I ride them... I'll never get the money out of them, but I wouldn't sell them EVER!

Yes, I'm a DR650 cultist... everything else is crap :cool:

Careful buying used DR650's that have been mod'd. Make sure you have a good handle on what was done to the bike before taking ownership.

Logical reasons DR's make sense.
- Insane aftermarket
- Even more insane community over at drriders.com
- DR is one of the easiest bikes to work on
- Bullet proof... for the first 100k kms anyway ;)
- Light (but don't let the mx guys hear you say that about the "Pig".... compared to "ADV" bikes, a couple hundred pounds lighter)
- Compared to my previous R1200GS, the DR is like a light dirt bike, and the man-machine connection is complete. I can dive down any dirt road without a second thought, or haul my loaded Pig up a mountain single track to find the perfect tent spot (did that many times on my trip).
- You can DUMP the DR HARD, flip it over, start her up and continue on yer trip. If I dropped my R1200GS the way I dropped my DR in the Northwest Territories it would have cost me thousands in damage and thousands to have the bike towed out.
- The DR is the perfect weight and with zero electronics I am never distracted. Since I've started riding DRs I'm always amazed at how much time is wasted by my friends riding the latest greatest electronic mess they call ADV bikes... they are distracted trying to get their computer gadgetry to work just right, pre ride, during the ride, post ride... instead of just RIDING!!! Seems like a real waste of time and I'm embarrassed for them ROFL... and that's the DR650 cult elitist coming out again :p

At the end of the day, a DR650 is a bike you will need to learn to wrench on. If that's not your thing a T7 might be more suited (if you have the height).
 
That's quite the description, I appreciate it.

Another dual-sport I've considered, is the also simplistic XR650L. What makes the DR the bike to choose over the XR650L? I'm fine with the height of the XR, so the DR is no problem. But I'll admit I don't know which would better, and why.

I will say that I'm a Suzuki fan, having two Hayabusa's currently, and a previous GSXR1k.

I've ridden various years of the BMW boxer GS. That is way more bike than I want on some single-track trail.

Wrenching on bikes is no problem.
 
02SE said:
That's quite the description, I appreciate it.

Another dual-sport I've considered, is the also simplistic XR650L. What makes the DR the bike to choose over the XR650L?
Click to expand...
Colour and brand ;)

Can't buy the XR in Canada, so there's no choice for us Canucks, plus I'm old school Suzi.
 
02SE said:
That's quite the description, I appreciate it.

Another dual-sport I've considered, is the also simplistic XR650L. What makes the DR the bike to choose over the XR650L? I'm fine with the height of the XR, so the DR is no problem. But I'll admit I don't know which would better, and why.

I will say that I'm a Suzuki fan, having two Hayabusa's currently, and a previous GSXR1k.

I've ridden various years of the BMW boxer GS. That is way more bike than I want on some single-track trail.

Wrenching on bikes is no problem.
Click to expand...
I'd add, the community... but that's speculation. I can't imagine the XR forums being as devoted and crazy as DR Riders... but I could be wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
HONDA CBR600RRA (ABS) Brake Bleeding – Need Advice
Replies
12
Views
474
Pete in PA
webfors
Brake Fluid - Biggest Neglect, Biggest Benefit
2 3 4
Replies
73
Views
4K
MCompact
M
2012 Toyota Corolla U341E Valvoline MaxLife ATF 30k Miles Severe Service UOA
Replies
0
Views
1K
mannys9130
W
Just got my SUV back from a $2.5 k FluidFilm/PermaFilm application
2 3
Replies
40
Views
2K
RooflessVW
B
2010 Hyundai Elantra automatic - bad trans or bad fluid?
2 3
Replies
49
Views
5K
bubbasmith91
Back
Top Bottom