Well I just put motor oil in my forks...

[makenzie71]

haha they were dry as a bone and I can't find my new bottle of 20w anywhere...had to wet them down.  Surprisingly it's a pretty good ride.  I may be comparing that to what it was before.

Any immediate ill effects to be had with this?  Reallly I'll be tearing the forks apart in a couple weeks to replace the seals anyway but still.

[spc]

I can't think of any ill effects that would occur.  I guess there's a chance it could break down after a whole lot of really spirited riding.  Let us know how it goes.........

[scottpA_GS]

 

I don't think that it would hurt the seals or anything  It may be a pain to get it all out of there when you try to fill em properly 

[makenzie71]

well the seals might not be leaking but the whole assembly is going to be torn apart and rebuilt...I have some valving ideas and I need to fabricate a prelod adjuster.  Isopropyl alcohol takes it all out real nice and clean...stripped the old gunk out of the bottom real fast.

[The Buddha]

I heard suspension fluid is the same as ATF or something.
Cool.
Srinath.

[spc]

ya know, I could believe that they are pretty similar...............

[makenzie71]

It's all hydrolic fluid...I just didn't have any ATF handy and ATF is typically in the 10wt range.  Just wanted something a bit stiffer haha.

[galahs]

I've know of a couple of people who swear by using 20W-50 motor oil in their supermota front forks 

[makenzie71]

well it's good to know that it's common in some crowd.

[galahs]

The reason I can see that people don't use motor oils is it also contains detergents and additives beneficial in combustion engines, which have no job to fulfil in the forks.