Help with my 2005 EC200 45mm front suspension

[Braap-attack]

Hi fellas,

I was out riding yesterday and while going through the woods on the single track trail and when out on a novice track I felt like my forks were really harsh.

On the single track they were really bad when hitting any roots or rocks.

On the novice track when hitting the rollers at WOT in 3rd or 4th the approach was fine but landing was really bad. After a few laps around I was really feeling it in the wrists/elbows/shoulders areas.

I'm no suspension expert, but earlier this year I went through the suspension clickers and adjusted them as suggested on the site and set my race sag and rear preload as to the recommended settings. My rear suspension is feeling great and no issues there.

I did drain and fill the fork oil earlier this year and went with Bel-Ray 7.5wt. Which might be part of my issue is that I found a recommended amount of oil to add and didn't go off of the air gap. So I may end up having to buy the proper measuring device for that.

My fork seal on the left side is leaking bad after riding and I can see that I am only compressing the forks down about half way. I was wondering if that is the full stroke or not.

My first inclination is to pull them off, install new seals/wipers/bushings and put in a proper amount of oil. I'm guessing the forks have the original springs in them and I tip the scales at about 185-190 in gear so I may be looking for new springs too.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

[Braap-attack]

This is the left fork tube.

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[Braap-attack]

Moving forward I decided to take the plunge on a set of SKF seals. Really hoping they live up to the hype. Got new oil on the way and a fork oil measuring tool. Took a gander at the manual and found a good youtube video that demos disassembly down to a drain and fill and reassembly. I can figure out past that. This isn't my first set of forks I've done but honestly the first one I want to do right. I've seen a range in oil height of 110-130mm. I'll start with the 110mm and go from there.

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[Braap-attack]

Figured I would wrap this up. I installed the new seals and put in fresh oil. I decided to go with Mobil 1 synthetic ATF. I did a some research on fork oil and found that the Zokes recommend a true 7.5wt and the Mobil stuff is a true 7.5wt.

So I went with that oil and filled them up the right way leaving a 130mm air gap.

Rode the bike today. Forks feel great. Nice and plush. Everything was going great until I picked a bad line and put my bike in some deep water drowning it out and leaving me pushing it back to the truck.

So on to the next project!

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[RBrider]

Good job. Glad you were able to figure it out. I did pretty much the same with the WP's on a '01 XC200 with good results.

RB