Well now I know why I never buy a *&^%*$&^!*$ used bike.

seems my forks are tweaked ( enough to spew oil from seal at full compression).

anyone have a set that will fit 2005 GS500 for sale, locally (DFW area would be great) TX would be fine, that they want to sell ?


PS would it be a good time to upgrade to some other front forks ?

Patrick (dissapointed about this and may just sell the damn thing)

I bought a used one too. It was a steal and it rocks. However. Although being relatively poor I paid the $90 to have it checked first at the shop. Also paid for an sv650 to be checked out. GS was in better shape.

Probably saved me a lot of woe and paid for itself.

Front forks are a headache but really when u get down to it it's not THAT hard to fix. You can find upper tubes on here from somebody no doubt, seals from anywhere, buy some fork oil, maybe upgrade springs now (to progressives if u want stiffer), maybe not, but you might as well consider adjustments now.

Once u break apart the forks and put the new uppers together that's the hardest part. Installing is a snap. I did it in my apt. bathroom and got a lootle weezy from the fumes but no permanent damage that I can tell. Still have the old ones in there... too lazy to figure out what to do with em.

Might as well check ur axle bolt and other front end parts.

Just because they leak dosn't mean that they're tweaked. The oil seals blow on these things all the time. It could be the stealer, oops I meant dealer, trying to get you to buy new forks through them.

Of course if they really are tweaked, now would be the perfect time to upgrade to better forks. If you can find a complete front end from a wrecked bike, that would be your best bet.

Of course, unless you find a really good deal on a better front end, it would be cheaper to replace your shocks with the stock ones.

good luck 

Edit: I just realized I said " I have Tweaked " this should read, the guy that inspected the bike for me (some unmentioned raceshop where the bike was up for sale, admitted he never checked the forks for suitability or not for the road. but after calling him, admitted the fault, and offered to replace the forks for free if I got him a used set to install (just saved 175$ install fee from dealership)

is there a difference between forks from 04-> (first year of GS500F) versus 89-03 ?

Quote from: pbureau69 on March 15, 2007, 03:29:11 PM
is there a difference between forks from 04-> (first year of GS500F) versus 89-03 ?

Nope.

Quote from: AlphaFire X5 on March 15, 2007, 03:31:48 PM

Quote from: pbureau69 on March 15, 2007, 03:29:11 PM
is there a difference between forks from 04-> (first year of GS500F) versus 89-03 ?

Nope.

internals are slightly different. they are the same size-wise though. Internals would only be an issue if you're changing the seals yourself or installing the race-tech gold emulators.
Actually, I think the only real difference is how you take them apart completly...

anyways,

ducatiboy has my mint '04 complete front end including forks for sale in this thread:

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=33449.0

He'll probably let them go for a great price because he's parting out the bike & it's taking up too much space next to his other racebikes.

they already have race-tech .85 springs installed w/ 15w fork oil.

Thanks I contacted him, sounds like a nice deale with racetech springs in them..
(was thinking upgrade )) so looks like this will work out.


Thanks to all

Hallelujah 

Hi there,

I have a set of inexpensive forks if you want them.
Here's my recent post about them:

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=33387.0

I'm selling them for $75 plus shipping, which is $20-30 depending on where you are via UPS.

They're straight and fine, but include only stock fork springs.
They have a nick on one of the inner tubes, which I cleaned up with emery paper as much as possible. Despite that fix, I still had to drain and refill them every year due to the eventual loss of fork fluid over each season of riding. Simply draining and refilling wasn't that hard, but I finally replaced them with a set of forks I bought later on eBay for $150.

Let me know if you are interested.
Another guy who was interested in them bailed out due to money problems and I'd love to sell them to someone who needs them. I kept them because I have this idea that it would be cool to tap the lowers for a real oil drain screw, but I'm not sure it would be such a great idea. Too bad manufacturers removed the drain screws over the years. It made maintenance much easier but now they want owners to bring the bikes in to do the work in their expensive dealerships. Not for me!

Best wishes,
Todd

I hate doing fork seals ... but I'll guarantee you .. the moron screwed up.
I have done a grand total of 3 and it takes some precise redneck engineering.
The whole PVC pipe and precise hammering in of the seal etc ...
Its easy, its messy and time consuming and down right tricky ... and my bet is, the morons screwed it up.
Used bikes are the best, especially when you buy them busted beyond recognition, and pay the right $$ for it. Else they ave to be good shape for a good price.
Cool.
Srinath.

Quote from: seshadri_srinath on March 16, 2007, 12:49:45 PM
I hate doing fork seals ... but I'll guarantee you .. the moron screwed up.
I have done a grand total of 3 and it takes some precise redneck engineering.
The whole PVC pipe and precise hammering in of the seal etc ...
Its easy, its messy and time consuming and down right tricky ... and my bet is, the morons screwed it up.
Used bikes are the best, especially when you buy them busted beyond recognition, and pay the right $$ for it. Else they ave to be good shape for a good price.
Cool.
Srinath.

You don't need pvc pipe... just use the old fork seals... putting them back in is not hard at all... it's the mess of the oil and getting em apart that was the most headache... it's easy... it's a pain... no big deal...
Cool.
Nightrider.