Popped a fork seal.......

[Jamie]

Flip, with all due respect for your technical acumen, two thirds of my RCE members, i.e about 20 seasoned Rocket riders, have switched to Wilbers fork springs and are enchanted about them, oil change included . Advantages? Progressive damping, both on impact AND on rebound, much reduced nose-diving under hard braking and better roadholding overall, whether actual or just "perceived".

Jamie

 

[Sidecar Flip]

I don't know if the OEM spring is straight wound or progressively wound.

They are straight Flip.What did ya expect.Wait till ya see the thickness of the spacers.Pvc or abs tubing would work better. How many miles ya got?

Jack.....
Not enough miles to need a seal replacement by any means. If they are straight wound as you say they are, a progressive would spring will always be better.

I replaced the spacers on the Bonnie with schedule 60 PVC tubing when I did the spring changeout and then put the stock springs back in.

Flip, with all due respect for your technical acumen, two thirds of my RCE members, i.e about 20 seasoned Rocket riders, have switched to Wilbers fork springs and are enchanted about them, oil change included . Advantages? Progressive damping, both on impact AND on rebound, much reduced nose-diving under hard braking and better roadholding overall, whether actual or just "perceived".

Jamie

Jamie:

In as much as they are straight wound, I think I will replace them with either Wilburs or Progressive, which, I presume are progressively wound?

I'm not a corner cutter or a peg (floorboard) dragger. The R3 is my 'Lazyboy' vehicle for liesurely jaunts on 2 lane roads so roadholding has never been a problem. As far as nosedive on braking, a bike as big as the R3, transferring that weight to the front forks during heavy braking will make any fork/spring arrangement other than no springs...nosedive.

Whatever set of springs I do get though, I believe I'll stick with the stock weight oil.

 

[Sidecar Flip]

Flip, with all due respect for your technical acumen, two thirds of my RCE members, i.e about 20 seasoned Rocket riders, have switched to Wilbers fork springs and are enchanted about them, oil change included . Advantages? Progressive damping, both on impact AND on rebound, much reduced nose-diving under hard braking and better roadholding overall, whether actual or just "perceived".

Jamie

I went to the Wilburs US diestibutor on the web and they have no listing for the R3 anywhere.....Any ideas?

 

[Jamie]

Try Wilbers USA , as opposed to Wilburs Distiebutors

The US site is www.wilbersusa.com. If the Rocket doesn't show on their application chart, just send them a message and ask for a quote. They'll provide you with one. Rocket front springs ARE on the German parent company catalogue (I bought my and my RCE buddies' springs straight from the German plant).

BTW, just remember that Wilbers USA is a dissident operation, at odds with the German parent company (as far as Hombre and the undersigned know)

Best. Jamie

 

[Sidecar Flip]

Jamie:

I sent an e-mail to Klaus in 'Jersey. We shall see what I receive in reply. Progressive lists their springs on their website for 85 bucks and change plus transportation. I'll wait for Wilburs. I won't have the seals for at least 10 days anyway.

...........I'll just ride another bike in the interm.

 

[travelguy]

we used to make our motocross bikes into air charged by drilling the cap and tapping a metal stem.. hmmm since my front seals are leaking and not covered under warranty might try that again.

 

[mjbell1]

Fork Oil

In the special tool area of the shop manual there is a Fork Filler/Evacuator to add or
remove fluid. It appears several more of these shop tools maybe needed to rebuild
your fork set. I use GMD Computrack for all suspension work here in Mass. can't be beat.
Bring your fork tubes or the whole bike you'll be all set. Funny tube filler looks
like a modern turkey bastor.

 

[Sidecar Flip]

Itt's just like Triumph to employ a turkey baster.....Actually, they give a compressed liquid level as well as a dry fill quantity but they also call out two different specifications on fork oil. The compressed level is very easy to measure (just like the Bonnie forks). That's what I'll use 89mm from the top surface of the tube with the fork full compressed or 667cc of fluid.

Air over oil forks are really common on dirt bikes and ADV bikes. It's one of the more common modifications to the KLR and it's easy to do, even for the Rocket. Just machine the caps and install Schrader valves. What you really want to do, however, is plumb both Schrader valves together....you want equal pressure in both forks and air over oil will do nothing for leaking seals other than make them worse. Air over oil will redcuce nose dive on heavy braking considerably but it will also increase the ride stiffness.

Once the seals start to weep, they only get worse, never better.

 

[Gunshots]

Watch the brake fluid on the front tire. My 84 Aspencade had a bad seal that let Fork oil run down the side of the tire. It left a big welt on the side of the tire. Ended up changing tir and seal. Only to have it do th same thing over again, Second time I replaced the tire (with 500 miles on it), Fork tube and, fork seals. Got to be a pretty expensive seal in the end. Fork tubes were a issue for honda that year. The tires ( I think they were Michilens) were just scary enough that I couldn't get comfortable riding on them. it seamed to soften the sidewall.

 

[Sidecar Flip]

Watch the brake fluid on the front tire. My 84 Aspencade had a bad seal that let Fork oil run down the side of the tire. It left a big welt on the side of the tire. Ended up changing tir and seal. Only to have it do th same thing over again, Second time I replaced the tire (with 500 miles on it), Fork tube and, fork seals. Got to be a pretty expensive seal in the end. Fork tubes were a issue for honda that year. The tires ( I think they were Michilens) were just scary enough that I couldn't get comfortable riding on them. it seamed to soften the sidewall.

BR....

It's not brake fluid it's good old 5 wt oil. It don't run down either. It blows down on the caliper and then gets on the disc and the disc gets black and squeaks like the brakes on an old Yamaha.. It's been going on for a while but I was too stupid to realize what was going on. I attributed it a cat peeing on the bike in the garage......Tomo knows about the cat thing.

Have the complete seal kit (both sides) on order from Bike Bandit but we are looking at a 10 day out parts deal. I'm not going to do anything with it if it gets too close to ES. Ill just ride it the way it is and deal with it when I get it back because at this juncture I want to replace the springs and machine the lower legs with a fitment to drain the fork oil without taking the legs off the bike, which you have to do the way the forks are set up at present. I'm seriously considering having the lower legs Titanum Nitride coated as well. The gold would go well with the Cherry/NewEngland White color scheme and Titaninum Nitride is much more friction reducing than hard chrome. That would make the forks more supple and attentive to small bumps.