i was gonna take my bike on a ride today, we are having a sunny day although its 28 degrees outside and during my pre-ride check i find this:

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Fork seal leak, just sittin'?? sounds a bit odd, wasn't like that when i parked it three months ago...

Quote from: skudman on January 02, 2011, 02:57:10 PM



Fork seal leak, just sittin'?? sounds a bit odd, wasn't like that when i parked it three months ago...

Um... see that black mark up your fork above the leak location? That says, "Yes it was like this three months ago, you just didn't notice." Even if you don't see leaking oil, those black marks let you know something is going on. Your bike was telling you something, you weren't hearing it.

Michael

I noticed the same on mine a few weeks back and am keeping a close eye on it. They are hard to catch when they first start as the oil doesn't immediately start pouring out like yours is doing now. It will start with those black marks at the top of your fork as Mister pointed out and will be greasy to touch. Only reason I discovered mine was someone pointed it out to me.

Yours looks like it is on the same side as mine too which is the side without the brakes on it. If it was on the other side it could be worse as you could have oil leaking onto your rotor. It is a good excuse for me to try some heavier oil when I do get it fixed though.

The leaking oil is not as noticeable as the dirt that sticks to the leaked oil   

-Jessie

I had dirt on my forks and let it go for months.  I knew what it was but I never saw any oil leak.  The front end just got more mushy as time went on.  It got to the point where it was affecting braking.  When I did get the seals changed it was like a whole different bike.

- Porkchop

On a GS you basically get maybe 10K before the tube is worn to the point it wont ever seal up with the stock type oil seals.
I used to have a guy who's got a large selections of oil seals in off sizes, like a few 1000's under ID etc etc which he would measure the leg in many spots, polish it if needed to get the blemishes out and fit seals for em so it would effectively seal up for the next 10K. Till you get that much more wear in it. I posted here about it, but needless to say no one wanted to spend the $ to get it done, and I never went back there with any forks for him.

BTW he did my friends V star drive shaft after all the bike shops gave up on keeping it from leaking. It essentially was leaking due to imperfctions in the drive shaft as per my friend, the polishing he did took care of that, the custom fit seal did that last little bit. Atleast that is as per my friend, and he's one of my very less flaky friends so I'd say its prolly right.

BTW I have another friend who is much more flaky who had a Vstar 1100 that he bought off fleabay, picked it up in south GA, paid nearly 25-30% more than market value for it, and it had a set of spark plugs that essentially screw in 1 thread and stop, and a drive shaft that has rust on it. Yes totally worth the 30% premium fool. Yea @ 13K miles it also used more oil than my 29K 1100 virago including puffing whiffs of blue smoke @ shifts. His reaction to my pointing out that was that he wanted to keep ahead of me, so he rode it hard ... yes he needed to ride it hard to keep infront of me. If you knew how I ride you'd know how funny that was. I wont say I ride like an old lady, cos some of em run like little valentino rossi's ... Little wrinkled blue haired Rossi's.

Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: mister on January 02, 2011, 03:34:22 PM

Quote from: skudman on January 02, 2011, 02:57:10 PM

Fork seal leak, just sittin'?? sounds a bit odd, wasn't like that when i parked it three months ago...

Um... see that black mark up your fork above the leak location? That says, "Yes it was like this three months ago, you just didn't notice." Even if you don't see leaking oil, those black marks let you know something is going on. Your bike was telling you something, you weren't hearing it.

Michael

don't be rude....be like buddha and give advice, when its in the garage under its cover i don't go check on it every day...i have a life. thanks for tellin me I am oblivious....

Think he was just trying to point out your forks were on the way out a long time ago, you just didn't notice. As I did not until someone pointed it out.

You get it fixed yet?

Quote from: skudman on January 03, 2011, 03:54:25 PM

Quote from: mister on January 02, 2011, 03:34:22 PM

Quote from: skudman on January 02, 2011, 02:57:10 PM

Fork seal leak, just sittin'?? sounds a bit odd, wasn't like that when i parked it three months ago...

Um... see that black mark up your fork above the leak location? That says, "Yes it was like this three months ago, you just didn't notice." Even if you don't see leaking oil, those black marks let you know something is going on. Your bike was telling you something, you weren't hearing it.

Michael

don't be rude....be like buddha and give advice, when its in the garage under its cover i don't go check on it every day...i have a life. thanks for tellin me I am oblivious....

Look, the black marks didn't just appear while the bike was under the cover did they? They are up that high from hitting bumps while you were riding. IF you had bothered looking BEFORE you decided to have a life for the last three months, you would have seen those marks. Those marks were telling you, "Hey buster, the fork seal is gone". BUT, either you didn't look - or - didn't know what it meant. Now you know... So you see, just like the all knowing Buddha, I answered your question, you just didn't like the answer you got cause I didn't put a smiley face at the end. And cause there is no Tone able to be transfered in text you got your knickers in a knot about it.

Looks like you'll have some work to do before you can go riding.

Michael

What ... "don't be rude....be like buddha and give advice" - K I am putting that in big bold letters and printing it and showing my wife ... She says I talk irrelevant sheite all the time.

Anyway I am no yardstick to say any one should do this or that.
Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: The Buddha on January 03, 2011, 02:24:21 PM
On a GS you basically get maybe 10K before the tube is worn to the point it wont ever seal up with the stock type oil seals..................................

Quote from: mister on January 04, 2011, 12:17:38 AM
...........................Looks like you'll have some work to do before you can go riding.

Since we're being disagreeable I think I'll just disagree with everyone this morning.   

On my 97 GS I took the forks to a local guy and had new fork seals and Progressive springs installed in Feb 02 with 52k miles on the bike, I wanted to be ready to go in the spring and one fork seal had started to leak late the summer before.  It was very cold that winter in my non-electric unheated garage so I pulled the forks and let him fix them indoors.  They never leaked again and I parked the bike with about 80k miles on it when I got the 02 GS in Sept 03.

The left fork started leaking in early summer of 08 on my 02 GS and I nursed it thru that summer and the following winter by just wiping the oil off that fork assem every few days or so when I noticed it accumulating again, no performance problems ever developed.  I bought a pair of stock seals to have on hand and finally got around to replacing that left fork seal in May 09 at 69k miles and have about 85k miles on the bike now.  I'll replace that right fork seal one of these days if it leaks.   

I think a lot of it has to do with use pattern. You may be using it steady pace all year long on highway rides only. The herky jerky city, cold starts rode hard and put away wet wreaks havoc on things. For example mine was nearly DOA @ 40, I dragged it another 8K ... but I commuted on it for 40K, spread over 10 years, it spent periods sitting with 1/2 its innards open and the other 1/2 of the time it was being abused in city stop and go.
I also lost a set of pads every 10K, a front rotor every 20K, a set of tars every 3-6K, chains and sprokets every 10K, and likely many many other things I dont even remmeber ... I also wrecked 6-7 times, including get hit by a car 2 X. I got goats at 45K after a starter clutch gave up, lost the ignition trigger @ 30 and a whole slew of other BS.
Seriously commutes and periods of sitting hurt a lot more than steady use I would think.
Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: mister on January 04, 2011, 12:17:38 AM

Quote from: skudman on January 03, 2011, 03:54:25 PM

Quote from: mister on January 02, 2011, 03:34:22 PM

Quote from: skudman on January 02, 2011, 02:57:10 PM

Fork seal leak, just sittin'?? sounds a bit odd, wasn't like that when i parked it three months ago...

Um... see that black mark up your fork above the leak location? That says, "Yes it was like this three months ago, you just didn't notice." Even if you don't see leaking oil, those black marks let you know something is going on. Your bike was telling you something, you weren't hearing it.

Michael

don't be rude....be like buddha and give advice, when its in the garage under its cover i don't go check on it every day...i have a life. thanks for tellin me I am oblivious....

Look, the black marks didn't just appear while the bike was under the cover did they? They are up that high from hitting bumps while you were riding. IF you had bothered looking BEFORE you decided to have a life for the last three months, you would have seen those marks. Those marks were telling you, "Hey buster, the fork seal is gone". BUT, either you didn't look - or - didn't know what it meant. Now you know... So you see, just like the all knowing Buddha, I answered your question, you just didn't like the answer you got cause I didn't put a smiley face at the end. And cause there is no Tone able to be transfered in text you got your knickers in a knot about it.

Looks like you'll have some work to do before you can go riding.

Michael

"either you didn't look - or - didn't know what it meant"---there is it, if i knew what it was then i wouldn't be positn bout it would I  sorry to jump down you neck yesterday, the holidays and family have got me kninkers in a two round turns and a half inch knot, i just took it out on you...