What fork oil do you use?
 

Hi! Anyone have info regarding what fork oil is best for the superhawk? A friend of mine suggested to put in 20W motor oil like he did on his CBR and as he said it improved his bikes suspension feel.
What other oil has the consistency to compare with the Honda fork oil?
Has anyone else experimented with other types of oil on their forks?
Thanks!!

I wouldn't even think of using anything other than actual fork oil. the weight of the oil is dependent on quite a few factors so you just have to research that.

Stock forks? Stock springs? No gold valves? Feel like taking the forks apart?

Different manufacturers have different viscosities and viscosity indexes for their oils. You can have say Bel-Ray 10wt actually be thinner than a Motul 5wt, for example. I have a list of oil data at home I'll post up later today. I'm at work right now.

Hi! yes I have stock forks and springs, Lately I have noticed that the suspension has felt a little softer than before, I am planning on dismantling the forks and renewing the fork oil. Just want to get additional info on how to improve the forks with just the oil change. thanks!!

Your best bet is straight rate springs for your weight and 5wt oil, though if you go with anything stiffer than about .90kg/mm you'll need a revalve on the rebound side.

Here's the oil data:

Ah, shit. That didn't work. It's too small. Lemme see what I can do with it...

Let's try this....

http://ghlbo.superhawkforum.com/Oil-Data.gif

so much info...brain hurts...must go ride...

wow...Attachment 31602

:laughing2: :laughing2: Same here! Take a ride When the brain hurts!!

Greg, thanks for the info!

Check out this suspension page: http://www.ablett.jp/bikes/vtr/vtr_sus.htm . This guy says to drill a relief hole in the cartridge body. I'm thinking this will work well when retaining the 10wt oil, but may be unnecessary if going to 5wt. Also, this would be a bad idea if you might ever put in the Gold Valves. Eh.. it's worth a read.

The manual say's use 10w oil but when i did mine i put 20w back in and didn't have any problems, ride's great.

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98vtr1000
76 minitrail50
06trx250
everything inbetween

20w is too heavy for our forks. The 4-port Showa valves that we have have smallish ports on both rebound and compression. The thicker oil will move with more resistance through those ports. The funny thing about orifices (orifi?) is that they will only flow a specific amount of fluid for a given viscosity. That means that with a thicker oil, large bumps and braking combined will essentially cause the suspension to feel like it locked up solid. Fluid will still be flowing, but not at the rate that it needs to, so the tires and your body are the only thing left to absorb the impact. With the VTR, the stock Showa 10wt makes the forks already close to this condition. With 20w you're there, no doubt. Don't try to bandaid fix the suspension. It might feel good in the garage pushing up and down on it but it probably won't do its job on the street. Do it right and get the forks revalved if you need to.

I always recommend fork oil over std weight motor oil except if you want to run 7.5 weight. If so Mobile 1 full synthetic atf is the best you can buy. Great performance and quality.