Since I'm gonna do a trackday on a bike that is new to me but has 20300 miles would it be wise to replace fork oil to, if nothing else, make sure fluid levels are balanced and equal? If yes, what is the procedure. As I see no drain plug on the bottom end you must have to remove the shocks to empty them?? What weight fork oil is appropriate for a 180# rider?

YTKinWI

 

Doing a search using "fork oil level" will help you find most of the information you need.
There is no drain bolt on stock Superhawk/Firestorm forks. You can drain the oil with the forks on the bike by removing the Allen head bolts at the bottom of the forks.
The fork oil levels can be checked and matched without draining the oil in the forks by removing the fork caps and springs.
The best thing to do is to remove the forks from the bike and strip them, clean the internals and put in fresh oil. Buy or download the shop manual before you begin to guide you through the process. There's a lot that can be done to improve the stock forks and there's lots of information on this forum about it.

 

loosen the fork caps - then remove the forks then the caps & spring. turn upside down and pump all the fluid out. remove the allen bolt at the bottom & pull the cartridge. use contact cleaner to clean everything.

install cartridge with lower bolt ( don't forget the crush washer )
add fluid.

fluid is measured from the top of the fork tube without the spring, fork compressed. after adding fluid slowly pump the forks to get the cartridge full of fluid. i made a small tool with a hollow rod that i can set the fluid level using a hand vacuum pump. it rests on top of the fork tube with the rod length set to the air gap.

with stock valves i used 7w @ 145mm air gap. ( i'm close to your weight )


tim

 

I agree. It's best to disassemble and clean everything.

the bolt at the bottom often can't be removed without an impact wrench because the damper cartridge that it screws in to rotates with it. Keeping the spring preloaded sometimes helps.

 

Thanks for the help guys!