Honda builds a machine to go the distance (shocks)

Tonight I removed and disassembled the forks in order to remove and replace the two bushings in each leg that are wear parts. At 73,600 miles the fork still worked very well but just doing some preventive maintenance while the Showa rear shock is sent off for rebuilding and revalving. I was surprised to find all the moving parts in the forks in excellent condition. I could just clean things up and put it all back together with the old bushings and probably get another 75,000 miles out of them. I already have the new parts so I will install them anyway and the fork could be good for 175,000+ miles at this rate. I did change the fork oil at 35,000 and 55,000 miles using Showa oil. I mix my own 6.7 weight. Some owners have reported bushings worn out at as little as 20,000 miles. I can't imagine how that could be. It is possible to look at the wrong side of the bushing and see bare copper and think it is worn out but the wear is on other side.

The two middle slider bushings in each row are used. The wear limit is 75% of the Teflon area worn away to the copper surface. One had no wear areas showing through yet and one had 25% area where the Teflon was worn very thin but was not bare copper yet. The lower row is the upper bushing, the one that bears on the chrome fork tube, and they had no wear areas showing at all. They are literally like the brand new ones to either side. There is a reason for the Honda price premium we pay for these things.

Thanks for that observation and info.

What weight and brand fork oil do you use? The manual doesn't give the weight, just that it's the Honda fork oil. I'm about to change fork oil in my '07 1300 and thinking about putting in BelRay 10 weight.

Because of the lack of standardization in the way light thin oils are measured the commonly used method of choosing by "weight" does not work for fork oils when crossing brand lines. One brand of 10 wt oil may be lighter than another brand in a 5 wt.

In order to have a starting point to compare to I use Honda branded fork oil in the ST1300. It comes from the factory with SS-8 which is described as 10 wt. I mix 2 parts SS-7 "5 wt" to 1 part SS-8 "10 wt". The first time I changed the oil I refilled with Bel Ray 10 wt which gave a very harsh ride. I changed it almost immediately back to Honda Showa SS-8 then tried the mix of 5 and 10 wt. which I like very much.

In my BMW I stick to Bel Ray for the same reason. It is easy to find and comes in a variety of weights to compare and choose from.

http://www.peterverdonedesigns.com/lowspeed.htm

This article link orginally posted by tlartist is a good read.

Great responses and prompt, too; thanks! I already have a stockpile of Bel Ray 10 weight for the other bike, but as I already like the ride on my Silver STreak just fine, I think I'll go get some more SS-8 for her.