Poor Forks?

[motokurt]

Hi,

So, I've noticed that I am not getting a lot of dampening from my front forks...

They don't appear to be leaking, could they just be low on oil from sitting?

Is there anyway to renew the oil in the forks, I don't have a manual yet. Maybe increase the weight to 15w, or 20w?

Is it a spring issue?

Thanks,
-K

[The Buddha]

No damping - does it pogo ... that means no damping and too much spring ... Then yea 15 or 20 wt oil ...
Does it sink a lot ... that can be spring, or if it sinks too fast its compression damping so yea thicker oil ... but remember thicker oil will slow down its return too.
I dunno enough about suspension to trouble shoot it like I do carbs ...
But answering these questions probably will lead to a direction you should try.
I have noticed that GS suspensions sink too fast, sink too much in quantity, and return too slow to make adjusting it near impossible.
You swap the oil and you slow the plunge as well as the return. You stiffen up the spring, you almost invariably make the fork flex more cos its now standing taller and taller = less stiffness as a cantilever, and its effect on the suspension part typically is still less than ideal.
I've been swapping with kat FE's but I am also learning the GS one at the same time ... will it be somehitng we can modify ... no clue. I'll have to do more research.
Cool.
Buddha.

[RichDesmond]

Hi,

So, I've noticed that I am not getting a lot of dampening from my front forks...

They don't appear to be leaking, could they just be low on oil from sitting?

Is there anyway to renew the oil in the forks, I don't have a manual yet. Maybe increase the weight to 15w, or 20w?

Is it a spring issue?

Thanks,
-K

The stock forks are both undersprung and underdamped. Better springs and thicker oil will make a big difference. If the sag is set correctly they won't sit much high than the stock setup, which does have a little too much sag.