front fork oil change

[rob f]

I'm an old guy too and know about habits and I totally respect your ATF usage.
I worked for JD for many years and had driven into me that, OMG if you didn't use the " specific scientifically formulated fluids" that the machine would fail, warranty would be void and you'd burn in hell for eternity. Kinda hard to shake that sort of brainwashing.
On the flip side of that... in my late teens I owned an old Ford pickup that was low on brake fluid so we had hydraulic fluid on the farm and they were "Hyraulic brakes" right?   Wrong....all the seals swole up and had to replace the whole brake system.
I am glad a few of you have spoken up about different oils as now I know that the are "proven" and can consider them in the future.
R

[Troll]

Sorry, I'm an old guy...old habits...ya know. I use ATF in all my fork oil changes, have been for decades...

[greenbarn]

I don't think mine was reddish tinged - It was clear(ish) but dirty.  Sounds like you had atf from a PO, maybe.   I used straight hydraulic oil in one bike, then used the Belray in the second.

[Bucko]

..
Any of you guys know what the original oil looked like.? Mine had a reddish tinge to it and kinda smelled like ATF
..

Probably was ATF.  Not weird for MFR's to use ATF in forks (it is a hydraulic fluid after all - and it's cheap) and certainly not weird for a home mechanic to use ATF as a replacement for whatever was in there.  ATF was my goto fluid (which is the MFR's recommended fluid in a couple of bikes) but recently I've been using bell Ray fork oil in order to play around a bit with ' oil weights'  Not sure it's making much difference (so far) to be honest.

[rob f]

 Looks like spring showed up a month early this year so out to the shop for bike maintenance.
I decided to put progressive springs in my '98 Virago. Wasn't to bad of a job, but when i drained out the old oil I was surprised. Very black and slimy stuff. Thing is, that this bike had only 14,000 kms on it!
I looked over at my Drifter and thought, geez it's only 3years newer and has 27,000 kms. The oil must look horrific.
This is my first go round with fork oil changes. I have owned numerous bikes in my time and never even thought about fork oil. Same with brake fluid changes. I mean they are sealed, clean systems, so should last forever right?
The Virago has fairly exposed forks so not a lot of stuff to take off, and when fairly well. Looking at the Drifter I thought it would be a nightmare with all those fancy chrome covers and the windshield, ect. Actually went easier than the virago and had them in and out within  2 hours. The oil that came out was actually not that bad looking. It may be possible that the previous owner had changed it already but kinda unlikely.
Any of you guys know what the original oil looked like.? Mine had a reddish tinge to it and kinda smelled like ATF
In the Yami and Kawi blogs I have been reading, I have seen reports of Japanese fish oil but find that hard to believe. Also read oil recommendations of 10/30 motor oil, ATF oil, John Deere transmission oil all sorts of different weights of real fork oil 5,10,15,20 and one guy mixing a 15 and 10 together to get a 12w.
I decided to go with real fork oil ( Belray @ $23 a litre) and the weight recommended in the tech manual ( 10w). The only oddball thing i did was to do a double rinse of the forks with Diesel fuel. It's oil based and should hurt any seals if there is any residue left inside.
Haven't riden the bikes yet after I did the changes, so nothing to report.