On Forks... circa 2007

“Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.”- George Bernard Shaw

Rebuild forks has been a thorn in my side since I started working on motorcycles, and I started working on motorcycles before I actually started riding them. People who have brought up fork rebuilds to me know of my disdain of doing them. I know that it is a pretty simple process to do replace fork seals and the like, I just deep down hated to do them. I would ride with blown seals, many times with replacement seals sitting in my toolbox. Safety wiring of torn or rotted out dust boots to the fork leg so I could ride without addressing the issue, was also not an uncommon sight. In retrospect it was a stupid thing to avoid doing, I had rebuilt both conventional and upside down forks and knew that it wasn’t hard to do, I had even told people it was easy. For some reason I still hated the task.



Over the past month or so I’ve had to work around this issue and around a half dozen sets of forks were rebuilt. The hatred is no longer there, I’ve got my system down and the task is now cataloged with the like of timing an old CB360 motor, and that I can do in my sleep. I’ve also figured out the root of this hatred. Pneumatic impact tools are your friend or you need weird factory tools. They, just like buying a compressor, cost more money then I normally have on hand. I am a bit ashamed to admit I still haven’t bought a compressor with all of the fun pneumatic tools, and my specialty fork tool collection is very limited. Another factor is that it seems most people either hate maintaining the front suspension on there bikes, or the bikes I seem to work on most have sat quietly for a decade or so to let the fork seals become nice and hard. Cases with hard dried up seals will almost guarantee that the forks are on a bike older than me, and that mechanically do not allow for the use of the slide hammer method of removing the seals. Rather I end up sitting there prying the seals apart with dikes, pliers and screwdrivers, not the ideal tools for the job.


With the fear and intimidation gone, so is the hatred. At the end of the day when I dump out old, smelly, burnt up, used up, nasty, and contaminated oil I get reminded that the task is reaping rewards. Not once have I finished the job and said "Damn it, the thing rode better all fucked up."