Well I completed the oil change. The bike has 11,000 miles on it. The fork oil did not look too bad at first really, until the cartridge emptied out. I could tell when that happened. The nasty black stuff came out Still, the oil looked a helluva lot better than the stuff that comes out of my dirt bike every winter service
Put the Maxima 85/150 (5 weight - green color) in the compression leg and 165/150 (10 weight - clear color) in the rebound leg. Used Traxxion's handy fork spring compressor tool and retaining clip thingie. I was able to do the compression side myself as the cartridge rod on that side slides in very slow, as it is, um, the compression side Mrs. Duke helped out on the rebound side as the rod just drops right down in there - no compression. This requires two more hands - one to put the clip tool in and one to hold the rod extended so the clip tool can be put in.
Helpful tips if you do this:
1) Once the cap is removed from the cartridge rod and the spring is out, always handle the forks from bottom or the inner slider can and will separate from the outer leg with predictably messy results. I learned this the hard way with my dirt bike forks awhile ago. No need to repeat that again
2) Pay attention to setting your clickers when putting the caps back on. If the fork cap is threaded on too far, you will have no adjustment and it will be jammed on full stiff. If the cap not threaded on far enough, your clicker will run out of clicks on the tight side before fully seating. Some fine tuning while threading the cap on before locking things down with the jam nut and it will be dialed.
3) A length of rubber tubing that fits tightly over the threads on the cartridge rod is handy, particularly on the rebound side, for holding the rod fully extended while the spring is compressed and the clip tool is put in place during the reassembly phase.
4) Make sure to stroke the cartridge rod until the air is purged out and it does not "skip" and the damping is consistent. The compression side quickly came online with a few strokes, but the rebound side took a few more pumps to do so in my case.
5) Start with the compression side to get your flow going, as it is a bit easier due to the non disappearing act cartridge rod. I of course started on the more difficult rebound side!
I went with a touch over 4" (110mm) of oil level. It measured 3.75" stock. I know from Lee's postings that the last inch of travel is a hydraulic anti-bottoming deal, but I never used the last 1.5 inches of travel. Figured I would drop the oil level a touch. Stock forks tend to be undersprung and overfilled in my experience. At least the FZ1 is properly sprung for the average rider. After today's ride, which involved hitting some bumps at speed, I had about 1.25" of unused travel left per the hi tech zip tie measuring system in place. Seems good to me as I am using almost the full travel, definitely .25" more than before. I am not a heavy braker on the street, but I did go over some bumps at speed
The forks felt better. I was able to relax my rebound to 11 clicks out from 8 out, (compression is at 11 out, 3.5 bands showing on the preload) and it felt fine. The forks felt about as good as the Penske in back, which is pretty darn good. It felt balanced front to rear. Very nice. Good enough for my street riding that is for sure. Even before the fork fiddling, I would have to be going way into the trying to keep up with the hottie on her Duc 1098 go to jail impound the bike zone before the handling started to fade. The FZ1 is one fine handling bike really.
The ride today involved a mix of canyons, one in particular with washboard bumps (Peak to Peak out of Nederland for the locals). Some taken pretty fast - touching 100 mph here and there, as well as freeway, etc. The forks did nothing "noteworthy" and were pretty transparent. While going fast (100 mph or so) over rolling bumps, they felt like they came back at me less fast, yet they were fine in the ripples. This is good.
All in all, while this does not compare to a full revalve, it is a worthwhile incremental improvement type of mod that does not cost anything extra if you are going to change your fork oil anyway. I would not do it if you have fresh oil in your forks, but if your FZ1 has 10K miles on it or more on the fork oil, get the compressor tool from Traxxion, two bottles of Maxima fork oil, have at it and ride around knowing you have different weights and colors of fork oil in your FZ1's legs
Don't forget to pump your front brakes to take up the slack in the pads when all done
