Me again (the threadkiller)
The oil in my forks is very old indeed and we have no workshops in my town to be able to change the seals.  As they aren't currently leaking I was wondering if the fork oil could be changed while they are still on the bike (removing damper rod bolt etc).  I know the seals will need to be changed but that would involve a 75km ride to a workshop with the appropriate tools and parts to do such a thing and then at the same time i'd be installing new springs.

The book says to remove them (see, I've read the book) and I was hoping to call on the wisdom of others in this matter.

Kindest
Jimmy

The easiest way is to unscrew the fork tube caps, remove the springs, and pull out the old oil by using syringe with a piece of rubber tubing attached to it.

There will be some oil left, but hey... that's better than nothing.

The other way is to remove the forks from the bike, and drain them upside down via tube caps.

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I replaced my springs and did a fork oil swap at the same time, all the lazy way. I bought a liter of 15wt fork oil and was able to suck out fluid and replace, exercise the fork a few times, then suck and replace one more. I did that for each fork. If you have a mityvac style vacuum bleeder, it makes it a little quicker. One day I'll pull the forks off and do it right... I'm saving that for when my seals go.  If you do open the forks, but not ready to swap springs, it might be worth adding a small spacer to add a little more preload.

http://pantablo500.tripod.com/id2.html

I'm not sure how different the 500 forks are to my 450, but I simply take them off the bike, pull the springs, drain most of the oil by tipping upside down.

Once most of it's out there's a couple of drain screws in the bottom of the legs and simply pumping the fork leg squirts the bulk of the rest out.

I just did this on Tuesday... now I have fresh new fork oil again

Have gotten onto mcas.com,au and ordered some new handlebars and my Dad is coming to Regional SA in two weeks when I hope to put my replacement triple trees on, it will mean that I can hopefully disassemble and then assemble my front end one in the weekend which should take care of: deleting the clip on bars, changing fork oil, replacing fork springs in one weekend.

fingers crossed.
Jimmy