I was planning to road trip next week, and then a few days ago I noticed a leaky left fork seal.  The bike was making a strange popping sound on deceleration, and then I noticed oil on the fork. 

I can't find fork seals in stock anywhere local, and shipping from an online supplier will take till Wednesday, which will ruin the trip.

So I'm considering riding with a bad fork seal, and just carrying fork oil to "top up" on the trip.  Is this a really bad idea?  Could it damage the forks?  I know my suspension won't be in tip-top shape, but I'm not doing any twisties (I'll be carrying a passenger).  Also, the right seal is fine, so there's no oil on the front brake.

I've been riding on one blown fork and one good fork for about the last 3 weeks. I understand it will probably damage my springs, but I don't care, cuz I'm swapping for new forks soon. My bike gets headshake at anything above 85 though, which I assume is a side effect of the forks being bad. Ride safe.

Hmm, does your blown fork have any oil left in it?  Will bottoming out will damage the springs only?  I'm planning to go Progressive soon, so I'm not TOO concerned about the stock springs.  But is any damage possible to the forks themselves?

Quote from: sanjay on March 23, 2007, 07:15:14 PM
Hmm, does your blown fork have any oil left in it?  Will bottoming out will damage the springs only?  I'm planning to go Progressive soon, so I'm not TOO concerned about the stock springs.  But is any damage possible to the forks themselves?

The blown fork has VERY little left.. it used to leak constantly... now oil only comes out if I hit a particularly large bump, enough to force the last little bit out... As far as I know, the only things that would be damaged are the springs.. but I'm not positive (i.e., if you kill your forks, it's not my fault)

I dug through my box of parts, and found a spare fork seal from my '92.  Part # 51153-08C20.  This matches later bikes up to 2000, but my 2001 part number is 51153-26F00.  I read on another thread that the fork seals are all the same, so I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow morning.  I'm planning to put in progressives soon, so I'll keep track of how it goes.

Thanks for the help, NGFL!