Good Morning Good Night and General Chat.

[Fozzie]

11 hours ago, curlylegend said:

I change the fork oil on my old Yamaha TDM 850 every year, usually having clocked another 10-12000 km.  I use a decent brand of ATF.  However I'm always puzzled by the fact that the amount of oil  I drain from  the forks is always much less than I put in ?  And it is definitely well contaminated going by the colour and smell.  There are no leaking seals and no vents to atmosphere, so where does the oil go ?

I do notice an improvement in the action of the forks with fresh oil .

 

I feel the ride does slightly improve with fresh oil, but sometimes wonder if that's just my mind playing tricks. 

My experience is that most bikes I've had look to never have had the fork oil done when I get into them, as the bolts securing the forks are very corroded

and show no signs of spanners/sockets on them. So I've taken from that, and comments made by those around me, that most people don't regularly do their fork oil. 

I don't think there's an issue with your service schedule, as there are those who do it twice a year where the bikes yearly mileage is measured in hundreds of miles, rather than thousands, which you could argue is a bit wasteful. I only do 5000 miles a year on the bike, so I do the forks every 2-3 years. It's a topic that could cause argument for sure as there's so many different takes/strategies! Like the old "what oil do you use" type topics. 

 

Could your dampers have a bit of air in them when you swap the oil? I've had this with an old Blackbird where I pumped them and rechecked the level and it seemed fine, then later one of them was way off. No leaks, so I assumed I hadn't managed to get all the air out of the damper. That would cause the level to drop as soon as they bled themselves through properly with a few miles of Britain's best pot holed roads  

[peepae]

Good nearly afternoon

[peepae]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Old Git said:

TY SD

happy birthday 

[Simon Davey]

Well, it was a good morning until I realised the water on the yard wasn't rainwater. 

Luckily, my farmer friend just happened to have his digger here, so he came along and dug, we found the large 10mm leak in a steel pipe, and I repaired it. I'd had to do it a few years ago, so it wasn't so stressful. 

Rather pleased with myself. 

 

[Simon Davey]

12 minutes ago, Angela Collen said:

Very impressive,  handy skill to have, well done

 

Thank you, but skill from necessity/desperation. 

Despite the stress, I enjoy it. 

[rennie]

Good afternoon 

[Grumpy Old Git]

whoo

 

[S-Westerly]

5 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

Well, it was a good morning until I realised the water on the yard wasn't rainwater. 

Luckily, my farmer friend just happened to have his digger here, so he came along and dug, we found the large 10mm leak in a steel pipe, and I repaired it. I'd had to do it a few years ago, so it wasn't so stressful. 

Rather pleased with myself. 

 

The trouble with old steel pipes underground is they will corrode. Even if they are galvanised to start with. If you get any breakdown in that you'll get rapid corrosion. In the good old days that's why they used lead as it didn't corrode. Of course we all got lead poisoning and died horrible deaths but hey we didn't have leaks.

[Simon Davey]

4 minutes ago, S-Westerly said:

The trouble with old steel pipes underground is they will corrode. Even if they are galvanised to start with. If you get any breakdown in that you'll get rapid corrosion. In the good old days that's why they used lead as it didn't corrode. Of course we all got lead poisoning and died horrible deaths but hey we didn't have leaks.

 

Yes indeedy, no corrosion this time, but they'd buried it surrounded by flint, so with all the heavy traffic we've had with construction, it'd worn a hole. You could see the dent where the stone was against the pipe. 

We removed about a metre, because just 300mm further along was a kink. 

Edited May 15, 2024 by Simon Davey

[curlylegend]

11 hours ago, Fozzie said:

Could your dampers have a bit of air in them when you swap the oil? I've had this with an old Blackbird where I pumped them and rechecked the level and it seemed fine, then later one of them was way off. No leaks, so I assumed I hadn't managed to get all the air out of the damper. That would cause the level to drop as soon as they bled themselves through properly with a few miles of Britain's best pot holed roads  

Not impossible but I don't think so.  I always pour a measured amount into each leg and after a good deal of damper pumping I adjust the oil level as per factory manual .  Usually only a few cc to get the levels right.  And what's causing the discolouration ?  

[dynax]

Good morning

[Simon Davey]

Good morning

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

9 hours ago, curlylegend said:

Not impossible but I don't think so.  I always pour a measured amount into each leg and after a good deal of damper pumping I adjust the oil level as per factory manual .  Usually only a few cc to get the levels right.  And what's causing the discolouration ?  

The bushes and seal will wear putting very fine particles into the oil. 

[Grumpy Old Git]

Good Morning

 

[RideWithStyles]

56 minutes ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

The bushes and seal will wear putting very fine particles into the oil. 

also v fine dirt/organic matter (black/dark part) that DOES and WILL pass the seals, hence why old oil is thicker and smells so bad.

Edited May 16, 2024 by RideWithStyles
a c

[husoi]

Good evening from Bali

[husoi]

The phoking Scottish gods are following me

[husoi]

After a couple phone calls....

 

 dinner for 2 with super fresh fish for £7.25

 

Edited May 16, 2024 by husoi
Wrong price

[Fozzie]

14 hours ago, curlylegend said:

Not impossible but I don't think so.  I always pour a measured amount into each leg and after a good deal of damper pumping I adjust the oil level as per factory manual .  Usually only a few cc to get the levels right.  And what's causing the discolouration ?  

 

You can get some misting, which can be too small to notice which could cause a slight loss. But if it's a lot in a small space of time, that sounds like you'd see it. The oil goes manky as the components inside wear and deposit debris into the oil. Contaminants still get by the seals in very small amounts, and over time cause the oil to discolour, smell, and sometimes you get thick deposits at the bottom of the fork you find when you're doing a overhaul. Like thick green/grey snot. 

 

They wear at very different rates, which also disturbs my OCD. You wind out the preload adjusters and they end up in different positions as they have different levels of travel. I know winding them in equally keeps the suspension fairly equalised, but it bothers me  

[peepae]

Good afternoon  sick today  

[RideWithStyles]

get well soon.

[Simon Davey]

6 hours ago, peepae said:

Good afternoon  sick today  

 

Hope it passes quickly, unless it's a tummy issue, of course 

But seriously, get well soon.

 

[curlylegend]

14 hours ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

The bushes and seal will wear putting very fine particles into the oil. 

 

14 hours ago, RideWithStyles said:

also v fine dirt/organic matter (black/dark part) that DOES and WILL pass the seals, hence why old oil is thicker and smells so bad.

 

9 hours ago, Fozzie said:

 

You can get some misting, which can be too small to notice which could cause a slight loss. But if it's a lot in a small space of time, that sounds like you'd see it. The oil goes manky as the components inside wear and deposit debris into the oil. Contaminants still get by the seals in very small amounts, and over time cause the oil to discolour, smell, and sometimes you get thick deposits at the bottom of the fork you find when you're doing a overhaul. Like thick green/grey snot. 

 

They wear at very different rates, which also disturbs my OCD. You wind out the preload adjusters and they end up in different positions as they have different levels of travel. I know winding them in equally keeps the suspension fairly equalised, but it bothers me  

All sound hypotheses fellow motards.  If MY ODC kicks in any harder they might actually form the bases for a Theory ?   Don't hold you breath !

[curlylegend]

And are we not trespassing on the wrong on the wrong bit here ?   Apologies !!

[Simon Davey]

Good morning