stock fork setup?

[nberchem]

I'm having a local shop do the fork seals on my '84. They have gold valves, progressive springs and the anti-dives are blocked off; my fat ass weighs 240 lbs. They need to know what weight fork oil and how much in each tube?

Thanks in advance,
Nick

[rzmad]

I've just done mine for the RZV500R and put 10W @ 300ml each.

[Andrew]

I think you should go up on the standard weight oil if you've blanked off the antidive.

[Grumpy]

Hi nberchem,
If you have Gold Valves fitted I would use 5w oil.
If you increase the weight of oil you decrease flow and run the risk of cavitation, (loss of damping).
The reason most people increase the weight of oil in their fork is to give them a firmer feeling, but this should be sorted with the correct spring rate, (you already have uprated springs fitted).
The damping should only control the spring forces, not much else.

[Andrew]

Hi Grumpy
If you use a lighter weight oil, will the suspension not dive a lot more when you hit the front brakes because the oil will flow through the damping valves a lot quicker? (with the anti-dive blanked off)

[Grumpy]

The Gold Valves will already increase the damping by using smaller bleed diametres. You use spring rate and oil level, (air gap), to hold you up against brakes, damping is essentially for "damping out" the oscillations of the spring in reaction to bump.
In more modern, closed cartridge forks you can compression & rebound shim stacks to assist rates of dive or extension, but you have to realize the suspension system on these machines are VERY basic

[nberchem]

Thanks to all for the replies. When the tech got them apart there were no gold valves, but there were newer progressive springs, so I just had him fill them with 300ml of 10w. I'm hoping to get them back on the bike this weekend.

Nick