Would you let local shop change your fork oil?

Right. We're using the terms local kind of loosely. Just about every shop is local to someone. However, any shop that doesn't have the right equipment to properly disassemble suspension components or the training or access to information on build specs shouldn't be in your forks anyway.

I've pulled apart R6 30MM kits that came from authorized Ohlins shops that still had the OEM valving in place in the compression pods (triple compression! score!). Just about everyone who has been in enough forks knows what the witness marks look like when a pair of vice grips was used on a metering rod. Or scoring on a cartridge because a vice without soft jaws was used. Or any of the other nightmares we see regularly.

I saw a guy at a trackday put his bike up on a pin stand in the morning after getting his bike back from a "local" shop and the brake lines were the only thing from keeping the lower fork tubes from falling out of the uppers because the cartridge cap wasn't screwed on internally. You see all kinds of goofy stuff inside forks.

 

Thanks man!

:up:

 

Great info, thank you sir!

 

I trusted the "local shop" to do Race Tech valves on an F4i once, turned into a complete nightmare. After 3 weeks of the guy trying to get things right myself and two buddy's went and demanded the bike back. :down:

Forks ended up at Solid Performance where Evan fixed everything the first guy screwed up.

Never again, only race oriented shops after that.

 

Like everyone else said, depends on the shop. I know of a local shop around me that the owner used to work on AMA bikes and was known for bumping around the AMA and WERA paddock back in the day... He's worked on most everything I have ever owned, since I started riding...

 

I have seen forks returned from local shops rattling, sticking and knocking....

Mike Fitzgerald FTW!!!:up:

 

I don't know about just changing the oil, but Huey and his goons break down, clean, inspect, and otherwise freshen up my forks at least once a year.

 

Nope. Not unless my local shop was Livengood Motorsports.

 

I would, but my shop knows how to work on suspension. Refreshed both my forks and shock this year.

 

Just pointing out that by design 30 mils don't Feed oil to the compression valve on the outside of the fork anymore. So you don't really need to remove it and doesn't do anything.
Olens doesn't even send block off plates for them.

 

You can't properly set oil height without removing the pod anyway. It takes all of 30 seconds to clear the valving and hi speed blow off from the valve body. There's no reason to leave it in there. Even with the bottom.of the cart sealed and it not actively pushing fluid through, I'd rather there be no restriction at all.

To me, it's an attention to detail thing. It doesn't cost anything but a few seconds to remove. And it's usually filthy anyway since it sits at the bottom of the fork and is static and acts like a filter for all the crap in the juice. You're going to take it off, clean it thoroughly, then reinstall it when it's pointless?

 

I wish they would change their name. Every time i see their name, i actually see this:

 

No.

Yes, they are mysterious. They are made with magic.

I don't work on anything that has to be opened or disassembled. Suspension, motors, calipers, bearings, clutches, etc. I ain't touching none of that shit.

 

I can't resist tearing shit apart.

I was doing some suspension work on my CBR600 once. I bought the parts from one of the big Ohlins dealers. I went back and forth with them a few times on e-mail, asking (what I thought were legitimate) questions about tools and procedures. After about three e-mails the tech wrote back and said, "Based on the questions you're asking, I HIGHLY recommend you send your forks to us instead of trying to do it yourself." That was a real confidence builder.

 

Right. But there's a valid point in there.

One of the questions I get asked often is, "How hard of a job is that?"

For me, who has done it a bunch of times and has all the right tools, fairly easy. For you? I have no idea. It could range anywhere from impossible to fairly easy. If someone calls and asks for a quote on a job and then decides to just buy the parts and then calls or emails asking how to do the job or (my favorite) if they could borrow the tools to do it, that's a bit in poor taste.

So you decided to do the work yourself and then wanted them to tell you how to do the job and what tools you need. So one of their techs is stopping what he's doing in the shop and telling you how to do the job that they do. There's a point when it stops being good customer service. If I sell something, I'll back it up. If I do the work, I'll back it up. If someone buys a clutch kit and wants to know the stack height we use, I'll tell them. But I'm not talking them through how to take off the case cover, pressure plate and how to set up the spider springs

 

Funny story. I had a customer ask for a quote on a 20MM kit installed. He decided to just buy the kit because he didn't want to pay labor. He picks up the kit, installs it himself and then calls to tell me a few weeks later that he did a track day and that the 20MM kit and the valving I provided is shit. I tell him to bring the legs in and if everything is installed properly, I'll pull the kit out and give him a refund and he gets a free fork service. If he fucked up, he pays for the job.

He paid for the job once I showed him how he installed every single piston upside down.

 

It's not black magic, it just takes someone who knows what they're doing. Some of the do it yourself videos you'll see online even, are pretty comical.

 

+1

The ones on how to set the bike up are even better.

 

forks are easy, shocks otoh I'm scared of