Blown a seal

<wipes top lip on back of hand>

I thought the Pan wasn't slowing up as quick as it should on the journey
home.[1]

Got off to find a front caliper covered in liquid, all over the disc,
wheel and fairing too. First thought it was brake fluid, so I washed it
off as quickly as I could, then I spied the fork seal dust cover just
under the bottom yoke. Then smelled that horrible fork oil smell.

Looks like the seal's blown.

Arse. They've only been on a year or so.

[1] Which was much better than the journey in[2]
[2] 50 minutes to go 15 miles

 

Frost on your moustache, surely?

--
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Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

This'll do. The ZZR's front suspension works fine with long wavelength bumps
in the road like the dips in the motorway that HGVs seem to excavate but if
you hit a small bump like a sleeping policeman the suspension seems to be
rock solid and the bike takes a real pounding. Is there any way of reversing
the characteristics of the suspension?

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

Yes, either replace the forks (or possibly just the internals) with
something better, or send them off to Maxton to be sorted, or wait for
someone to come along who knows if something like cartridge emulators
are available for ZZRs.

The problem sounds like the high speed damping's too harsh.

 

Bear in mind the bike's only worth 1k tops.

That would seem right.

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

That doesn't really matter if you're planning on keeping it. There may
be a suitable bodge like drilling the damper holes if it's a common
problem, or using lighter weight fork oil will help at the expense of
rebound damping.

You could mask it to a certain extent by getting more weight over the
front wheel, either by upping the rear pre-load or sliding the forks up
a bit. Trial & error really.

 

Racetech Gold Valve cartridge emulators. If the bike is a keeper, well worth
the time and money.

 

Thanks. I did a bit of googling and it would seem the compression
damping is too high. It's an old bike and there's no adjustment on the
front forks. Looks like a job for the winter overhaul. Progrssive
springs could be interesting and not too expensive.

 

I haven't blown a seal, but I did pull a mussel[-1] last week...

[-1] http://www.superliving.co.uk/pharma...n-lipped-muscle-extract-350mg-90-caps-13.html

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
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WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

That's a boring way to eat mussels!

 

Mussel, muscle, you'd think they were Chinese.